The way to transmute the pain of life is to reveal the wounded side of things, evil, even, and then place the wound inside of sacred space. The Bible is about naming, facing, and then...

Jesus’ simple poetic words are delivered casually and gently. Jesus prefers to explain a difficult concept over time, never talking down to His followers, patiently letting the words soak in until they understand them fully.

At the fall, we became alienated not only from God and other people but also from ourselves.

There is nothing stereotyped about God’s dealings with His children. Therefore, we must not by our prejudices and preconceptions make watertight compartments for the working out His Spirit, either in our own lives or in...

Never base motivation or fear, entirely.

Sometimes Eli believed his mother was embarrassed by him. “I swear, my mom thinks if I do one thing differently than the average person, I’m weird,” Eli said later. “It’s like she thinks I’m a...

We need both reverence and obedience. If we worship but do not walk in obedience and discipline, we are emotional, lacking self-control and godly character. If we obey God’s commandments but are not true worshipers,...

When grace has won the day, the worldling seeks the world to come.

The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it.

The formal definition of impact is a forcible contact between two things, and God has designed our lives for a collision course with the world.

We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live.

(The monks) approach was far less narcissistic and our tends to be. Their goal when reading Scripture was to see Christ in every verse, and not a mirror image of themselves.

We ascribe to God. We don’t add to Him.

Small groups are the place to push past Bible knowledge and on to life application so that we can see people’s lives transform more and more into the image of Christ.

Everybody thinks of changing humanity, but nobody thinks of changing themselves.

You can lead and motivate people without a certificate or title, what you need to do is to tell people a compelling secret that was only known to you.

There are two choices: to be human, made in the image of God, with Jesus; warp to be in human, consumed with greed and on aware of the pain that is inflicted upon others. Put...

When I am not king, then THE Kingdom has its best chance of breaking through.

Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.

If you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he himself is the way.

The man who goes to the top is the man who has something to say and says it when circumstances warrant. Men who keep silent underdressed are moral cowards.

The ease with which we can now get an audience for a discussion of religion does not prove that more people are becoming religious. What it really proves is the existence of a large “floating...

Make use of every friend— and every foe.

Friends usually bring out better versions of each other. People feel unguarded and fluid with their close friends.

The figure of the crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.

You will know as much of God, and only as much of God, as you are willing to put into practice.

spirit” is being formed. To be alive is to be formed.

If you are going to walk with Jesus Christ, you are going to be opposed…. In our days, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.

Change from despair to joy he made her extremely beautiful.

When an actor reaches down into his emotional well and pulls up a deeply personal response, the audience can sense something special is going on. They may not know exactly what they’re seeing, but they...

Beginning to sense his call to preach boldly in dangerous situations even though he was young and slight, the author agreed to go only if God would give him a particular sense of His presence....

Half of learning is learning. The other half of learning is unlearning.

Conversion, constant conversion, is the message of the Gospel.

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...

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

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