1) Via Don Miller
I don’t believe the aim of the devil is to get us to masturbate, as is taught in so many churches, but rather to get us to project a righteous identity.
And
The next time you want to impress your friends with your religious devotion, count it as false religion. And the next time you try to impress God with your worship, count it as heresy
2) Via As a Blog Returns to Its Vomit
“Therefore my faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us, who are real, great, and hard-boiled sinners.” – Martin Luther
3) Via Ray Ortlund: It’s a Beautiful Gospel (2021 Update: The blog has since gone down.)
It is the hardest thing in all the world, but the most liberating thing, for a sinful man to look square at the facts of his sin and defy the shame of it all by asserting the cross of Christ for those very sins. This is the work of the gospel. This is self-ministry. Everyman must learn how to apply the gospel of grace to his conscience when he has sinned. You cannot get free of your sins on your own; the only way to get free is to see them, in all their damnable inexcusability, covered and pardoned and forgiven and forever removed by the blood of Christ.
4) Via Grace is for Sinners: (2021 Update: The blog has since gone down.)
No one, who comes from God-in the name of God-on behalf of God-with authority from God, will be accusing you and leaving you helpless and hopeless. I’m sad for the man who tells his fallen friend that he doesn’t know how their life can be redeemed. I’m sadder, still, when that man claims to be speaking on behalf of a risen Savior. You can’t know the power of salvation and not be able to articulate that love, that grace, to another. It’s the key factor for everyone to know who is from God and who is not. The sin has no bearing when grace comes into the picture. Sin is irrelevant.
I am furious when such ignorant words make someone feel they are cut off from the cross.
These people put strings on grace. They put stipulations on forgiveness. They make additions and omissions to suit their own purposes. They are wrong and it’s crippling for everyone.