Religious rituals are only useful if they lead us to recognize our shortcomings and repent. Coming to church without the proper mindset is useless.

The commitment for which Jesus calls is one of a living sacrifice. Jesus calls men to give their all to the task at hand, even unto death.

Our ability to forgive others is the key to the salvific contract, and for many of us, that is not an easy task. The ability to interact with others in the way that Jesus did is the primary attribute that we need to receive from the Holy Spirit.

It might not be wise to put a numerical limit on the number of times that you will forgive someone else, because you may find that you yourself need to be forgiven by God more times than your number allows.

Our objective as Christians is to learn to be less self-centered and more other-directed, which, if we are successful, will reduce our defensiveness, and increase our ability to admit error and become one with the body once again.

When I was a boy, I went to church, but I did not believe in Jesus Christ. When I became an adult, however, a person that I respected convinced me to investigate the truth of the claims of Jesus Christ, and I did so. The historical evidence that I studied since that day has convinced me that Jesus Christ was a real person, and that the New Testament is just as much of a factual account of what actually happened as any account of any event about which I could read a history book or in a newspaper.

Jesus Christ has come to be the sacrifice for our sins, to take the punishment that we are owed for the sins that we have committed so that God can give us a new, spiritual nature by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then allow us into Heaven rather than give us the punishment that we so justly deserve.

Jesus Christ died so that we would believe in Him, and then become salt and light to those with whom we come into contact. He could have mentored the whole world, but Jesus chose to only have a few faithful disciples so that we would be encouraged by His example to touch the few with whom we come into contact, and not become discouraged simply because our reach is not as wide as that of the Jewish and Roman leadership.