“As we mature in Christ, it is actually possible to outgrow fear.”

Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.

Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.

The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon.

Why doesn’t God just force us to do the things he knows to be right? It is because that would lose precisely that which he has intended in our creation: freely chosen character.

The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus.

The key, then, to loving God is to see Jesus, to hold him before the mind with as much fullness and clarity as possible. It is to adore him.

The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity.

What is thinking? It is the activity of searching out what must be true, or cannot be true, in the light of the given facts or assumptions.

The kingdom of God is the true ecology of the human soul.

It would be strange if we came to shun the genuine simply because it resembled the counterfeit.

When the will is enslaved to a desire, it will in turn enslave the mind.

A leader enables people to love and honor the role they play in the organization or group they are part of.

Play is the creation of value that is not necessary.

One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God.

At the center of care for the heart is the love of God. This must be the joyful aim of our life.

A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.

There is nothing to encourage.

I didn’t study history when I was in college, none at all, and only started to do graduate study when my children were going to graduate school.

You have to decide what is extraneous and what is central.

Practice positive thinking. . . seize control in small ways.

A page with a poem on it is less attractive than a page with a poem on it and some tea stains.

Self-denial is often the sacrifice of one sort of self-love for another.

We who preach have one tool. We are people of the book.

The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he’s coming down.