Marriage Intentions

I am soon to be married. But the words on the page don’t really do justice. Maybe I’ll write it like this: I AM GETTING MARRIED SOON!!!!!!!!!!! YAHOOOOOOO!! … eh, still doesn’t really do justice. When people ask me, “Hey man, are you excited to get married?” What am I supposed to say? No amount of words, facial expressions, or charades could express the emotions leading up to May 18^th. So yeah, I’m not even going to attempt to describe what it’s been like being engaged for the past 9 months and being only one month away. For those of you older and already married for some time, please look past my naivety and enjoy reminiscing what it was like for you. For those of you unmarried, it’s great! But it didn’t just happen that way and it’s not the greatest thing in the world. Jesus is.

Nevertheless, since I am getting married soon, I want to reflect on my intentions for doing so. We live in a marriage-happy sub-culture where marriage is the next best thing to heaven. In fact, when I was a kid, I wanted Jesus to wait to come back until after my honeymoon. It’s true. Laugh all you want. I have been around my community long enough to know that marriage is a goal for about 99% of people around me. Is that wrong? Perhaps not. But Jesus and Paul seemed to think singleness was awesome, so we have to take a step back and look at the real reasons why one should get married. The reasons why most in our country want to get married are quite skewed. The following smattering of words is an attempt to explain what I want my impending marriage to be (and not to be). Rachel and I are planning for a good wedding, but we are making sure we have a great covenant. Do I know everything about marriage? No. Why on earth would you think that? I’m not even married! But I have seen enough incredible marriages to know what’s right and what’s not so right.

Holiness, not Happiness

Am I marrying Rachel because it will make my life easier? All those tax benefits and splitting the rent with someone sure does help. I imagine it’s a lot easier living with a very organized girl than it is with 7 other college guys (no offense Brosvenor). So is this the foundation for my marriage? No. In fact, if you think marriage is going to fix all of your problems, you’re in for a big letdown. Your single person problems will just become your married person problems. I am not marrying Rachel to make my life easier. While some things will be so much easier (the benefits are tremendous), other things will make my life much harder. No longer is it me, myself, and I. I have someone who is going to challenge the way I do things. I am tying myself to someone who grew up differently from the way I did. I am linking myself to someone who won’t always agree with me, who won’t always see things the way I do, who won’t always operate in the same modus operandi I do. Marriage with Rachel is going to be challenging. I had a friend tell me “If you think you’re humble and selfless now, wait till you get married. Then if you think you’ve got a hang of it then, wait till you have kids.”

Am I marrying Rachel because she makes me happy? Life with her sure is swell! Every time we are together, my cheeks are always hurting from smiling (you’d think they would have endurance by now) and my demeanor is always joyful. With her, the most meager of tasks seems like a whimsical adventure. She certainly adds meaning to my life. She certainly makes me chuckle, dance, and swoon. She certainly is so gorgeous, cute, and easy on the eyes. So does Rachel complete me? No. Jesus does. And it’s because of Jesus that I can truly enjoy Rachel for who she is, flaws and all. When you set someone up as the one to satisfy all your wants and desires, they become your god. Putting an imperfect person in a role requiring perfection is an apocalyptic romance. Does Rachel make me happy? All the time! But she does not give me my joy. Rachel or not, my joy rests in Jesus.

So why am I marrying Rachel? Holiness. I am marrying Rachel not for ease or happiness, but holiness. I set myself on a course to pursue Christ. In that course, Jesus pointed to towards loving Rachel as He loved me, not because it is essential to life but because doing so will establish sanctification—a fancy word for becoming more like Jesus. All the bad things about me—selfishness, greed, lust, envy, pride—will slowly melt away in the flames of matrimony. In essence, I am marrying Rachel because she will make me more like Jesus. Likewise, Rachel is marrying me for the same reason. In the end, I will have the honor of presenting Rachel to God to say “Here she is. I served her. I loved her. I challenged her. I prayed for her. I used Your love to shape and mold her. I allowed You to work through me to grow her.” I intend for this marriage to be a holy furnace of sanctification. We are not marrying each other because we couldn’t live without each other (though that certainly feels true at the moment). We are marrying each other because we are more effective serving God together than we would be apart. We hope to be like two mirrors hinged at a 45 degree angle such that God’s light and love from above can come down and reflect off of us onto one another and everyone else. You could say that when you add us together, we hope to not just be twice as much Jesus, but 16 times as much. We want to magnify the love of God. The cool thing is that life will probably be happier and easier as we get holier. Happiness comes from holiness.

Love Like Jesus

What are my intentions in marriage? To love Rachel like Jesus loves me. In essence, love in marriage is self-denial; self-denial and love are on opposite sides of the same coin. So when Rachel drives me crazy—she hasn’t ever yet, but according to most, she will eventually—I will deny myself and honor her. When Rachel asks, I will give. When Rachel hurts me, I will forgive. When Rachel knocks, I will open the door. When Rachel loves me, I will be thankful. When Rachel feels ugly, I will affirm her beauty. When Rachel feels worthless, I will make her feel her worth in Christ. When Rachel mourns, I will mourn with her. When Rachel rejoices, I will rejoice with her. When Rachel sins, I will love her, for love covers a multitude of sins. I will fight fair. I will trust that she has my best intentions at heart as well. We will never be enemies, but always teammates.

Covenant

While other couples pursue marriage as a legal agreement that can be broken, we will pursue marriage as a covenant. Hence, divorce is never an option. It doesn’t matter if Rachel cheats on me a thousand times, I will not divorce her. My reason for loving her and pursuing her depends not on her love for me, but on Christ’s love for us. If I am having trouble loving Rachel, it’s not because our relationship is failing but because my relationship with Christ is. As long as I am connected to The One Who Is Love, I will never fail. You want to know a common denominator in all of my relationship problems? Me. In every single one of my relationship problems, I’m involved. This covenant will do a mighty good job at helping me get over myself.

Here Comes The Bride

Rachel will always be my bride. She isn’t just a bride on May 18^th. She will be my bride always. I’ve heard a lot of husbands speak negatively of their wife. My wife doesn’t like this. My wife won’t let me do this. My wife nags me about this. But I hope to always see Rachel as my bride. Am I still going to call her my wife? Duh. But I will also refer to her as my bride, because that will put in the position of service and pursuit. I hope to always speak well of her, whether she deserves it or not. I hope to always defend her. I hope to always affirm her. “Always” is a hard word for us humans—and I may never achieve my goal—but I will always work to achieve it.

Prayer Partner

When I’m married, I intend to pray with my bride, day and night. Everything we do will be covered in prayer. I hope to wake up with her and pray with her before every day. I hope to end each day with her in the presence of our Father. I hope to lead her in into the Throne Room where we can worship together. Prayer is the oxygen of the Christian. I pray that together, our prayer life will take a new form beyond that which we can understand or imagine right now. It’s a lot harder to have fights when you are praying for each other constantly. It’s a lot harder not to communicate when you are praying for each other constantly. Quite simply, prayer will be the connection that ties us, day and night.

Money Money Muh-nay

As a married couple, we hope to honor God and each other with our finances. Neither Rachel nor I have much experience on our own, so this is perhaps the greatest area of naivety and humility. Nevertheless, Rachel and I want to learn how to serve one another with money. We don’t want to be self-seeking and separated. We wanted to be united in every endeavor together and completely transparent. We want to live a life of constant blessing where God’s blessings roll right through us into each other’s lives and into the lives of those around us. We want to free the oppressed, feed the hungry, give clean water to the thirsty, and fight for the cause of orphans and widows. In essence, we want our heart to be like God’s heart. This will take a lot of learning on our part. It’s going to take a lot of effort to not try and keep up with the Jones’ or allow our standard of living to expand over our income. We want to be a couple that starts generously and just gets more generous as time goes by. We want to live a life of economic ease. We won’t allow the love of money to erode our love for God and each other. Likewise, we won’t get caught up in worrying about not giving enough. Instead, we will be joyful givers, constantly working with the Spirit to decide what to give and when. This is our financial hope in marriage.

Purity

My intention in marriage is to be pure in heart and to keep my eyes away from temptation to lust. Thanks to Jesus, my past has been redeemed, and thanks to the Holy Spirit, it’s stayed that way. However, I know that I will be even a greater target in marriage. The enemy absolutely hates purity. I am going to be attacked on all sides. Thus, my intention is to never let myself get too close to temptation. That means no movies with images my eyes don’t need to see (this will be easy since Rachel only likes PG and under). That means no tolerance on my computer. That means, if necessary, not even having a smart phone. I will gladly give up my freedom for the sake of purity in marriage. But in the end, it will all depend on my heart. The Spirit and the flesh are in constant battle. If I am constantly pursuing Christ and the Spirit, all the other areas of temptation will be stifled. I have every intention of not hurting my bride. Fortunately, if I ever fail, grace will be there to catch me.

Under the Sheets

Sex is pretty valuable, especially for men. Like I said earlier, I likened it to heaven as a kid. Perhaps that is why our culture is so eager to hop under the sheets with anyone willing. Men, marrying someone for sex is like buying an airplane just to get free peanuts. Sex is not everything, but it is something. In marriage, I intend to give myself completely to Rachel. I intend to put her needs above my own. I find it interesting the way God made us. Men need sex to show affection. Women need affection to have sex.  In our culture, men use intimacy to get sex while women use sex to get intimacy. We were made to complement each other. To put it simply, in wedlock with Rachel, I intend to give intimacy, sex or no sex. Many married couples have terrible sex lives because they are focused on what they can get, rather than what they can give. Like Jesus, I intend to give regardless of what I get. I will put her needs above my own. And hey, from what I hear, married Christians are having the best sex out there. There’s no secret why.

We’re Weird

If you can’t tell, Rachel and I are going to be a little weird. But we’re okay with that, because normal isn’t working. Rachel and I hope to be set apart—to be holy. We don’t want to compare ourselves to society. We want to compare ourselves to Christ. We want to learn from other’s mistakes. We want to learn from couples older and wiser than us. We know that we don’t know it all. In fact, that’s the reason why we’ve read over a dozen marriage books together. We are seeking wisdom and we will never stop seeking wisdom. Being married the way we want to be married is going to be like swimming against the current, like running up a down escalator. The culture is against us. This culture is all about me, me, me. It’s about pleasure and instant gratification. It’s about short attention spans and happiness. It’s about always going and never stopping.  It’s about self-preservation and self-fulfillment. But we want to be different. We want to be holy. We want to be weird.

Intentions, Not Expectations

These are all intentions of mine, but not necessarily expectations. I have learned from many who are wiser than I that expectations destroy relationships. If I expect something, but don’t get it, I’ll be left disappointed. But if I intend for something and know it is not guaranteed, then I will work earnestly to make it happen. If you’ve read my intentions with an aroma of disbelief, all I can say is I hope to prove you wrong. Rachel and I will work towards these goals in marriage through hope not exasperation. We know the “Honeymoon Period” is bound to end, but we intend to always find new ways to fall in love with one another. There will be times when it will feel like I’m married to a stranger, but I’ll just use my time to serve, know, and love that stranger better. We know that we know little and we understand that we have far to go. In fact, if after 50 years of marriage I decided to come back and read this, I’d probably laugh at how idealistic I was. However, we know the One who holds our future. He is faithful. He has something much better for us then we know. We are simply excited to live a life of faith, hope, and most importantly, love.

So there it is: an extended set of vows you could say. You have no idea how excited I am to do life with Rachel. She is so precious and I adore her more and more every day. If you told me two years ago that I was going to get married this May, I would have laughed in your face and given you a lecture about why the single life is so great. But fortunately for me, God has led me down this splendiferous path of friendship and courtship. Like I said before in one of my favorite blog posts ever, The Proposal, I am so excited for our wedding, but I am even more excited for Christ’s wedding between Him and His people. Life is good and Jesus is worthy.

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The Father's Debts

A story of the Father's great love:

Imagine you had a credit card and you were spending more than you knew you had. In fact, you were incredibly worried; the idea of opening the bill scared you. But the bill never came. So you kept buying more and more stuff with it. For years, the bill never came, but you bought anything you wanted with it: new car, new TV, a trip around the world, whatever. Nothing was unavailable to you. It was great! But deep down, you knew it wasn't quite right. How could you possibly get away with this? Would it ever come back to get you?

One day, you get a phone call from your dad. He says "I got a bill from your credit card. It got sent to me. It has all of your spending for the last 20 years on it. It's pretty monumental." At this point, your heart has sunk. You know you're in for it. All that you've done has come back. Somebody has to pay for it. Because of you, a payment must be made. Your father continues, "I just wanted to let you know that I paid for it all. Every single penny of it. You don’t have to do anything for me." You're floored. A grand debt against your name has been completely relinquished. What joy! What love from the Father! You can’t believe what has happened. In fact, you are so full of gratitude, that you can’t stop telling people about how wonderful your dad is. In fact, you might write a post just like this one. You just can’t get over what has been done for you. Your dad’s generosity has changed you from one who was completely irresponsible with money to someone who lives to be as generous as your father and who forgives anyone who has owes you anything.

Your dad comes over and brings the bill. It's pages and pages long. I mean, it's everything you bought on a spending spree for 20 years. The paper to list it all alone probably cost a fortune. Your dad starts at the top and begins reading each purchase, one by one. This purchase here, that purchase there. He’s not reading it to guilt you. He’s reading to let you know what’s been done for you. Each item he reads fills you with tremendous gratitude, for it's all been paid for.

This is how it will be in the end. The Father will take an account of every sin you've committed, every time you've rebelled, and every time you failed to glorify Him. It will all be laid bare before you. For most people, this will be a time of gnashing teeth and wailing. But for those in Christ, what would have been a trial of the guilty turns into the glory of the payment. The Father paid for you. With everything He had, He covered your debts. Now every single fault against you no longer brings you guilt, but instead, thanksgiving. It's all to glorify Him! In the end, your good deeds will speak to Jesus' glory because He worked through you. In the end, your bad deeds will speak to Jesus' glory because He paid for you. All glory is His.

As far as we know it costs very little for God to give us nice things. But He gave us His everything, Jesus. God didn’t love us after we told him we were sorry. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. After such an amazing act of grace, would we continue to wildly charge our purchases on that credit card?  Hopefully not! Shall we go on sinning so that grace should increase? By no means!

Rejoice! For Jesus is worthy of all of our worship, all of our lives, and all that we are. We can live as enemies of Christ and dead in our own transgression, or we can live as sons and daughters—paid for by the beautiful blood of Jesus—fully alive in Him.

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Book Notes

 When I was in my sophomore year, I read... A LOT. I made sure to take notes of all of my favorite quotes from the books I read. I stumbled upon these notes recently, and I forgot how much wisdom they held. I'm really just putting these notes on the blog so I don't forget them again, but perhaps they can be of some service to you. There are A LOT, like I said. So I won't be offended if you skim. None of them are my words so they are probably more help to you.

-You can’t step out and love people, until you’ve been loved by God. You don’t have the resources.

-The people who are most ready for marriage are those who need it the least.

7 things about the person you should date:

1.       Should be a believer … duh

2.       Morally submitted to God. Smiles at the future. Fears the Lord. Words filled with wisdom and kindness. Patient.

3.       Moving at the same pace. Seek the Kingdom at same pace.

4.       Theologically compatible

5.       Socially Compatible

6.       Missionally compatible

7.       Physically attracted

1 Samuel 13:13

Revelation:

It’s true that you’ve been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ; that is the only thing that can save you. But what you do and don’t do after you have been saved matters to Jesus, because you have not been called just to be saved, you have been called by a Lord, and your Lord is telling you to do something. You’re deeds matter. While you’re being saved, you’re also being commanded. You cannot have one without the other.

Here is an important question we need to ask: If the Holy Spirit left our churches, would we even notice? Do we rely on materials more than God?

Why is the church in America, not more actively persecuted by the kingdom of Satan?

Three reasons a kingdom would not attack another kingdom: There an ally. There are not doing anything good or bad, they’re just there. The kingdom poses no threat. We need to become so active in the Kingdom of God that we force Satan’s hand to attack.

Argue about carpet color, worship music, why mess with em?

If you do not have to rely on God, you do not know what it’s like to be Christian. We live in a land of so much blessing that we forget that when we wake up everyday, we are in a battle.  If the Holy Spirit left your life, would anything change?

We are the church of Laodicea…
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

   These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

   ¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

   ²¹ To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The rapture is not biblical. The evil will be collected and thrown in fire first. We will then be collected, the earth will be renewed and we will live there. There is not the anti-christ

Persecution is not what we should fear, but social seduction. Persecution causes the Kingdom to spread like wild fire. Social seduction lulls us to sleep.

Why is the church in American not persecuted? Maybe it is because the world does not see it as a threat.

The first beast is any anti-Christian government. The second beast is any anti-Christian religion. Ex. Allah vs. Yahweh.

It’s about endurance. It’s not about beating up the people coming at you. God is the one who fight.

Seals- Security, focused on Christians

Trumpets- Message, focused on evil ones

Bowls- Righteousness, focused on evil ones, intent: repentance

Revelation 18- The Great Prostitute seduces with excesses and wealth. “Come lay with me, you won’t worry about a thing. Don’t believe a God you can’t even see.”

Materialism is gained by taking. Little man gets stepped on for cost to go down. Body and souls of men are cost of materialistic cargo. Lazarus and rich man. Materialism is suttle, but it is vicious. It always kill the ones on the bottom rung.

Nowhere in the Bible is God ever concerned about whether we are rich enough. No, instead Jesus says “I am worried about how much you have and what it cost to get that, not only to our relationship but to others.”

The Spirit of prophecy shows who Jesus is.

The reason the Son of God appeared, was to destroy the devil’s work. Jesus bounded the strong man and is plundering his house (people). We are supposed to be looting Satan of his people. The cross was D-Day. The second coming is V-Day.

At the cross, Jesus died for man and the cosmos. Both will be restored.

You keep the prophesy by obeying. Worship is war. We worship God with obedience. Whatever it takes to make God’s name known.

Parables polarize. If you can hear, then obey. Let the vile be vile, let the Holy be Holy.

Do you live your life worthy of a standing ovation?

You cannot begin to live for Jesus Christ until you are willing to die for Him.

Be a good steward of your life. What are you passionate about?

Frankly, we need to get over ourselves.

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." –Brennan Manning-

We have created a theology that serves us; it is all about what we get. We get atonement and sacrifice and heaven and paradise and treasures… These are wonderful reasons to praise God, but we have emphasized so much of what we get, that we have forgotten about what we must lose. Frankly, we need to get over ourselves. It is not about us.

What we want is a God without wrath who sent man without sin into a kingdom without justice to the administrations of Christ without a cross.

If God answered all your prayers, how far would the kingdom be advanced?

For the complacency and comfortability of the pew-fillers in our churches today far outweigh the zealous soldiers for Christ. We have convinced our churches that the measure by which we are going to gage if they’re a Christian, is by attendance.

American Churches today remind me of a greyhound bus, because when you walk on to a greyhound bus the sign says “Have a seat and leave the driving to us.” –P.B. Alexander-

Dr. Robbie Zachariah – “I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaningless comes from being weary of pleasure, and that’s why we bankrupt of meaning in a land of so much.”

When you are worshipping something bigger than you, you can set logic aside.

Our currency is time and money. In other cultures, it is honor and shame.

Usually an idol is a good thing that becomes a god thing. We often find what our idol is when we face the prospect of losing it. Many of us seek to manipulate God to get our idols.

*Begin Rant* Everyone thinks someone else is rich. Someone thinks you’re rich. The biggest medical problem in our country is obesity. Before now, that’s never really been a huge issue. There’s never been a group of people that were like “we have so much food and so little space for it that we’re dying of cheeseburger s and malted milk duds”. We’re the rich. Jesus asks us “Is that your God or am I?” *End Rant*

You don’t need to be rich to have money as your idol.

Matthew 23-25

Matthews gospel presents the greatest theological bridge from the old testament to the new testament.

The Church is fulfilled Israel. It is not about ethnicity, it is about faithfulness to Christ.

I have no problem with people making a quick dollar but I do have a problem when they throw Jesus’ name under the bus to do it. False prophets due damage to the gospel.

When the church becomes the church, Satan is the one on the defensive.

Acts

A lot of the time we use our prayers to ask the cosmic Santa Claus in the sky to make us happy. Ask yourself this: if God answered all your prayers affirmatively, how much further would the kingdom be advanced?

Any sort of wealth we get in America is not for personal comfort, it is to bless the nations. We should be praying for things that have much more eternal significance than for a cold to go away! Although it’s justifiable: James 5. When the apostles prayed for healing and miracles and blessing, it was for the advancement of the kingdom.

The Church of Jesus Christ should be passionate about the poor. God’s name is dishonored, if we let Christians go hungry. We live in a community with the blood of Christ poured on it; we have the responsibility to care for others.

We hear the Holy Spirit by worshipping and fasting and praying.

Christian Life

Every time we interact with the lost, we tell them they are wrong. People in America know all about what Christians are against, but very few know what Christians are for. I don’t know about you, but that bothers me. We must love them.

Prayer,  loving those around you. Defending the poor. Breaking social boundaries.

We are not supposed to be secret Christians who befriend people to perform the old bait and switch; get to know em and then bop them on the head with Jesus. We are meant to go out and heal people, loving them genuinely. Pure and faultless religion is this: caring for widows and orphans, the least of the least.

There is documentation of a governor that got so angry at Christians because he said “They are loving their poor and our poor, and it’s growing like wildfire.” It made him angry. If we latch back on to loving people, evangelism with explode, again. People want to know where their eternal souls are going. God is real, he does want to heal you, and he sent me to do it. There were Christians in the second century dying in other peoples places to take care of the plagued thrown outside the city. Do you know what happened? The Faith exploded. Why? Because they were loving people, they were saving people, they were giving up themselves fully, knowing that they are loved by God and they are secure in the kingdom. Whenever you are developing a relationship with somebody by consistently meeting their need, I promise you Jesus will come up in conversation.  We are the body of Christ! And what did the body of Christ do? He healed, He gave dignity to the poor, He loved people regardless of whether were thankful, or whether or not they “used your gift appropriately”. We are called to feed the hungry.

The more that you fall in love with Jesus, the more you’ll get to know people who do not know Jesus. Go help people and you’ll probably be hanging out with non-Christians. You are saved by grace. Stop worrying about it. You don’t have to earn anything anymore.

Every page of the New Testament assumes knowledge of the Old Testament.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 22

There is not a single spiritual gift that is for the self, but for others.

We need to live in the present in light of the future because of the past. All of time, all of history is wrapped up at what Jesus did at the resurrection.

-When you are a new creation, you walk different than how the old creation will have you walk. You are not your own. You do not have rights that God himself does not give you. Stop acting like it. Be a living sacrifice. We cannot begin to live for Christ until we are ready to die for him. If we would die to ourselves, it would resolve a lot of issues.

-Not just preachers, but everyone is to go out and teach the gospel. What most people do is they sit in the pew and become spiritually obese. We eat and we eat and we eat. Be a reproducer not a receiver. When you listen to a sermon, don’t just go “oh, that was nice.” Learn it so you can teach it. Once you start teaching others, you will find yourself reaching a new level.

-You are where heaven and earth intersect. You are the Holy of Holies. You are the Temple of God. You are literally where God has chosen to intersect with humanity. The absolute best method to heal to world is you.

Spiritual doorways

-Everyone’s doorways and disciplines are different. Some may feel closest to God through relationships. Intellectual spiritual doorway = studying. Worship=closest in corporate worship. Activist=Closest to God in confrontation, longs for justice. Most energized to challenge church. Contemplative=close to God when they are alone, silence, solitude, prayer, no distractions. Service= Helping others, energized just by setting up chairs in a room. Creation = closest in nature, walking, reading. All of these can be abused. You don’t need to do every discipline all the time. It should not be a burden. The one’s you’re the most comfortable with are the ones you’re going to judge others with. We are all different.

Why Pray? Communication. Lifeline. Requests. Thankfulness. Mourning. Raw Emotion. Community. Coming before the throne. Reconciliation. Shows dependence. Teaches us. Weapon.

Look God in the eyes when you talk to Him.

There’s not much to pray about when you’re comfortable.

Are prayers answered immediately? No. The number one way that the enemy beats you down is isolation. Prayer is a weapon… People don’t accidently get possessed by demons.

In every relationship, sometimes you need to sit down and shut up. We talk so much. Sometimes prayer is shutting up. We are too movement oriented. Our culture is so depressed because we are living in the future. The point of solitude is this: you center yourself on the relationship that is most important.

Fasting is prayer in motion. Fasting was to mourn over sins. Fasting over the Christian Nation. Appeal to God. Fasting is important to remind the body who’s boss.

---------Sabbath needs to be part of your rhythm.

Fellowship- you need a spiritual mentor. You need a level of peers. You need people you are investing in. You need all three to be in balance. We are communal beings. If you are feeling isolated and alone, it’s because you are denying who God made you to be.

Why don’t we buy new things and give it to the poor? Why does it have to be the leftovers?

I hate the fact that we in the church don’t talk about our finances. I don’t know your needs if you don’t tell me.

If someone says I like that, Give it to them. Don’t worry about keeping your giving secret because we need to tell people stories to encourage. Give something away and tell someone you did, not to pat your friend on the back, but to encourage them to give something away too.

Forgiveness is not a moment. It’s a process.

Matthew

Repentance is attached to behavior, not feelings.  Matthew 3:1, talking to Jews.

People were baptized to enter into a new community. Sometimes, we overemphasize baptisms connection to salvation. It is more communal than individual. It is to stand up in front of everyone and say “I have a new king and a new kingdom”.  Salvation is a byproduct, not the ultimate goal.

Salvation is a byproduct, not the ultimate goal. Evangelism is not to get people into heaven that is a byproduct. Our goal is not to get somebody through the pearly gates. Our goal is to transform the world with the Kingdom. Will they get into Heaven, Sure! But it’s a byproduct, not the end goal! If you’re primary relationship with Jesus is based on the fact that He gives you a get out of Jail free card. I am not bashing on the fact that we saved us from our sins. That is pretty cool. But that is one little piece of the puzzle.

The key question is not “Why am I here?” The question is “who are you?” Once you figure that out, you’ll know what you’re doing.

Every morning you wake up, you step out into a battlefield.

Law is not there for the sake of rules. Law is there to define a community.

Sin has a communal context. When sin is in the camp, it changes the definition of who you are. Sin is an identity problem. Who you are leads you what you produce. Sin alters who you are; it keeps you from who you were meant to be.

Adam and Eve were tested in the most pristine conditions and failed. Jesus was tempted in the most strenuous conditions and succeeded.

If you become overly frustrated with the timing of God, you put yourself in the position of God. You will never see a burning bush if you don’t enter the desert. But Satan is also there. You have to trust that you’re there because God wants you there.

Satan quotes a lot of scripture. He knows a lot. Probably more than you.

The giving of law gives identity. It is very gracious.

You don’t go looking for persecution by burning Qurans. You get persecuted by loving people.

The more you tell someone who they are, the less you’ll have to tell them what to do. If you know who you are in Christ, you’ll know what to do. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. You are the body of Christ.

Christianity is not about making bad people good. It’s about making dead people alive. Your job is not to make them act a certain way, but to make them realize who they are in Jesus.

You cannot separate preaching and loving.

Four kingdoms: Heaven, Satan, Israel, Rome.

Look at what Jesus is known for. That should be the same things you are known for. Who Jesus is, is who we are intended to be.

The Old Testament is like a ship to get across the great sea. But once you get to land, you dock and get a new vehicle because your destination on land.

What if there aren’t good things in store for you? Will you still follow God? Are you willing to hear God speak on His terms or does he have to meet your terms before you choose to listen?

That Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would issue that command. ~ Roger H. Gundry

Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed. ~ Proverbs 28:27

Potluck : What sorrow for those who furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties— lyre and harp, tambourine and flute— but they never think about the LORD or notice what he is doing.
~ Isaiah 5: 8-12

When I die, what matters most is that everyone knows His Name, not mine.

We have isolated ourselves to the point that we can no longer hear the cry of the needy.

American Christianity says God blesses you so you can live more comfortable.
Biblical Christianity says God blesses so you can take care of your NEEDS and give away the rest.

Some house church Christians from China were asked what the hardest thing about American Christianity was for them. Here is their reply: “The hardest thing in America is that pastors/ministers believe they have to be famous in order to be effective. It’s just the opposite in China. No one knows the most powerful, influential Christians because they have to be even more hidden, even more underground.”

You'll always have 2 options. A] The fake woman on the internet who will do whatever you want without requiring anything of you. B] The real woman God is trying to show his love to through you.
Everyday people bet billions that you'll pick option A. I hope you go with B.

A man must be able to discipline and mentor his wife in the word of God. He must be a man who leads in selflessness.

Real lasting change always comes from intimacy with God. Everything must flow out of the interconnection, the same kind of connection that Jesus had in the desert.

Satan is not omnipresent or omniscient. He is organized and takes good notes, but he doesn’t know all things.

All other religion tells us how we can make our way to God. Christianity shows us how God made his way to us.

God’s ultimate intention is to be a Father and to invite us to be in his family.

In our sin, pride and rebellion, we mess it up. But God in his love finds a way to make it right. God comes to us.

The Spirit

If you let the Spirit, the first thing it will give you is joy.

Happiness is because of circumstances whereas joy is in spite of circumstances.

All of us have fear that God wants to turn into faith

Spiritual Leadership is not the ability to know everything that the future holds. It is the willingness to move forward when all we know is God.

Jesus

He can relate to your life. He was human, pimples, pain, colds, sneezes, sniffles and all. He felt. He had emotions. He might have snored. Let him be as human as he really was. He was tempted in every way as we are, just without sin.

Jesus would say “I can save your life”. God came down so that someday we could come back up with him.

All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish.

It’s not trying harder, it’s training more. Belief changes behavior, behavior changes sin.

Father

You were created powerfully.

You are known completely.

Zephaniah 3:17

You are pursued relentlessly.

-Don’t marry that person you think you can live with, marry the person you think you can’t live without –James Dobson-

-You have a father that not only loves you, he likes you.

You are called.

If you don’t like a big church, then you’re gonna hate heaven.

You are loved eternally.

Wild at Heart

An adventure to live, A battle to fight, and a beauty to rescue. 
A man must know he is powerful, he must know he has what it takes. A women must know she is beautiful, she must know she is worth fighting for.

Flesh, world, devil
It is the image of God reflected to you that so enrages he'll; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons. 
Oswald chambers "sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that."
It's not me it's you, intimidation, cutting a deal. 

Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believers world and they promote sanctification. We are not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration. The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers. -Maurice roberts-

Satan will always wound you, but they can be honor wounds. 

Cure for the Common life

You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be. You are the only you God made. 

When you live out of the bag God gave, you discover an uncommon joy.

Your Father is too gracious to assign you to a life of misery.

Rerelish your moments of success and satisfaction. 

If you aren't you, then we don't get you. The world misses out.

You need to be you. You can't be your hero, your parent, or your big brother. All you have to give is what you have been given to give. Concentrate in who you are and what you have. 

At your best, who are you?

When you do the most what you do best, you pop the pride buttons on the vest of God. When do you feel God's pleasure?

If I am me, how can I mess me up? You were made for the part, so speak your lines with confidence.

How you relate to the master of the house colors everything. Dread him and hate your work. Trust him and love it.

Remember, no one else has your talents. No one. God elevates you from commonhood by matching your unique abilities to custom-made assignments.

Don't see yourself as a product of your parents' DNA, but rather a brand new idea from heaven. 

Shadow of the Almighty

We should remember that while knowledge may make a man look big, it is only love that can make him grow to his full stature. For whatever a man may know, he still has a lot to learn, but if he loves God, he is opening his whole life to the spirit of God.

Take care that well-doing does not become weariness. It is after you have done the will of God that you have most need of patience.

I do not consider myself to have "arrived" spiritually... But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with arms made outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal, my reward the honor of being called by God in Christ.

Make a list for prayer. Pray for a fruitful life

Father make me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a mileposts on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. 

However, The Lord is teaching me to say with the psalmist, 'I delight to do Thy will,' instead of the usual, 'Well, I suppose it's the Lord's will so we'll just have to put up with it.' -Jim Elliot-

Remember you are immortal until your work is done.

Little faith will bring a soul to heaven, but much faith will bring heaven to the soul. -spurgeon-

Satan uses noise hurry and crowds. Silence is powerful. 

One of the great blessings of heaven is the appreciation of heaven on earth. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. 

Remember that a shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the things itself and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond. 

Don't put yourself in a position to see how good your resistance is. If temptation comes, get outta there!

God is not frustrating our prayers. He has heard, and in wisdom withheld an unusual work. God withholds blessing only in wisdom, never in spite or aloofness.

Teach me, Lord Jesus, to live simply and love purely, like a child, and to know that You are unchanged in Your attitudes and actions towards me. Give me not to be hungering for the 'strange, rare, and peculiar' when the common, ordinary, and regular --rightly taken-- will suffice to feed and satisfy the soul. Bring struggle when I need it; take away ease at Your pleasure. 

God: As he longs for you to see Him

What comes to our minds when we think about God is one of the most important things about us.

What you think about God shapes your whole relationship with him. In addition, what you believe God thinks about you determines how close you will grow toward him. 

God's love and delight has absolutely nothing to do with my work or my performance. 

Until you know God as he is, you'll never become all that he's created you to be. 

God is not like us. We tend to reduce him to manageable terms. God can Only be known as he reveals himself to us. 

God is not like us. People get tired and weary; God does not. There are things we don't understand; God never even has a question come to his mind. He is all-powerful, he is all-knowing, he is all-wise. All the best in us is a faint impression of what he is. He's not like us.

Instead of worshiping him and knowing him and growing into servants who want to understand his missions and follow him by faith, we carefully select Bible verses out of context that confirm our conclusion that the real goal in life for us is to be happy. Instead of humbly recognizing that God is impossible to tame, we dare to demand that he get busy and keep us comfortable. -Chip Ingram-

Godly vision: amount of energy for God, great thoughts about him, demonstrate boldness for him, level of contentment in God.

God wants to see you move from knowing Him dimly to knowing Him vividly. He longs for distance to be transformed into intimacy. He already knows you intimately; he wants you to know him intimately too.

Goodness, sovereignty, holiness, wisdom, justice, love, and faithfulness

God is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude all moral beings is open, frank and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes total pleasure in the happiness if His people. -A.W. Tozer-

Have you ever thought of God looking at you and your life with all your baggage, your junk, and your ups and downs, and then saying, " I want to be generous to you. I long to give to you just what would make you happy--not because you deserve it, but because there's something about who I am that would bring me infinite joy to express that kind of generosity to you." -chip Ingram-

Although it's true that God's plans do not always work out in the ways we would prefer, it is amazing how often we focus on the relatively few difficult circumstances of our lives and tend to forget his repeated, loving acts of deliverance that occur so regularly.

Repent, rest, risk in goodness

God is sovereign. God is in control. Nothing will enter your life that God does not either decree or allow. And Nothing will ever enter your life that, if you are willing to trust him, he cannot work out for your good. That's what it means to be sovereign. 

When you bow your head to pray--when you're in a jam and you need to ask God something-- are you aware of who you're talking to? The one whom you pray has power over the entire universe, over every single atom, and yet he is infinitely loving and he cares about you. That's who you're talking to. That's why we worship him. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

There is a God who is in control. He is all-knowing, all-wise, infinite in his love. He's the king, and you're his child.

Absolutely refuse to worry -Oswald chambers-

God is doing things that you don't understand, things that are deeper and better and more wonderful than you imagined, but you must believe! Refuse to worry -chip Ingram-

We know nothing like the divine holiness. It's stand apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine A.W. Tozer 

Are you making every effort to live in peace with everyone and to live a holy life?

Until we grasp what it means that God is all-wise, we will never be able to trust and rest in his wise plan for our lives.

If you are not walking in God's wise path, consider the hardships you're experiencing as guardrails. God set them up to steer you back to him.

How to respond to his wisdom: reverence for God, receiving his word, asking for it specifically, trusting God completely. 

God is just. That means all he is and all he does is accomplished with perfect integrity, fairness, righteousness, and impartiality. Justice is not a standard God follows; he is the standard. Though full of goodness, infinite in love, and merciful to the repentant, God's justice demands moral equity and eternal distribution for deeds done in the body. God's justice means no one will receive a "raw deal" in the final analysis. I can trust that he will one day balance the scales. 

The awesome, uncompromising, unrelenting justice of God is completely satisfied by the cross. When we think we can "get right with God" in any other way, we fool ourselves and dangerously underestimate the grotesque nature of rebellion. 

I'm going to ask " child, what did you do with everything I gave you?"

Consciously and deliberately remind yourself that in his timing, God is able to take care of the situation fairly and fully. You can always trust him to do that. 

God's love is his holy disposition toward all that he has created that compels him to express unconditional affection and selective correction to provide the highest quality of existence, both now and forever, for the object of his love. 

Whatever it means to be filled to the brim with goodness and life, that's what God wants for you. He wants that for you now, in this life, and he wants that for you forever. When pleasures will move us toward that kind of life, that's what he gives. When pain moves us toward it, that's what he gives. God stands ready with whatever it takes to provide his children with abundant life. 

1. Gods thoughts, intentions, desires, and plans are always for your good and never for your harm
2. God is kind, open, approachable, frank, and eager to be your friend
3. God emotionally identifies with your pain, joy, hopes, and dreams, and he has chosen to allow your happiness to affect his own. 
4. He takes pleasure in you just for who you are and completely apart from your performance and/or accomplishments
5. God is actively and creatively orchestrating people, circumstances, and events to express his affection and selective correction to provide for your highest good. 

When we really believe that we are loved and accepted, we no longer have to be the best, to compare ourselves to others, to strive to make a good impression, to compete for attention, or to run around looking for love in all the wrong places. 

The more of God's love we give away, the more he supplies. It's the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. 

Obedience isn't a feeling. 

The God of all comfort. 

Hope is our oxygen. 

God reveals his faithfulness when weak, tempted, when we sin, when we utterly fail. 

"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." (Lam 3:21-24)

Upon God's faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness... Only as we have complete assurance that he is faithful, may we live in peace and look forward with assurance to the life to come. A.W. Tozer

Max lucado
Respond to demands with love. People are precious. 

When Jesus saw the people, he saw an opportunity to love and affirm value. When the disciples saw the people, they saw thousands of problems. 

Our Lord faced intense sorrow, immediate threat, immeasurable joy, immense crowds, insensitive interruptions, incredible demands, inept assistance

It does little good to make the trip and miss the journey. 

Every day I have the honor of sitting down with a book that contains the words of the One who created me. 

Notice the remarkable things. 

There is never a time which Jesus is not speaking. Never. There is never a place in which Jesus is not present. Never. There is never a room so dark... A lounge so sensual... An office so sophisticated... That the ever-present, ever-pursuing, relentless tender Friend is not there, tapping gently on the doors of our hearts--waiting to be invited in. 

To reach destination, we have to say no to requests. 
Children have no concept of time.
Children can't envision the reward.

When you doubt, look around. I am closer than you think. 

All I know is that the horse is not in the stable. I am content what I know. I am not perturbed by what I dont. 

When you recognize God as creator, you will admire him. When you recognize his wisdom, you will learn from him. When you discover his strength, you will rely on him. But only when he saves you will you worship him. 

A season of suffering is a small price to pay for a clear view of God. 

Worship is when you're aware that what you've been given is far greater that what you can give. Worship is the awareness where were it not for his touch, you'd still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. Worship is the "thank you" that refuses to be silenced. Worship is the voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer.

Looking in the mirror in the morning is a holy moment. 

God has gifted you with talents. He has done the same to your neighbor. If you concern yourself with your neighbor's talents, you will neglect yours. But if you concern yourself with yours, you could inspire both. 

When God doesn't do what we want, its not easy. Never has been. Never will be. But Faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and he will get us through it. 

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.

Jesus tells us to stand, let's stand. When he says we're forgiven, let's unload the guilt. When he says we're valuable, let's believe him. When he says we're eternal, let's bury our fear. When he says we're provided for, let's stop worrying. When he says, "stand up," let's do it. 

Salvation is God's business. Grace is his idea, his work, and his expense. He offers it to whom he desires, when he desires. Our job in the process is to inform the people, not to screen the people. -max lucado-

If it hurts the child, it hurts the father. So go ahead. Tell God what hurts. Talk to him. He won't turn you away. He won't think it's silly. Does God care about the little things in our lives? You better believe it. If it matters to you, it matters to him. 

There are times in life when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you are asking to receive.

Turn a deaf ear toward those who say you are not smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, or big enough--ignore them. Faith sometimes begins by stuffing your ears with cotton. 

When we see death, we see disaster. When Jesus sees death, he sees deliverance. 

Joseph handled the confusion by obeying. 

We the adopted, can't forget what life was like as orphans. We, the liberated, should revisit the prison. We, the found, can't forget the despair of being lost. Amnesia fosters arrogance. We can't afford to forget. We need to remember. And we need to share our story. There is someone who is like you were. And he or she needs to know what God can do. Your honest portrayal of your past may be the courage for another's future. -Max Lucado-


Gentle thunder
God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn't that the message of the bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God made man. Man rejected God. God won't give up until he wins him back. 

God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; he'll even take away our blessing. If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he will take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours. 
His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you his. His goal is not to get you what you want, but what you need.  And if that takes a jolt or two, then be jolted. Earthly discomfort is a glad swap for heavenly peace. 

Though you hear nothing, he is speaking. Though you see nothing, he is acting. With God there are no accidents. Every incident is intended to bring us closer to him. 

You see, that is the secret of forgiveness. You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you. Only by letting him wash your feet can you have the strength to wash those of another. 

You fill the world with food, but we blame you for hunger. You keep the earth from tilting and the arctics from thawing, but we accuse you of unconcern. You give us blue skies, and we demand rain. You give rain and we demand sun. (As if we knew what was best anyway.)
We give more applause to a brawny ball player than we do to the God who made us. We demand that you finds a parking place when we ask. And if you don't give is what we want, we say you don't exist( as if our opinion matters.)
... Yet you love us. Father, your love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn you, ignore you, disobey you, you will not change. Our evil cannot diminish your love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Out faith does not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it. You don't love us less if we fail. You don't love us more if we succeed. 

The Holy Spirit is not an "it". He is a person. He has knowledge. He has will. He has a mind. He has affections you can lie to him. You can grieve him. He is God within you to help you. He is the Helper. 

God's blessings aren't dispensed according to the riches of his grace, not according to the depth of our faith... God is faithful even when his children are not. 

"Because he delights in me, he saved me"(ps. 18:19). There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. Not because of your decency, or good works it good attitude or good looks. The last thing you should worry about is being a nuisance to God. All you need to concentrate on is doing what he tells you to do. -Max Lucado-

Mary simply said there is no more wine. She brought it to Jesus before anyone. 

Water became wine after they obeyed, not before. 

Identify the problem. Present it to Jesus. Do what he says. 

Some convert the lost. Some encourage the saved. And some keep the movement in step. All are needed. 

God will clip way anything that interferes with the fruit of the spirit. Cling to the vine. Remain in his love.

It's easier to talk about a person than to help a person. It's easier to label than to love.

The old man saw Jesus because he didn't know what he looked like. Most miss him because they think they do. 

Mingle the tears of the sinner with the cross of the savior and the result is joyful escort out of the canyon of guilt. 

God left us detailed instructions about this voyage. His word is our map; the Holy Spirit is our compass. 

Hummingbird. Daily, God's extended aid is misinterpreted as intended hurt. We complain of closed windows, not noticing the huge open doors. 

Radical

When we mold Jesus into how we want him to be, we aren't worshipping Jesus, we are worshipping ourselves.

The cost of discipleship is great. But the cost of nondiscipleship is even greater. 

-For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him. 

The gospel reveals the glory of God. According to God's word, he is the sovereign Creator of all things. He knows all things, sustains all things, and owns all things. He is holy above all. He is righteous in all his ways, just in all his wrath, and loving toward all he has made. 

God has to come to us. We are hopeless unless He frees us. 

Accept him? Do we really think he needs our acceptance? Don't we need him?
Jesus is no longer one to be accepted or invited in but one who is infinitely worthy of immediate and total surrender. 

-That gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart. New desires. New longings. For the first time, we want God. We see our need for him, and love him. We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation. We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God. So we yearn for him. We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him. This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel. 

I don't fight. God does the fighting for me. 

We can so easily deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a crowd for the existence of spiritual life in the community.

The disciples were joined together in constant prayer. They are not busy putting their faith in themselves or relying on themselves. They are pleading for the power of God, and they are confident that they are not going to accomplish anything without his provision. 

He stands ready to allocate his power to all who are radically dependent on him and radically devoted to making much of him. 

Ask for the holy spirit. Be desperate for the Spirit of God in everything we do. Constantly confess our need for the provision of God. 

He commands us to go. 

The message of biblical Christianity is this: " God loves me so that I might make him--his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness-- known among all nations."

We owe Christ to the world.

How are you going to use your influence, your leadership, and your resources in the world around you?

-Jesus has not given us an effortless step-by-step formula for impacting nations for his glory. He has given us people, and he said, "live for them. Love them, serve them, and lead them. Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to me. In the process you will multiply the gospel to the ends of the earth."

Go. A command for us to be gospel-living, gospel speaking people at every moment and in every context where we find ourselves. 

-Baptism is the clear, public, symbolic picture of the new life we have in Christ. As illustrated in baptism, we have died with Christ--died to our sin and died to ourselves-- and we have been raised to life with him. 

-Disciple making involves identifying with a community of believers who show love to one another and share life with one another as we live together for the glory of God. 

-Being a part of a community of faith involves being exposed to the life of Christ in others. So whom can you deliberately, intentionally, and sacrificially show the life of Christ in action?

-When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level. 

Be a reproducer, not a receiver. 

Caring for the poor is one natural overflow and a necessary evidence of the presence of Christ in our hearts. 

-When God tells us to give extravagantly, we can trust him to do the same in our lives. 

What would happen if we stopped asking how much money and effort we could spare and started asking how much it was going to take?

7 truths of people without gospel: all people have knowledge of God, all people reject God, all people are guilty before God, all people are condemned for rejecting God, God has made a way of salvation for the lost. People can not come to God apart from faith in Christ, Christ commands the church to make the gospel know to all peoples. 

God sends servants, his servants preach, people hear, and hearers believe. 

The reality is that if we really become like Jesus, the world will hate us. 

How far we've come when paste the ichthus symbol identified with martyred brothers and sisters. 

-The purpose of our lives transcends the country and culture in which we live. Meaning is found in community, not individualism; joy is found in generosity, not materialism; and truth is found in Christ, not universalism. Ultimately, Jesus is a reward worth risking everything to know, experience, and enjoy. 

Pray through the entire world
Read through the entire Word
Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
Spend your time in another context
Commit your life to multiplying a community.

How will I ever show the gospel to the world if all I send is my money?

If we are going to live in radical obedience to Christ, we will need to show one another how to give liberally, go urgently, and live dangerously. 

The Reason for God by Tim Keller

People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. 
Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself. Such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt. 

Just because you can't see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. 

Though Christianity does not provide the reason for every single experience of pain, it provides deep resources for actually facing suffering with hope and courage rather than bitterness and despair. 

We cannot fathom what it would be like to lose the infinite love of the Father that Jesus had from all of eternity. Jesus' sufferings must have been eternally unbearable. 

God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself. 

Resurrection means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater. 

They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. -C.S. Lewis

Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities. 

Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn't we be seeking to discover it and discipling ourselves to live according to it?

One of the principles of love is that you have to lose independence to attain greater intimacy. 

For a love relationship to be healthy there must be a mutual loss of independence. It can't just be one way. Both sides must say to the other "I will adjust to you. I will change for you. I'll serve you even though it means a sacrifice for me."

God adjusted to us through Christ. 

Once you realize how Jesus changed for you and gave himself for you, you aren't afraid of giving up your freedom and therefore finding your freedom in him. 

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. 

If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us. 

Instead of trying to shape our desires to fit reality, we now seek to control and shape reality to fit our desires. Ancient wisdom looks at an anxious person and prescribes spiritual character change. Modernity talks instead about stress management techniques. 

We would expect that the transcultural truth of God would offend every human culture at some point, because human cultures are ever changing and imperfect. 

Think of how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. Gods wrath is not a cranky explosion but his settled opposition to the cancer which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being. -Becky Pippert-

If I don't believe in a God who will eventually put all things right, I WILL take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation. 

Sin separates us from the presence of God, Which is the source of all joy and indeed all love, wisdom or good things of any sort. Hell is His absence. 

It is not a question of God "sending us" to Hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE He'll unless it is nipped in the bud. -CS Lewis

Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom. -C.S. Lewis-

We must not make settled, final decisions about anyone's spiritual state or fate. 

Jesus' miracles lead not simply to cognitive belief, but to worship, to awe and wonder. 

We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of natural order. The bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. 

If you don't trust the bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God?

If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God that can contradict you? You won't! You'll have a Stepford God! A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction. Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have often a hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination. 

Human beings were made not only to believe in God in some general way, but to love him supremely, center their lives on him above anything else, and build their very identities on him. Anything other than this is sin. 

Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. Without God, our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it never is--it can desert you in a moment. Only if your identity is built on God and his love can you have a self that can venture anything, face anything. 

Even the most successful careers and families cannot give the significance, security and affirmation that the author of glory and love can. 

Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes "Lord of your life," whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally. 

Sin and evil are self-centeredness and pride that lead to oppression against others, but there are two forms of this. One form is being very bad and breaking all the rules, and the other form is being very good and keeping all the rules and becoming self-righteous. 

The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees--men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do a lot more spiritual damage. 

I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This realization leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. 

The Christians identity is not based on the need to be perceived as a good person, but on God's valuing of you in Christ. 

If I am a sinner saved by sheer grace, then there is nothing he cannot ask of me.

It requires very little of you to love a person who is pulled together and happy. 

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead. 

Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitation that comes from being in a committed relationship, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things. 

Jonathan Edwards, in reflecting on the interior life of the triune God, concluded that God is infinitely happy. Within God is a community of persons pouring glorifying, joyful love into one another. 

He has infinite happiness not through self-centerdness, but through self-giving, other-centered love. And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have the same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves. 

George Marsden: God's joy and happiness and delight in divine perfections is expressed externally by communicating that happiness and delight to created beings. ... The universe is an explosion if God's glory. Perfect goodness, beauty, and love radiate from God and draw creatures to ever increasingly share in the Godhead's joy and delight.  

If we will center our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but just for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in. 

If we comply with God's directions only when it fits in with our goals and interests, then we are trying to get God to orbit around us. 

Nothing makes us more miserable than self-absorption, the endless, unsmiling concentration on our needs, wants, treatment, ego, and record. 

Why did Jesus die for us? What was Jesus getting out of it? Remember, he already had a community of joy, glory, and love. He didn't need us. And that means that when he came into the world and died on the cross to deal with our sins, he was serving us. 

We have to recognize that virtually all of us begin our journey toward God because we want something from him. However, we must come to grips with the fact that we owe him our entire lives just because of what he has done for us already. 

Fearless

-Christ-followers contract malaria, bury children, and battle addiction, and, as a result, face fears. It's not the absence of storms that sets us apart. It's whom we discover in the storm: an unstirred Christ. 

-Fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness. We begin to wonder if love lives in heaven. Fear unleashes a swarm of doubts, anger-stirring doubts. And it turns us into control freaks. 
We subject ourselves to a position of fear, allowing anxiety to dominate and define our lives. Joy-sapping worries. Day-numbing dread. Repeated bouts of insecurity that petrify and paralyze us. Hysteria is not from God. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear" (2 Tim. 1:7)

Fear, mismanaged, leads to sin. Sin leads to hiding. Since we've all sinned, we all hide, not in bushes, but in eighty hour work weeks, temper tantrums, and religious busyness. We avoid contact with God. 

If you haven't accepted God's forgiveness, you are doomed to fear.

Anxiety makes tyrants out of us. 

How to stop worry: 
1. Pray, first.
2. Easy now. Slow down. 
3. Act on it. If a problem arises, deal with it now. 
4. Compile a worry list. How many of them turned into reality? 
5. Evaluate your worry categories. 
6. Focus on today. God meets needs daily. Not weekly or annually. 
7. Unleash a worry army. Share feelings with a few loved ones. Less worry on your part means more happiness on theirs. 
8. Let God be enough. Matt 6:32-33

-Seek first the kingdom of wealth, and you'll worry over every dollar. Seek first the kingdom of health, and you'll sweat every blemish and bump. Seek first the kingdom of popularity, and you'll relive every conflict. Seek first the kingdom of safety, and you'll jump at every crack of the twig. But seek first his kingdom, and you will find it. On that, we can depend and never worry. 

Storms are not an option, but fear is. 

For fear of the worst, people never enjoy life at it's best. 

-Jesus faced his ultimate fear with honest prayer. It was brief, straightforward, and trusting. Low on slick and high on authentic. Less a silver-tongued saint in the sanctuary; more a frightened child in a father's lap. 

-What can I fear? Will it be death? But you know the Christ is my life, and that I shall gain by death. Will it be exile? But the earth and all it's fullness is the Lord's. Will it be the loss of wealth? But we have brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out. Thus all the terrors in the world are contemptible in my eyes; and I smile at all it's good things. Poverty I do not fear; riches I do not sigh for. Death I do not shrink from." -Chrysostom-

Do not think for a moment that you had anything to do with your accumulation. Scripture makes one thing clear. Your stocks, cash, and 401 (k)? They are not yours. 

God owns everything and gives us all things to enjoy. He is a good shepherd to us, his little flock. Trust Him, not stuff. Move from the fear of scarcity to the comfort of provision. Less hoarding, more sharing. "Do good... Be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share." 

And, most of all, replace fear of the coming winter with faith in the Living God. After all it's just Monopoly money. It all goes back in the box when the game is over. 

Death: "a new adventure in existence." No need to dread it or ignore it. Because of Christ, you can face it. 

Heaven's message for you is clear: when everything else changes, God's presence never does. You journey in the company of the Holy Spirit, who "will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you" (John 14:26 NLT).

Who can find a place in life's puzzle for the deformity of a child or the enormity of an earthquake's devastation? Do such moments serve a purpose? They do if we see them from an eternal perspective. What makes no sense in this life will make perfect sense in the next. 

Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries... When we mix, mingle, confess, and pray, Christ speaks. 

When Christ is great, our fears are not. As awe of Jesus expands, fears of life diminish. A big God translates I to big courage. A package-able, portable God might fit well in a purse or on a shelf, but he does nothing for your fears. 

----------The applause of heaven----------

Jesus embodied a stubborn joy. A joy that refused to bend in the winds of hard times. A joy that held it's ground against pain. A joy whose roots extended deep into the bedrock of eternity. He was joyful when he was poor. He was joyful when he was abandoned. He was joyful when he was betrayed. 

Sacred delight is having God as your pinch-hitter, your lawyer, your dad, your biggest fan, and your best friend. God on your side, in your heart, out in front and protecting your back. It's hope where you least expected it: a flower in life's sidewalk. It is sacred because only God can granted. It is a delight because it thrills. Since it is sacred, it cannot be stolen. And since it's delightful, it can't be predicted. 

First, we recognize we are in need (we're poor in spirit). Next we repent of our self-sufficiency (we mourn). We quit calling the shots and surrender control to God (we're meek). So grateful are we for his presence that we yearn for more of him (we hunger and thirst). As we grow closer to him, we become more like him. We forgive others (we're merciful). We change our outlook (we're pure in hare). We love others (we're peacemakers). We endure injustice (we're persecuted). 

What you want (heaven) costs far more than what you can pay. You don't need a system, you need a Savior. You don't need a resume, you need a Redeemer. For "what is impossible with men is possible with God."

God does not save us because of what we've done. Only a puny god could be bought with tithes. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices. Only a heartless god could sell salvation to the highest bidders. And only a great God does for His children what they can't so for themselves. 

The first step to joy is a plea for help. Those who taste God's presence have declared spiritual bankruptcy and are aware of their spiritual crisis. They have long since stopped demanding justice; they are pleading for mercy. They don't brag; they beg. 

As long as Jesus is one of many options, he is no option as long as you can carry your burdens alone, you don't need a burden bearer. As long as your situation brings you no grief, you will receive no comfort. And as long as you can take him or leave him, you might as well leave him, because he won't be taken half heartfelt.  

Deliriously joyful are the ones who believe that if God has used sticks (Moses staff), rocks (David to kill goliath) and spit (Jesus to heal blind man) to do his will, then he can use us. 

Blessed are the pure in heart. The state of your heart dictates whether you harbor a grudge or give grace, seek self-pity or seek Christ, drink human misery or taste God's mercy. 

Blessed are the meek. The meek are those who are willing to be used by God. Amazed that God would save them, they are just as surprised that God would use them. They don't tell the inductors how to conduct; they're just thrilled to be a part of the concert. 

Want to see a miracle? Plant a word of love heartdeep in a person's life. Nurture it with a smile and a prayer, and watch what happens. 

God has never turned away the questions of a sincere searcher. 

You are valuable because of your maker, not your use. 

We don't work in order to go to heaven; we work because we are going to heaven. Arrogance and fear are replaced with gratitude and joy.

Forgotten God

-The Lord challenges us to suffer persecutions and to confess him. He wants those who belong to him to be brave and fearless. He himself knows how weakness of the flesh is over one by courage of the spirit... A Christian is fearless. -Tertullian-

-I think the fear of God failing us leads us to "cover for God." This means we ask for less, expect less, and are satisfied with less because we are afraid to ask or expect more. We even convince ourselves that we don't want more--that we have all the "God" we need or could want.
-Do you trust God that when He says no or "not in this way" to you, you still believe He is good and doing what is best?
-You need to stake your faith in God alone, not the gifts (good as they may be) that He gives. 
-The Spirit will lead you to the way of the cross, as He led Jesus to the cross, and that is definitely not a safe or pretty or comfortable place to be. The Holy Spirt of God will mold you into the person you were made to be. This often incredibly painful process strips off our selfishness, pride, and fear. 
-When we allow other's perceptions of us (or even our perceptions of their perceptions!) to control how we live, we are enslaved.
-Let the very fact that you cannot know Him fully lead you to praise Him for His infiniteness and grandeur.
-The Holy Spirit is a person. He is God. He is eternal and holy. He has his own mind and prays for us. He has emotions He has his own desires and will. He is omnipotent omnipresent and omniscient.
-Miracles came when they were unexpected, when people were faithful and focused on serving and loving others. If we expect God to perform certain miracles or to give us a particular experience, it will be tempting to manipulate or even fake experiences of the supernatural. The point in all this is simply calling us to pursue Christ and grow in our obedience to Him, rather than pursuing the supernatural for it's own sake.
Who do you want for me to love for you today?
-Though I do not believe God gives us His Spirit solely for our personal benefit, it is undeniable that one of the greatest aspects of being in a relationship with the Holy Spirit is the intimacy, security, and encouragement He brings us. It is then we can serve God as a beloved child rather than a stressed-out, guilt-ridden slave.
-It's breathtaking to picture almighty God saying "I know Jeremy Eaton. He's my son. I love him!" Are you confident this is what God would say about you? Do you know God or just know about Him? Are you acquaintances or intimate friends?
-The Holy Spirit assures us that we are in right standing with and loved by God. He guarantees believers of the gift of new life in Christ. He assures us that we have nothing to fear because we are His children and He is powerful. He tells us that we are accepted, fully and unconditionally. He reminds us of the glory that is coming when God's kingdom is fully realized.
-We are scared to make mistakes, so we fret over figuring out "God's will for my life". We wonder what living according to His will would actually look and feel like, and we are scared to find out. We forget that we were never promised a twenty year plan of action: instead, God promises multiple times in scripture never to leave or forsake us.
It's obvious when someone is not walking in the spirit (at least not consistently). What you see and experience from such a person is usually along the lines of rage, selfishness, dissension, bitterness, and envy. However, when a person is habitually and actively submitted to the Spirit, what comes out of his or her life is the fruit of the Spirit.
 -But God is not a coercive God. And though He desires for His children to know peace and love and to have wisdom, I have noticed that often He waits for us to ask. He desires to do more than "help out" a bit. He wants to completely transform us.
 -But look over the fruits of the spirit and ask yourself if you powers each to a supernatural degree. Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know? Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends? More peace than buddhists? More joy than atheists? If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn't you expect to be different from everyone else?
 -God delights to show up when His children call on His name and when they are trusting fully in Him to come through, whether that is in relationships, in battling sin, in strength to make sacrifices, or in endurance to be faithful in daily life. Are you living this way? Or are you surviving only by your own strength, by your own wits?
 -The church is intended to be a beautiful place of community. A place where wealth is shared and when one suffers, everyone suffers. A place where on rejoices, everyone rejoices. A place where everyone experiences real love and acceptance in the midst of great honesty about our brokenness.

 

Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen

-We are the beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us.

-I know that the fact that I am always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth, tells me that I have already been given a taste of God, of Love, and of Truth.

-Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovednessbecomeenfleshed in everything we think, say, or do.

Taken blessed broken given

Being taken or chosen by God is inclusive not exclusive.

We are God's chosen ones, even if the world does not choose us.

-Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to say to yourself: "These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace."

Second, you have to keep looking for people and places where your truth is spoken and where you are reminded of your deepest identity as the chosen one.

Third, you have to celebrate your chosenness constantly. Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are not an "accident," but a divine choice.

-When we claim and constantly reclaim the truth of being the beloved ones, we soon discover within ourselves a deep desire to reveal to others their own belovedness. Instead of making us feel that we are better, more precious or valuable than others, our awareness of being beloved opens our eyes to the Belovedness of others. When we keep claiming the light we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.

-As the beloved child of God, you are blessed. Good words are being spoken to you and about you -- words that tell the truth. The curses -- noisy, boisterous, loud-mouthed as they may be -- do not tell the truth. They are lies; easy to believe, but lies nevertheless.

-The problem of modern living is that we are too busy to notice that we are being blessed.

-When everything about us overstimulates and overextends our senses and when what is offered to us for the fulfillment of our deeper needs generally has about it a slightly seductive character, it is no wonder that we are plagued by crazy fantasies, wild dreams, and disturbing feelings and thoughts. It is where we are most needy and vulnerable that we most experience our brokenness.

The first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it.

I never realized that broken glass could shine so brightly.

-Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others.

Love multiples.

-As those who are beloved by God, we are called to live our lives with a deep inner joy and peace. It is the life of the Beloved, lived in a world constantly trying to convince us that the burden is on us to prove that we are worthy of being loved. -Nouwen-

The great struggle facing you is not to leave the world, to reject your ambitions and aspirations, or to despise money, prestige or success, but to claim your spiritual truth and to live in the world as someone who doesn't belong to it.

Demons divide. The spirit unites.

Eugene Peterson

-We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest.

-Disciple means we are people who spend our lives apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ. We are in a growing-learning relationship, always. A disciple is a learner, not academically, but at the worksite of a craftsman. We do not acquire information about God academically, but by skills in faith.

-All the water in all the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: "God guards you from every evil." None of the trouble you encounter has any power to get between you and God, dilute his grace in you, or divert his will for you.

-"A Christian," wrote Augustine, "should be an alleluia from head to foot." That is the reality that is the truth of our lives. God made us, redeems us, provides for us. The natural, honest, healthy, logical response to that is praise to God.

-There is great emphasis on the fact that Christians worship because they want to, not because they are forced to. But it should not be said that we worship because we Feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshiped only when we felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. The bible wastes very little time on the way we feel.

-We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in a relationship with God is nurtured.

-Christians are not fatigued outcasts who carry righteousness as a burden in a world where the wicked flourish; Christians are people who sing "Oh, blessed be God!... He didn't abandon us defenseless." Christians are not fussy moralists who cluck their tongues over a world going to Hell; Christians are people who praise God who is on our side.

I refuse to believe in my depressions; I choose to believe in God.

-One of the delightful discoveries along the way of Christian discipleship is how much enjoyment there is, how much laughter you hear, how much sheer fun you find.

-Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. But there is something we can do. We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God an not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not our own egos which greedily grab.

-The joy that develops in the Christian way of discipleship is an overflow of spirits that comes from feeling good not about yourself but about God. We find that his ways are dependable, his promises sure. This joy is not dependent on our good luck in escaping hardship. It is not dependent on our good health and avoidance of pain. Christian joy is actual in the midst of pain, suffering, loneliness and misfortune.

-As Christians do the jobs and tasks assigned to them in what the world calls work, we learn to pay attention to and practice what God is doing in love and justice, in helping and healing, in liberating and cheering.

Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. -G. K. Chesterton-

-The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption. The structure of this world was created by God so we can live in it easily and happily as his children. In the course of Christian discipleship we discover that without Christ we were doing it the hard way and that with Christ we are doing it the easy way. It is not christians who have it hard, but non-Christians.

"All you who fear God, how blessed you are!" psalm 128

-Everyone wants to be happy, to be blessed, but too many people are willfully refusing to pay attention to the One who wills our happiness and is ignorantly supposing that the Christian way is a harder way to get what they want than doing it on their own. They are wrong. God's ways and God's presences are where we experience the happiness that lasts.

-Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God's faithfulness. We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous, because God sticks with us.

-Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God's righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God's will and purposes; making a map of God's faithfulness, not charting the rise and fall our our enthusiasms.

-The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His. -George MacDonald-

-Those who work well in the depths of life more easily understand the heights, for indeed in their true nature they are one in the same. GM

-We do not cling to God out of fear and the panic of insecurity; we come to him freely in faith and love. Our Lord gave us the picture of the child as a model for Christian faith not becuase of a child's helplessness but because of the child's willingness to be led, to be taught, to be blessed.

-God does not reduce us to a set of Pavlovian reflexes so that we mindlessly worship and pray and obey on signal; he establishes us with a dignity in which we are free to receive his word, his gifts, his grace.

-We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church than we can be a person and not be in a family.

-Once saved by grace, we are adopted into a family. But those in this family are not always nice people. They do not stop being sinners the moment they begin believing in Christ. As we come to declare our love for God, we must face the unlovely and lovely fellow sinners whom God loves and commands us to love.

-What determines our community is what a man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. What Christ has done is anoint us with His Spirit. We are set apart for service to one another. We mediate to one another the mysteries of God. We are priests who speak God's word and share Christ's sacrifice.

-A community of faith flourishes when we view each other in expectancy, wondering what God will do today in this person or that one. When we are in a community with those Christ loves and redeems, we are constantly finding out new things about them. They are new persons each morning, endless in their possibilities. We explore the fascinating depths of their friendship,share the secrets of their quest. It is impossible to be bored in such a community, impossible to feel alienated among such people.

In a pit with a lion on a snowy day

-God is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities. But those God-given opportunities often come disguised as man-eating lions.

-Do the best you can with what you have where you are. In essence, success is making the most of every opportunity. Spiritual maturity is seeing and seizing God-ordained opportunities. The greatest regrets I life are missed opportunities.

-God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great but because nothing is to small for Him either.

To the infinite all finites are equal. There is no big or small, easy or difficult, possible or impossible. When it comes to God, there are no degrees of difficulty. There are no odds when it comes to God. All bets are off.

-Defy the odds and make your Father proud.

-Don't accumulate possessions. Accumulate experiences.

-Half of spiritual growth is learning what we don't know. The other half is unlearning what we do know. And it is the failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keeps us from becoming who God wants us to be.

-The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It's failure. The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It's rejection. You got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you're afraid of. That's how you build up immunity.

-Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain.

If God had granted all the silly prayers I've made in my life, where would I be now? Lewis

-Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances.

-Maybe prayer is less about changing our circumstances than it is changing our perspective. Most of our problems aren't the byproduct of our circumstances but of our perspective on our circumstances. Maybe we need to quit praying safe prayers.

-Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God.

-I think there are basically two types of people in the world: complainers and worshipers. And there ain't much circumstantial difference between the two. Complainers always find something to complain about. Worshipers always find something to praise God about. They simply have different default settings.

-God is in the business of recycling our pain and using it for someone else's gain.

Faith embraces uncertainty.

-Maybe faith has less to do with gaining knowledge and more to do with causing wonder. Maybe a relationship with God doesn't simplify our lives. Maybe it complicates our lives in ways that they should be complicated.

Good complications vs bad complications

-The longer I live, the more I think that spiritual maturity is less about figuring out the future and more about a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Spirit of God. I'm not saying we shouldn't make plans. But you might want to use a pencil with an eraser and have a shredder handy.

-Embrace relational uncertainty. It's called romance. Embrace spiritual uncertainty. It's called mystery. Embrace occupational uncertainty. It's called destiny. Embrace emotional uncertainty. It's called joy. Embrace intellectual uncertainty. It's called revelation.

-Stop spending all your energy making plans for God and start seeking God.

-Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do." Johann Wolfgang Von Geothe

We need to stop criticizing culture and start creating it. We need to make better movies and better music. We need for write better books. We need to start better schools and better businesses. Stop cursing the darkness and start lighting some candles!

-Prayer is an opportunity incubator.

Far too many people think of righteousness in terms of actual costs instead of opportunity costs. We mistakenly think of righteousness as doing nothing wrong when, in fact, righteousness is doing something right.

Be weird.

Be like a child

Look foolish.

Knowing God by J.I. Packer

He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this globe.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it is disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to bumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.

-If we pursue theological knowledge for it's own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians.

-We have some idea what prayer is, but what is meditation? Meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works, ways, purposes, and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.

-When people know God, losses and "crosses" cease to matter to them; what they have gained simply banishes these things from their minds.

-Those who know God have great energy for God, have great thoughts of God, show great boldness for God, and have great contentment in God.

-People who know their God are before anything else people who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God's glory come to expression is in their prayers.

-We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts.

-Knowing God is listening to the word and recording it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, noting God's nature and character by his word and works, accepting his invitations and doing what he commands, and recognizing and rejoicing in the love he has shown you through divine fellowship.

-The emotional side of knowing God is often played down these days for fear of encouraging a maudlin self-absorption. It is true that there is nothing more irreligious than self-absorbed religion, and that it is constantly needful to stress that God does not exist for our comfort or happiness or satisfaction, or to provide us with "religious experiences," as if these were the most interesting and important things in life.

-We must not lose sight of the fact that knowing God is an emotional relationship, as well as an intellectual and volitional one, and could not indeed be a deep relation between persons were it not so. The believer is, and must be, emotionally involved in the victories and vicissitudes of God's cause in the world.

-Without the Holy Spirit, there would not be a Christian in the world.

-We should remember that God does not change. We are in a relationship with the same Being as the apostles, Moses, Noah, David, and so on.

-God is personal but He is not a person the same sort as us who are weak, inadequate, ineffective, and a little pathetic. He is eternal, infinite in all his qualities and almighty!

-How may we form a right idea of God's greatness? The Bible teaches us two steps that we must take. The first is to remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small. The second is to compare him with powers and forces which we regard as great.

-I can hide my heart, and my past, and my future plans, from those around me, but I cannot hide anything from God. I can talk in a way that deceives my fellow creatures to what I really am, but nothing I say or do can deceive God. He sees through all my reserve and pretense; he knows means I really am, better indeed than I know myself.

-Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality if his limitless wisdom and power.

-God does not abandon us. It is as false as it is irreverent to accuse God of forgetting, overlooking or losing interest in the state and needs of his own people.

-God is infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom.

-God's wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable. Not even Christians has he promised a trouble-free life; rather the reverse. He has other ends in view for life in this world than simply to make it easy for everyone.

-We should not be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly.

-We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs. We ought not to hesitate to trust his wisdom, even when he leaves us in the dark.

-"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." Not till we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God's holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.

Wisdom: fear God and keep his commandments; trust and obey him, reverence him, worship him, be humble before him; do good; remember that God will some day take account of you; present pleasures are God's good gifts. Live in the present and enjoy it thoroughly.

He made us with the same intention that he and we might walk together forever in a live relationship.

-Even when we cannot see the why and the wherefore of God's dealings, we know that there is love in and behind them, and so we can rejoice always even when humanly speaking, things are going wrong. We know that the true story of our life, when known, will probe to be "mercy from first to last"-- and we are content.

If you are lonely when you are alone, you're in bad company.

-Gratitude will move anyone who has truly received grace to do as God requires, and daily to cry out His praises.

-Speak to many people of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weakness and folly and sin, and their faces light up; you are at their wavelength a once. But speak to them of God as Judge and they frown and shake their heads. Their minds recoil from such an idea. But there are few things stressed more strongly in the bible than the reality of God's work as Judge.

To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the God's of greed, pride, sex and self-will, the church mumbles on about God's kindness but says virtually nothing about his judgement and wrath.

The bible labors the point that just as God is good to those who trust him, so he is terrible to those who do not.

Every meal, every pleasure, every possession, every bit of sun, every night's sleep, every moment of health and safety, everything else that sustains and enriches life, is a divine gift.

Behind every display of divine goodness stands a threat of severity in judgement if that goodness is scorned. If we do not let it draw us to God in gratitude and responsive love, we have only ourselves to blame when God turns against us.

God's goodness is meant to lead to repentance.

Those who decline to respond to God's goodness by repentance, and faith, and trust and submission to his will cannot wonder or complain if sooner or later the tokens of his goodness are withdrawn.

Appreciate his goodness to you. Appreciate his patience with you. Appreciate his discipling of you.

The wrath of God is as personal and as potent as his love; and just as the blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus was the direct manifesting of his Father's love toward us, so it was the direct averting of his Father's wrath against us.

It not about me

-God does not exist to make a big deal out of us. We exist to make a big deal out of him. It not about you. It's not about me. It's all about Him.

-Aren't we all born with a default drive set on selfishness? 'I want a spouse who makes me happy and coworkers who always ask my opinion. I want weather that suits me and traffic that helps me and a government that serves me. It is all about me'. We thought self-celebration would make us happy.

-If you think it's all about you, and I think it's all about me, we have no hope for a melody.

-Why does the earth spin? For Him. Why do you have talents and abilities? For Him. Why do you have money or poverty? For Him.Strength or struggles?For Him. Everything and everyone exists to reveal His glory. Including you.

-We find humility, not by seeking humility itself, but by seeking God Himself. God's holiness silences human boasting.

-Reduce the human job description down to one phrase, and this is it: reflect God's glory.

-I believe Satan trains battalions of demons to whisper one question in our ears: "What are people thinking of you?"

-God doesn't need you and me to do his work. We are expedient messengers, ambassadors by his kindness, not by our cleverness.

Legalists don't dismiss Christ. They trust in Christ a lot. But they don't trust in Christ alone.

-Your salvation showcases God's mercy. It makes nothing of your effort but everything of His.

-Your pain has a purpose. Your problems, struggles, heartaches, and hassles cooperate toward one end--the glory of God. Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God's glory?

May we have no higher goal than to see someone think more highly of our Father, Our king.

Tozer/Spurgeon

-For Millions of Christians, God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle.

-Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things... A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it.

-God Himself is here waiting our response to His presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon it's reality.

Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there.

-A happy moment is is when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures, and that which had been only a sound, or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear friend.

-The bible will never be a living book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe. We read the bible as a record of what God said when He was for a brief time in a speaking mood. With notions like that in our heads how can we believe? God is not silent and has never been silent, but is constantly speaking. The bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous speech.

-We may use the past tense properly to indicate that at a certain time a certain word of God was spoken, but a word of God once spoken continues to be spoken. The Word endures forever.

-Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.

Like the eye which sees everything in front of of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Obiect upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding.

-The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him.

-Private prayer should be practiced by every Christian. Long periods of bible meditation will purify our gaze and direct it; church attendance will enlarge our outlook and increase our love for others. Service and work and activity--all are good and should be engaged in by every Christian. But at the bottom of all these things, giving meaning to them, will be the inward habit of beholding God.

-Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard of which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.

-The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God over all, we step out of the world's parade. We shall find ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the world, and increasingly so as we make progress in the holy way.

-Millions call themselves by His name and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who or what is ABOVE, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, men, personal ambition, self, or human love and God will take second place every time. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life.

-Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continuously, "Be thou exalted," and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity.

-Anyone who might feel reluctant to surrender his will to the will of another should remember Jesus's words, "Whosoever sins is a servant of sin". We must of necessity be a servant to someone, either God or sin. The man who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and gentle Master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

-If I understand this correctly, Christ taught the alarming doctrine that the desire for honor among men makes belief impossible (John 5:44).

-Jesus never uttered opinions.

-The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.

-The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is, in the sight of God, more important than angels. In himself,nothing;in God, everything.

-Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take it's place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.

-One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas-- the sacred and the secular.

We typically think that people don't want to talk with us about eternity and Jesus, but that's just another lie from the devil.

God burdens our hearts to reach the lost, but we must get out their and start practicing those conversations.

Do you realize that when you get rejected in the name of Jesus, God has rewards waiting for you in Heaven that will make any earthly reward seem like chump change? Luke 6:22-23

I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for. -Spurgeon-

To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every one you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth. -Spurgeon-

It doesn't matter whether people like us. Jesus was perfect, loved everyone perfectly, and still got nailed to a cross!

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with or arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go unwarned or unprayed for." -spurgeon-

If we had to preach to thousands year after year, and never rescued but one soul, that one soul would be full reward for all our labor, for a soul is of countless price. -spurgeon-

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

-People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.

Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself. Such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt.

Just because you can't see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one.

Though Christianity does not provide the reason for every single experience of pain, it provides deep resources for actually facing suffering with hope and courage rather than bitterness and despair.

We cannot fathom what it would be like to lose the infinite love of the Father that Jesus had from all of eternity. Jesus' sufferings must have been eternally unbearable.

God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.

Resurrection means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.

-They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. -C.S. Lewis

Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities.

Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn't we be seeking to discover it and discipling ourselves to live according to it?

One of the principles of love is that you have to lose independence to attain greater intimacy.

For a love relationship to be healthy there must be a mutual loss of independence. It can't just be one way. Both sides must say to the other "I will adjust to you. I will change for you. I'll serve you even though it means a sacrifice for me."

God adjusted to us through Christ.

Once you realize how Jesus changed for you and gave himself for you, you aren't afraid of giving up your freedom and therefore finding your freedom in him.

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.

If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.

Instead of trying to shape our desires to fit reality, we now seek to control and shape reality to fit our desires. Ancient wisdom looks at an anxious person and prescribes spiritual character change. Modernity talks instead about stress management techniques.

We would expect that the transcultural truth of God would offend every human culture at some point, because human cultures are ever changing and imperfect.

-Think of how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. Gods wrath is not a cranky explosion but his settled opposition to the cancer which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being. -Becky Pippert-

If I don't believe in a God who will eventually put all things right, I WILL take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation.

Sin separates us from the presence of God, Which is the source of all joy and indeed all love, wisdom or good things of any sort. Hell is His absence.

It is not a question of God "sending us" to Hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE He'll unless it is nipped in the bud. -CS Lewis

Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom. Lewis

We must not make settled, final decisions about anyone's spiritual state or fate.

Jesus' miracles lead not simply to cognitive belief, but to worship, to awe and wonder.

-We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of natural order. The bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken.

-If you don't trust the bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God?

-If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God that can contradict you? You won't! You'll have a Stepford God! A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction. Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have often a hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.

-Human beings were made not only to believe in God in some general way, but to love him supremely, center their lives on him above anything else, and build their very identities on him. Anything other than this is sin.

-Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. Without God, our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it never is--it can desert you in a moment. Only if your identity is built on God and his love can you have a self that can venture anything, face anything.

-Even the most successful careers and families cannot give the significance, security and affirmation that the author of glory and love can.

-Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes "Lord of your life," whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally.

Sin and evil are self-centeredness and pride that lead to oppression against others, but there are two forms of this. One form is being very bad and breaking all the rules, and the other form is being very good and keeping all the rules and becoming self-righteous.

The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees--men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do a lot more spiritual damage.

-I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This realization leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone.

The Christians identity is not based on the need to be perceived as a good person, but on God's valuing of you in Christ.

If I am a sinner saved by sheer grace, then there is nothing he cannot ask of me.

-It requires very little of you to love a person who is pulled together and happy.

-If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.

Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitation that comes from being in a committed relationship, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things.

Jonathan Edwards, in reflecting on the interior life of the triune God, concluded that God is infinitely happy. Within God is a community of persons pouring glorifying, joyful love into one another.

He has infinite happiness not through self-centerdness, but through self-giving, other-centered love. And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have the same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves.

-George Marsden: God's joy and happiness and delight in divine perfections is expressed externally by communicating that happiness and delight to created beings. ... The universe is an explosion if God's glory. Perfect goodness, beauty, and love radiate from God and draw creatures to ever increasingly share in the Godhead's joy and delight.

-If we will center our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but just for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in.

-If we comply with God's directions only when it fits in with our goals and interests, then we are trying to get God to orbit around us.

-Nothing makes us more miserable than self-absorption, the endless, unsmiling concentration on our needs, wants, treatment, ego, and record.

-Why did Jesus die for us? What was Jesus getting out of it? Remember, he already had a community of joy, glory, and love. He didn't need us. And that means that when he came into the world and died on the cross to deal with our sins, he was serving us.

We have to recognize that virtually all of us begin our journey toward God because we want something from him. However, we must come to grips with the fact that we owe him our entire lives just because of what he has done for us already.

God is the great giver. The great provider.The fount of every blessing.Absolutely generous and utterly dependable. The resounding and recurring message of Scripture is clear: God owns it all. God shares it all. Trust him, not stuff!

Prodigal God

-Careful obedience to God's law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God. Sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge.

-People who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons.... Their insecurity shows itself in pride-- a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness-- and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. -Richard Lovelace-

-Are you lacking in a assurance of the fathers love? As long as you are trying to earn your slavering by controlling God through goodness, you will never be sure you have been good enough for him. You simply aren't sure God loves and delights in you. Every time something goes wrong in your life or a prayer goes unanswered, you wonder if it's because you aren't light right in this or that area. Criticism from others doesn't just hurt your feelings, it devastates you. You will feel an irresolvable guilt. When you do something wrong, your conscious with torment you, event after you've repented. You have a dry prayer life. though diligent, there is no wonder awe, intimacy or delight in your conversation with God.

The main goal of prayer is not to control your environment, but to delve into an intimate relationship with a God who loves you.

To truly become Christians we must repent of not only the bad things we have done, but also the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too.

-Our pleasure and our duty,

Though opposite before,

Since we have seen his beauty,

Are joined to part no more.

John Newton

If I was saved by my good works--then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a tax payer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace--at God's infinite cost--then there's nothing he cannot ask of me.

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

-The great part of God's work in the world may go unnoticed; much of God's saving activity in our history could remain completely unknown. That is a mystery difficult to grasp in an age that attaches so much importance to publicity. We tend to think that the more people know and talk about something, the more important it must be.

-Faith is not the belief that something may or may not exist, but trusting in God. The first is a matter of the head, the second the heart. The first can leave us unchanged. The secondly intrinsically brings change.

-The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love. -Julian of Norwich-

-The fact that our view of God shapes our lives to a great extent may be one of the reasons Scripture ascribes such importance to seeking to know him.

-We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly.

Burkhardt: I fear for the lawyer whose only life is corporate tax, the business exec whose single responsibility is to his stockholders, the athlete who'd puts all his eggs in an 18 inch basket, the theologian who thinks the world can be saved by theology... A closed mind kills marriages and human relations; it deadens feelings and sensitivities; it makes for a church that lives in a thousand tunnels, with no communication and no exit.

The deeper we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the poorer we become--the more we realize that everything in life is a gift. The tenor of our lives becomes one of humble and joyful thanksgiving.

In conversation, the disciple who is truly poor is spirit always leaves the other person with the feeling "My life has been enriched by talking with you." The poor in spirit are the most nonjudgemental of peoples; they get along well with sinners.

I am lovable only because he loves me.

We have lost our sense of awe, reverence, and wonder. God intended for us to discover his loving presence in the world around us.

God's love is not moody. It is not wavering. It does not compare to humans' thin, pallid love. Human love with all it's passion and emotion is a thin echo of the passion/emotion love of Yahweh.

We have made the bitterness of the cross, the revelation of God in the cross of Jesus Christ, tolerable to ourselves by learning to understand it as a necessity for the process of salvation. -JurgenMoltman

Grace tells us that we are accepted ad we are. We may not be the kind of people we want to be, we may be a long way from our goals, we may have more failures than achievements, we may not be wealthy or powerful or spiritual, we may not even be happy, but we are nonetheless accepted by God, held in his hands. Such is his promise to us in Jesus Christ, a promise we can trust.

"The desire to feel loved is the las illusion: let it go and you will be free." Just as the sunrise of faith requires the sunset of our former unbelief, so the dawn of trust requires letting go of our craving spiritual consolations and tangible reassurances.

"A sad Christian is a phony Christian and a guilty Christian is no Christian at all." -Joe Reia-

Trust clings to the belief that whatever happens in our lives is designed to teach us holiness.

"Abba, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you do, I thank you. I am ready for it all: I accept all. Let your will be done in me and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my spirit. I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and I give myself, surrender myself into your hands without reserve, with boundless confidence, for you are my Father."

-Charles Foucauld-

The noonday devil of the Christian life is the temptation to lose inner self while preserving the shell of edifying behavior. Suddenly I discover that I am administering to AIDS victims to enhance my resume. I find I renounced ice cream for Lent to lose five excess pounds. I drop hints about the absolute priority of meditation and contemplation to create an impression that I am a man of prayer. at some unremembered moment I have lost the connection between internal purity of heart and external works of piety. In the most humiliating sense of the word, I have become a legalist.

He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners.

Have I so insulated myself Ina fortified city of rationalizations that I cannot see that I may not be as different from the self-righteous as I would like to think?

How long will it be before we discover we cannot dazzle God with our accomplishments. When will we acknowledge that we need not and cannot buy God's favor?

We accept grace in theory but deny it in practice. Living by grace rather than law leads us out of the house of fear into the house of love.

The tyranny of public opinion can manipulate our lives. Freedom in Christ produces a healthy independence from peer pressure, people-pleasing, and the bondage of human respect.

In Christ Jesus freedom from fear empowers us to let go of the desire to appear good, so that we can move freely in the mystery of who we really are.

The way we see other people is usually the way we see ourselves. If we have made peace with our flawed humanity and embraced our Ragamuffin identity, we are able to tolerate in others what was previously unacceptable in ourselves.

I will never fully understand the love of God. It is inconceivable. I could more easily contain Niagara falls in a tea cup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.

Faith means you want God and want to want nothing else.

To be a Christian, faith has to be new, that is, alive and growing. It cannot be static, finished, settled. When scripture, prayer, worship, ministry become routine, they are dead.

Let the Lord drive you deeper into solitude seeking not tongues, healing, prophecy, or a good religious experience each time you pray, but understanding and the quest for pure, passionate Presence.

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in minister, but a capacity for faithfulness.

The mature Christians I have met along the way are those who have failed and have learned to live gracefully with their failure.

Discipleship is a life of sublime madness.

Jesus is so unbearably forgiving, so indefinitely patient and so unendingly loving that he provides us with the resources we need to live lives of gracious response.

The only power I have is Jesus' love for me.

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