Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.
The Bible does not say you are God’s appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced.
The greatest bloodbaths in the history of the human race were recorded in the twentieth century in countries that sought to eliminate God, worship, and faith.
To become truly free, you must surrender.
When I teach the formal curriculum, I have the chance to think about it ahead of time. I can rehearse it. I can illustrate it with self-deprecating humor and humble-sounding personal disclosure. I can try to make it comes out just right.
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.
True joy, as it turns out, comes only to those who have devoted their lives to something greater than personal happiness. This is most visible in extraordinary lives, in saints and martyrs. But it is no less true for ordinary people like us.
Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.
Our beliefs are not just estimates of probabilities. They are also the instruments that guide our actions.
There is a world of difference between being friendly to someone because they’re useful to you and being someone’s friend.
The life of Abraham Lincoln is by most accounts an amazing study in character formation. Yet he was notoriously disorganized; he even had a file in his law office labeled If you can’t find it anywhere else, try looking here.
People who are servants-humbly, honestly, and joyfully-keep getting revealed as the biggest winners. People who recognize and embrace their smallness keep getting bigger and bigger in God’s eyes. It’s the oddest scoring system.
The Holy Spirit says: You are it. You are God’s plan. In a thirsty world, people need to be refreshed. It is a broken world, and people need to be healed. Now get out there and do it!
God is a God of endless opportunities to do good; the God of the open door.
Significance is about who we are before it is about what we do.
Sheldon Vanauken wrote that the strongest argument for Christianity is Christians, when they are drawing life from God. The strongest argument against Christianity? Also Christians, when they become exclusive, self-righteous, and complacent.
The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us.
Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, sometimes painful clinging to God.
We who preach have one tool. We are people of the book.
The character of the faith that allows us to be transformed by suffering and darkness is not doubt-free certainty; rather, it is tenacious obedience.