There is a lot of love in this world, most of it moderate. But under the blessing of God, gospel doctrine cracks our hearts open to receive something from beyond this world.

When the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful, that church will be powerful. But there are no shortcuts to getting there. Without the doctrine, the culture will be weak. Without the culture, the doctrine will seem pointless.

Too often we regard God’s power as an added ingredient that turbocharges our own efforts.

At some point, you realize that what makes the relationship impossible isn’t the original wrong but the denial of the wrong. Our willful denial of God is the mega-offense above all our other offenses that God challenges by his massive love in Christ.

The cross of Jesus displays the most awesome exhibition of God’s hatred of sin, and at the same time the most august manifestation of his readiness to pardon it.

This is the priceless hope given us in the Bible: “God himself will be with them as their God.

The renewal of our churches starts deep within each of us, as we are renewed in the gospel ourselves.

His holiness starts to show only by his miraculous power in our weakness and corruption. Then people can see his beauty in the world today—in churches graced with holiness.

Why a city? Partly because heaven shouldn’t be a city. Cain invented the city as his way of running from God (Gen. 4:17). A man-made city is more than a collection of buildings. It is a mechanism for living without having to depend on God. You can be on your own in a city. You can hide in a city. But what does God do with our strategy for evading h