clear the numberless ascensions”* in about two minutes.

He keeps his voice kindly but remote. A cross between a pedagogue, soothsayer, and a benevolent uncle – that should be his tone.

A good officer learned to take care of the feet of his men first, and from there their stomachs and hearts. By that means, he could motivate their souls.

By giving us control, our new technologies tend to enhance existing idols in our lives. Instead of becoming more like Christ through the forming and shaping influence of the church community, we form, and shape,...

Freedom in the Gospel does not mean license. It means opportunity.

Father to teenage son: “My relationship with you is more important than anything I’ve got to say to you.

A healthy Christian life cannot be stitched together from a series of disjointed mountain-top experiences. We need a Christian spirituality that endures the shadowy, low-lying valleys and the rocky slopes in between all those glorious...

Fortunately, God made all varieties of people with a wide variety of interests and abilities. He has called people of every race and color who have been hurt by life in every manner imaginable. Even...

People who live according to the pure code of honor are not governed by the profit motive; they are governed by the thymotic urge, the quest for recognition. They seek the sort of glory that...

The Bible is different because it is the Word of God, by which He speaks to me. Disagreeing with the Bible would be disagreeing with God. So when I read the Bible I want to...

It is important not only to read God’s Word but to interpret God’s world in the light of the Word.

Individually the disciple and friend of Jesus who has learned to work shoulder to shoulder with his or her Lord stands in this world as a point of contact between heaven and earth, a kind...

2 Timothy 3:16 says the speaker, instructs us, to draw from the Word of God for doctrine – what is right. He instructs us to draw from the Bible for reproof – pointing out what...

At the end of life, each of us must answer the question, Whose story captured my soul?

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.

Your job is to abide in my pastureEating sweet grass and drinking pure water,And sharing both with others—That is a lamb’s business.

There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees...

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.

Despite the huge crowd, He speaks to His disciples as though no one else is there.

I cannot read God’s mind, however I can read God’s Word.

The author sees Joseph of Genesis as a type of Christ’s Pentecostal power. He who was thought dead has been raised in power, and the power is evident in the chariot he sends for his...

The only way your child will grow out of their dependency into self-sufficient adults is for you to essentially abandon your own independence for 20 years or so.

If teachers are uncomfortable at their own school, they will pass on their uncertainties or negative attitude to students.

Jesus said his disciples would be known for their love, not for their placards of protest and angry letters to the editor.

Faith is as precious to die by as it is to live by.

There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only...

To be a man, a boy must see a man.

Let not him who accepts light in an instant despise him who gropes months in shadows.

You’d think God would come right out and tell us what to do in the Bible, but He doesn’t. He mostly tells stories, and He rarely stops the story to say what the point is....

The web of trust is built at eye level, peer to peer.

Word-centered people who enter counseling will be more likely follow the guidance set out in Scripture. Because they know more of the depth of their sin, they are more willing to allow other church members...

The more spiritual successes that Edwards experienced, the more he seemed to intentionally infuse his sermons with language deemed to move a person’s emotional center—their souls—to spiritually and physically respond.

Young children especially need the visual reinforcement of seeing you turn to Scripture for wisdom.

The essence of a mature human being in religious terms is the ability to see, to be aware of others’ suffering and to be touched by it.

Throughout history the cross stands as a symbol of protest and revolt; protest against all claims, whether by religious or political power, to absolute unquestioning control over human minds and bodies; revolt against all systems...

If we know our original blessing, we can easily handle our original sin. If we rest in a previous dignity, we can bear insults effortlessly. If you really know your name is on some eternal...

Be ruthless in one important area: Yourself. Be ruthless about your commitment to Christ. Be ruthless about your intellectual growth. Be ruthless about finishing well. One of the biggest areas we should be ruthless about...

Humankind cannot bear too much reality.

As your father keeps clean his lamp to have good light, so keep clean your spirit.

God can make good use of all that happens, but the loss is real.

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness. Buffeted by the fickle winds of failure, battered by their...

Friendship allows you to see your own life but with a second sympathetic self.

So many people come to church with a genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going back home with the uncomfortable feeling that we are making it too difficult...

The God of the universe–the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor–loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try...

Part of the genius of (Nick) Sabin’s system was that he understood that no matter the skill set, he was inheriting vulnerable kids from various backgrounds. For those times when they made poor decisions, as...

The moral crisis she’d just gone through made her feel indulgent toward the faults, the delinquencies of others. How thoroughly a human being can be buffeted and over-mastered by fate had been borne in upon...

When religion becomes so involved in a future good “over yonder” that it forgets the present evils over here it is as dry as dust religion and needs to be condemned.

Just open your eyes! I thought. These desperate poor are your gurus.

God’s word tells us that righteousness is a gift; it cannot be earned. But godliness is not a gift. We must pay a price to touch godliness through a daily decision to die to self...

Everybody wants a miracle; we just don’t want to be in a situation where we need one. You can’t have one without the other. Sometimes what we perceive as our problem is really God setting...