The story of Mary is intended by God as a sign of hope that our redemption has been accomplished. Do you notice in the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, all the verbs that refer to God’s work are past tense?  My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has…

“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs” (Matt. 10:27, NIV). In this verse, Jesus refers to both physical and metaphorical roofs. He is urging his disciples to share the treasure of the gospel by announcing it far and wide.  Making a…

In Part 1 of this series, we examined how perfectionism can invade the church and the Christian life in an insidious way.  Sin ravages. Love ravishes. And the difference between the two is as big as the Grand Canyon.  You see, what Jesus is saying in our focal passage (John 15:9-11) is this: “I’ve created…

The church seems to attract recovering perfectionists. And in fact, we almost play to that audience, for both good and ill. For good, if we proclaim a gospel that allows the perfectionist to relax and soak into the presence of God: his unaided, unconditional, completely free love that he pours out on us in his…