“This is why so many churches quench the motivation of people for ministry. In our shoes, Paul would say: Remember the grace God has showered on you—what does living out and enjoying that grace look like in this situation?”

The lack of joy in your life is due to your lack of mission.

If our identity is in our work, rather than Christ, success will go to our heads, and failure will go to our hearts.

The Gospel is that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.

It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

Religion makes us proud of what we have done. The Gospel makes us proud of what Jesus has done.

Jesus Christ was treated as we deserved so that when we believe in Jesus, God treats us as Jesus deserves.

Only on the cross do you have a totally holy God and a totally loving God.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness. To not retaliate is to absorb the cost.

So we find messages of self-salvation extremely attractive, whether they are religious (Keep these rules and you earn eternal blessing) or secular (Grab hold of these things and you’ll experience blessing now).

Prayer should be done regularly, persistently, resolutely, and tenaciously at least daily, whether we feel like it or not.

Money isn’t an idol. It just shows you where your idols are.

You dont fall into love. You commit to it. Love is saying I will be there no matter what.

Faith is living out and believing what truth is despite what you feel.

It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.

Faith is not primarily a function of how you feel.

Love is the effort and desire to make someone else everything they were created to be.