Grace & Peace PGH

“Let us bless God that the Saviour with whom we have to do is almighty. It is a cheering and comfortable thought that with Christ nothing is impossible. No heart-disease is so deep-seated but He is unable to cure it. No plague of soul is so virulent but our Great Physician can heal it. Let us never despair of any one’s salvation, so long as he lives. The worst of spiritual lepers may yet be cleansed… The chief of sinners may yet be brought nigh to God by the blood and Spirit of Christ. Men are not lost, because they are too bad to be saved, but because they will not come to Christ that he may save them.”

"He [Jesus] says, 'I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly that all other attachments in your life look like hate by comparison.' If you say, 'I'll obey you, Jesus, if my career thrives, if my health is good, if my family is together,' then the thing that's on the other side of that is your real master, your real goal. But Jesus will not be a means to an end; he will not be used. If he calls you to follow him, he must be the goal."

"The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves but as we are in Jesus Christ. It sometimes seems impossible, especially to people who have never had this kind of support from their earthly parents, but it's true: God looks at us, and says, 'You are my dear, dear child; I'm delighted with you.'"

"It is not enough to know who John was historically. What is required is an encounter, through the medium of history, with that summons to judgment and repentance which John issued."

"In the Greco-Roman world from which the early church adopted it, 'gospel' was a public proclamation of, say, a war won, borne by a herald who ran back to the city and, with his welcome of political news, occasioned public celebration." - Rodney Clapp

"Could it be that the Christian faith is unthinkable for many people today more from prejudice, misinformation, and neglect than from honest investigation?"

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4

"A church that takes its stand on the forgiveness of sins can never be a church of the pure. It will always be a community that is patient and understanding toward the timid and the imperfect."

"Firework", "Office Space", and New Year's resolutions. Listen to Derek Bates' sermon on Philippians 2 here.

"The truth is that the Christian faith has been on the margins of whatever culture it's been in throughout history..." Listen to guest Pastor David Schweissing's sermon here.