The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine might be the most helpful and profound book I’ve read in years. If you’re in pastoral ministry grab a copy.
When we see the bankruptcy, slavery, and vanity of everything else, we can finally say, ‘To die is gain.’
Stop going to church everywhere and start belonging to church somewhere.
When we join God in his plan for his global glory, we get to be a part of the cosmic take-your-kid-t o-work day.
The heart of our problem is the problem of our hearts.
In essence, we are reconciled to reconcile.
The glory of God is that you can’t outs in His grace.
Progress stems from education, culture, freedom and equality. Without these fundamentals, mankind will flounder.
There is no error, no addiction with more power than the Cross of Christ.
The work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as awe-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God.
If the gospel of Jesus Christ is not at the center of a wedding ceremony, it is likely not going to be at the center of the marriage. This would be a grave mistake, however, as marriage itself is designed to be a great reflector of that gospel.
God doesn’t NEED raw material. He MAKES material.
Every one of us loves Pauline theology, but few of us want Pauline pain.
Engaging the city around us and ministering to its needs reveal to us the remaining bastions of sin in our lives, the areas we refuse to surrender to God.
If you’re a beast in the pulpit but a coward in your neighborhood, something has gone wrong.
I’m wise to be a good steward, but I’ll never be my own rescuer. The worth thing you can do with fear and anxiety is to pretend you’re too strong to have them. The best thing you can do is just to let Him be in charge of them.
The great mercy of God was that while I was purposefully preparing God’s people, He was purposefully preparing me.
I think people can get a little weirded out by pain, suffering, and death. They don’t know what to do so they end up saying things that are hurtful to people who have experienced loss.
The general confusion is that our moral behavior is what justifies us before God. Most of us would never say that with our mouths but we feel that lie in our heart and believe it in our minds. You can be morally upright and not be a worshipper of Christ at all.
I learned very early that people need to have a good grasp of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty.
I don’t believe in the end that God gave me cancer, but He certainly could have stopped it and didn’t.