If we reject “organized” religion, where does that leave the Lord’s Supper? Are we really “Christians” today if we don’t take seriously an observance that, in the New Testament, was so extremely important to Christians in the New Testament period?

Creating beings with a free will is exactly what God did when He created us. And the result is that those who accept Him, whether many or few, do so freely and lovingly — rather than under the compulsion of any “irresistible” programming by God.

It was surely God who chose whom He would save, but what He chose was a class of people defined by a criterion: the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5). This group is open to all who will obey. No one is barred by an eternal, unchangeable edict of God.

To say, as Calvinism does, that even as infants we are guilty of Adam’s sin — and are in a lost spiritual condition because of what Adam did — is to make a cruel joke out of Ezekiel’s statement, “The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

Naaman’s obedience certainly did not “earn” him the cleansing of his leprosy. It had no “merit” that would cure him. Nevertheless, if he had not been humble enough to accept the conditions that were stipulated, his leprosy would have remained.

The hope of the gospel is that in eternity we will be with God. Having lived all our lives in this broken world, frustrated by our inability to have direct, face-to-face access to our Father, imagine what it will be like to actually be with Him!

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Even with God, we should derive more joy from giving than from getting. And it should not merely be because that is the way to “get” more blessedness. God was not created for us; we were created for Him.

The gospel means little to so many because so few have passed through any dark night of the soul that would enable them to appreciate the light. Never having desperately desired deliverance, they have no depth of gratitude for forgiveness

Difficulty tests us. In times of ease, we think we know ourselves and we say what we believe in words that sound right to our own ears, but only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

We don’t have the spiritual vision to see any more than the smallest fraction of God’s power; so we see very little of what could be ours if we truly sought Him. For the benefit of our praying, the “eyes” of our understanding need to be enlightened.

God not only loves us; He desires to be loved by us. What He seeks from us is perhaps best described by a word we don’t hear much anymore: adoration. Our praise grows toward perfection when the King before whom we bow is also the Father whom we love.

Worship deficient in either spirit or truth is something less than true worship. But God must still be worshiped. Intellectual truth and emotional desire can carry us only so far. At some point, a commitment must be made, and kept diligently.

The world remains the same generation after generation. There is a certain context common to all men and women, no matter when and where they have lived. We experience the same joys, we suffer the same sorrows, and we encounter the same challenges.

Whatever ease and pleasure may be ours here, that should only whet our appetites for the real joys to come. And whatever difficulty or pain we may have to deal with while “on the job,” that should only increase our capacity to enjoy “quittin’ time.”

In every situation, we must ask what is the best thing that can be done, and having done what we knew was best, we must learn to be gratified by the knowledge that we’ve done the honorable thing. Integrity should be a source of joy to us.

Is love’s pain to be avoided? I know not what choice others may make, but I shall continue to keep my heart open to love. Even at the bitter end of love’s sweetness, there is no grief great enough to keep me from the clear, pure joy of having loved.

“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” There is not a purer joy in the world, and no more liberating experience. Yielding to someone else’s dreams will break many a chain the devil has made.

When the final tally is made, I hope that I won’t have failed to encourage anyone who needed it. It’s a fine thing to have hope, but it is an even finer thing to give hope. That, above all, is what I want to do. And I’m confident that you do too.