I used to think I could shape the circumstances around me, but now I know Jesus uses circumstances to shape me.
God doesn’t just give us Himself. Sometimes He gives us a few other people in our lives whose voices we can trust. Figure out what Jesus’ voice sounds like in your life. He’s standing at the end of the track calling your name. Run as fast as you can in His direction.
I think His plan all along has been for us to meet the people He made and feel like we just met Him.
Secretly incredible people keep what they do one of God’s best-kept secrets because the only one who needs to know, the God of the universe, already knows.
What I’ve been doing with my faith is this: instead of saying I’m going to believe in Jesus for my whole life, I’ve been trying to actually obey Jesus for thirty seconds at a time.
Big faith doesn’t need big words. We also don’t need to make faith easier, because it’s not; we need to make it simpler, because it is.
Love God, Love People, Do Stuff.
We’ve all seen bad movies where the audio track isn’t quite synced up with the video track. What you hear isn’t aligned with what you see people saying. It’s usually not a big difference, but it can become a big distraction.
Faith isn’t a business trip walked on a sidewalk; it’s an adventure worked out on a steep and sometimes difficult trail.
It taught me that when God is big enough and loves me enough to say He forgives me, I should actually believe Him.
God created you with unique gifts and ignited the passions He put in your heart for a reason – don’t let fear steal your opportunities and leave you on the sidelines wishing you’d tried. Do what you believe you were created to do. Is it possible it won’t work? You bet. Fail trying, don’t fail watching.
He comes from heaven, where He has an amazing love relationship with the Father, which, by it’s nature, is the most beautiful existence any person could have. And he offers that to anybody willing to let go of whatever is giving them a false sense of security.
You can usually tell when someone is doing this because, just like Sceva’s sons, they use Jesus’ name a lot, but it doesn’t seem that they have any of the power Jesus said would come with knowing Him. That power is easy to spot because it usually comes in the form of grace and acceptance, as well as sincere love and respect. It’s the kind of power that actually does things rather than just talking about them.
None of us want to make God look bad. But in the end, being fake makes God look worse.
If you can shred on a Fender or won ‘Best Personality,’ you’re not disqualified – it just doesn’t make you more qualified. You see, God usually chooses ordinary people like us to get things done.
People who used to want power are willing to serve. People who used to chase money freely give it away. People who used to beg others for acceptance are now strong enough to give love.
Just agreeing isn’t enough. I can’t think of a single time where Jesus asked His friends to just agree with Him.
Jesus doesn’t invite us on a business trip. Instead, He says let’s go after those things that inspire and challenge you and let’s experience them together. You.
The world has been shouting over the noise of our programs that it doesn’t need more presidents or organizations, what it needs are more friends.
I don’t think people trying to make their points are always aware of the damage they are doing to other people’s hearts or their own reputations, but the fact is, they are doing damage. When it comes to the words we use, we’re never shooting blanks even though we think we are. In the Bible, Jesus said that our words are an overflow of whatever is in our hearts.1 I agree and wonder if we understand that many of the words we are using have become distractions to ourselves and the people around us.
Love one another.” What is simple often isn’t easy; what is easy often doesn’t last.