Do you seriously envision St. Paul or Calvin or Luther opening bottles of Welch's Grape Juice in the sacristy before the service? Luther at least would turn over in his grave.

Grace cannot prevail...until our lifelong certainty that someone is keeping score has run out of steam and collapsed.

Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to teach the teachable; He did not come to improve the improvable; He did not come to reform the reformable. None of those things works.

Even to this day, grace remains hard to swallow. Religiosity and moralism go down easier than free forgiveness.

We are not saved by what Jesus taught, and we are certainly not saved by what we understand Jesus to have taught. We are saved by Jesus Himself.

However much we hate the law, we are more afraid of grace

Heaven is populated entirely by forgiven sinners

We were given appetites, not to consume the world and forget it, but to taste its goodness and hunger to make it great.

A good time occurs precisely when we lose track of what time it is.

Salvation is a gift given, not a bargain struck.

The truth that makes us free is always ticking away like a time-bomb in the basement of everybody's church.

So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!

I am a lifelong learner.

Love is the only tyrant whose reign is sweet.

It is generally the trustful and optimistic people who can afford to retreat. The loveless and faithless ones are compelled by their pessimism to attack.

Abolishing slavery leads to slaves without masters

I love the unknown. I think because it brings fear, and to embrace fear is the best feeling.

You work hard and you pray, and you do something where you know the energy around the project is right, but you never really know if it's going to hit and resonate with audiences.

I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability.

I don't know if many people know this about me, but I have multiple sclerosis. So I don't have time for a lot of shades of gray. I don't have time for BS.

I have never had an office that I work out of and work has become intertwined with my personal life.