2 Corinthians 5:17-19 New International Version (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

The narrative of a god who does not care about sin naturally undermines the entire Christian story. God demonstrates wrath toward sin; there is judgment in God's kingdom, and there is a need for Jesus to die on a cross. - James Bryan Smith

God Is Generous!

Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but heals; who does not condemn but forgives. - Brennan Manning

"Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks toward the future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust possesses. Trust receives what prayer acquires. So, what prayer needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust." - E.M. Bounds

"Jesus clearly abolished the notion that we 'get what we deserve.' According to Jesus, God is not in the business of balancing some eternal checkbook . . . we cannot look around the world we live in and build a case that sinners are punished and righteous people are blessed." - James Bryan Smith

"I have come to believe that the problem is not that we do not want to change, nor is the problem that we are not trying to change. The problem is that we are not training. We have never been taught a reliable pattern of transformation." - James Bryan Smith