The next time you step outside, look for the birds. You don’t even have to look. You can listen for them. They’re out there flying around, making music, gathering sticks for nests, poking at the ground for worms. They’re doing just fine, and they always will be because God loves them.
And he loves me. He loves you.
Forgiveness does not seem to us to be a missional strategy, but it is. It always has been. The felt forgiveness we experience from God should flow out through us to others. When we forgive rather than take offense, when our words are gracious and merciful instead of bitter and angry, when we go in for a hug when a punch is deserved, we put on display the kind of God we have.
God’s call on our lives to practice hospitality is an unignorable command throughout the New Testament. We cannot overlook this. If we want to be obedient to God’s word and a faithful presence as witnesses for Christ in our day, our only option is to learn how to do hospitality well.
Christianity says that we are guilty, but we aren’t condemned. Jesus comforts the rightly accused.
Jesus is the shepherd we’re all looking for—the one who can care for us powerfully, relentlessly, and everlastingly.
The Pharisees were the most diligent Bible readers the world has ever seen, but Jesus said they missed the entire point because they didn’t see him. That means it is possible to read the Bible and miss what it says.
