Our choices matter. Our obedience to God (or lack thereof) makes a difference, and plays a role in how God works in our world.

Within the seemingly contradictory concepts of justice and love is found the future hope for our world.

It may look like the world is evil and out of control, but the promises of God remain. He will: Defeat evil, bring justice to all, and rescue the oppressed.

We cling to God’s proven character and promises when things are looking bleak!

There is a critical relationship between God’s justice and mercy. If God is good, He has to confront and judge evil but His long term purpose is to restore His world and build a new covenant family, and nothing will get in the way of that!

We ought to love all people, and hate all sin...especially our own.

We gotta be careful what we say to others and to ourselves. Some of what we face in this world may NOT pass. In fact, we’re all going to ‘pass.’ We’re all going to die. We’re all going to face hard stuff.

God is not sitting around in heaven throwing afflictions and challenges our way to see how we do. What we’ve got to ‘handle’ is the difficulties that come from living in a broken world. And when our challenges include temptation, there IS a promise we can cling to: God is the God of the off-ramp.

Ruthlessly following Matthew 18 is crucial...most of the time. But there’s a possible downside to insisting that one on one confrontation is a required step for dispute resolution.

God helps those who ASK for help!