Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.
Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.
My trust in God flows out of the experience of his loving me, day in and day out, whether the day is stormy or fair, whether I’m sick or in good health, whether I’m in a state of grace or disgrace. He comes to me where I live and loves me as I am.
We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.
The deepest desire of our hearts is for union for God. God created us for union with himself. This is the original purpose of our lives.
The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.
The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater.
Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love.
The spirituality of wonder knows the world is charged with grace, that while sin and war, disease and death are terribly real, God’s loving presence and power in our midst are even more real.
I am wonderfully content with a God who does not deal with me as my sins deserve.
Today on planet Earth, may you experience the wonder and beauty of yourself as Abba’s Child and temple of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.
In every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.
To lend each other a hand when we’re falling, perhaps that’s the only work that matters in the end.
Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.
When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community, we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons.
The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.
We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt.
The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust.