A rightly-oriented heart and a rightly-oriented love will consistently do what is best for God and best for our neighbor, which is why St. Augustine speaks of sin as a disordered love.
For Bonhoeffer, Christ crucified, and the cross of the Christian life were not of peripheral importance, but foundational.
While we often talk about our growth, our progress, and what we are doing for the kingdom of God, the reality is that any goodness in a Christian does not originate in us.

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“I love you” is great, as long as whatever commitment I may or may not be intimating is mutually beneficial and causes the least amount of emotional strain to me.
Only the ministry of the Gospel can forgive sins, even while civil government rightly carries out retribution for lawlessness and disobedience.
We can’t all afford to travel the world, but the more we read from outside our own context, the bigger we see the world.
Sometimes, the bible bores me. Sometimes, I take scripture, grace, and Jesus lightly.
Original sin produces violent fruit.
Three of the most profound truths embedded in the fabric of the universe are that blood has a voice, blood cries out to God, and blood is heard by heaven.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It can get ahold of a person and turn him all the way in on himself. What seemed a brief reflection lingers for hours, days, weeks, even years.
Our righteousness and the righteousness of our neighbor have nothing to do with what we eat or do not eat.
The whole Reformation, and the reason for Lutheran theology at all, is to improve preaching.
The following is an excerpt from “Crucifying Religion” written by Donavon Riley (1517 Publishing, 2019).
When the church has gone astray, it has been the responsible (not slavish) approach to history that has helped correct the course.
Our past, present, and future receive healing from Jesus’ wounds.