Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My wife is one of the most extroverted people I know. She could out-talk Oprah and Joyce Meyer simultaneously.
Sometimes, an inability to believe in Satan reflects a larger inability to believe in a spiritual plane at all.
Jesus is mysterious not just because of what we don't know about him, but because of what we do know about him.
People cheer the Bible, buy the Bible, give the Bible, own the Bible - they just don't actually read the Bible.
Wise people build their lives around what is eternal and squeeze in what is temporary. Not the other way around.
One of the hardest things in the world is to stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother.
The miracle of Sunday is that a dead man lives. The miracle of Saturday is that the eternal Son of God lies dead.
When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human.
Jesus' life as a foot-washing servant would eventually lead to the adoption of humility as a widely admired virtue.
Peace does not lie in getting God to give me other circumstances. Peace lies in finding God in these circumstances.
If you want to do the work of God, pay attention to people. Notice them. Especially the people nobody else notices.
The single dynamic that helps people be most aware of God and most experiencing the fruit of the Spirit is gratitude.
The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he's coming down.
I know that those of us who go into church work are to regard ourselves as servants, are to offer our lives as a gift.
I am a political junkie. During a presidential campaign, I will often buy a couple of newspapers a day just to keep up.
I'm not sure ministry can ever have the urgency it requires if it is not aware of evil, both externally and internally.
When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate.
Universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard all began as Jesus-inspired efforts to love God with all ones' mind.
Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences.
The question isn't if someone will sign up for spiritual formation; it's just who and what our spirits will be formed by.
There is a world of difference between being friendly to someone because they're useful to you and being someone's friend.
I hate how spiritual formation gets positioned as an optional pursuit for a small special interest group within the church.
Amusement is a way of boredom-avoidance through external stimulation that fails to exercise our minds. It's mere diversion.
Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don't have.
The toppling of idols - even respectable, admired, best-practice, fastest-growing idols - is always the road to liberation.
Evil exists. Evil is real. One of the hallmarks of evil is that it seeks to convince its victims that it exists 'out there.'
You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in your everyday life with God.
It's better to have the faith to embrace reality with all its pain than to cling to the false comfort of a painless fantasy.
It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I am worth dying for.
Acceptance is an act of the heart. To accept someone is to affirm to them that you think it's a very good thing they are alive.
Gratitude is what we radiate when we experience grace, and the soul was made to run on grace the way a 747 runs on rocket fuel.
You have a "turn" every time you have an opportunity to choose. But most of us only see a tiny fraction of the choices we have.
Sloth is the failure to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done - like the kamikaze pilot who flew seventeen missions.
A simple way to address hidden curriculum issues is to spend time talking with staff and key leaders about their spiritual lives.
To have my mind racing and my heart beating fast over glorious possibilities is very close to the summit of life experience for me.
Prudence is foresight and far-sightedness. It's the ability to make immediate decisions on the basis of their longer-range effects.
One reason why we fail to hear God speak is that we are not attentive. We suffer from what might be called 'spiritual mindlessness.'
People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller.
We all want to feel spiritually vigorous, and we hurt when we don't. This pain is intensified for people who lead church ministries.
We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer to conformity to Christ or farther away from it.
'Amusement' is appealing because we don't have to think; it spares us the fear and anxiety that might otherwise prey on our thoughts.
As long as we have unsolved problems, unfulfilled desires, and a mustard seed of faith, we have all we need for a vibrant prayer life.
In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God. No thought is purely neutral.
In my love-challenged condition, seeing a difficulty for someone else can leave me feeling a little more smug or superior-by-comparison.
When the soul is understood and attended to, we can be liberated from hurry, preoccupation, unsatisfied desires, and chronic discontent.
Tithing is like training wheels when it comes to giving. It's intended to help you get started, but not recommended for the Tour de France.
Ghettos and barrios and abusive homes and trauma wards may produce scarred souls; they can cripple more human spirits than they strengthen.
Never try to have more faith - just get to know God better. And because God is faithful, the better you know Him, the more you'll trust Him.
A boss who interrupts an employee a lot is called an extrovert, whereas an employee who interrupts a boss too often is called an ex-employee.
Authority can be faked. That's why impersonating a police officer is a crime. Sometimes the outward appearances of authority can be deceiving.