Some leaders have monetized faith, exhorting believers to speak material blessings into being, as if The Lord was a genie waiting to grant our every wish.

The problem with a religious frame of reference is that we feel we must make ourselves presentable to God before he will accept us. We need first to accept Christ’s payment for all our sin and repent. Then allow Him to change us through the power of His shed blood.

Last goodbyes are never easy things. There are so many weighty, important things to say. Hearts, heavy and somber, struggle to find the right words expressed in the right tone. This is what we read in Paul’s second letter to Timothy. It is a careful and reasoned goodbye, a farewell...