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

Religion operates on the principle ‘I obey-therefore I am accepted by God.’ But the operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through what Christ has done-therefore I obey.’

Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.

The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.

As long as we think we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.

Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.

Trust is accepting what God sends into your life whether you understand it or not.

When I forget the gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others.

The world values power, comfort, success, and recognition. Jesus frees us to value grief, sacrifice, weakness, and exclusion.

No one is too bad for Jesus. A lot of people think they are too good for Jesus.

God invites us to come as we are, not stay as we are.

God relentlessly offers his grace to people who do not deserve it, or seek it, or even appreciate it after they have been saved by it.

The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.

The Gospel is news of what God has done to reach us. It is not advice about what we must do to reach God.

Generosity is not only about money. There is more than one currency. Let your generosity be pervasive in life.

You don’t fall in love. You commit to it.

My first inspiration for acting came from the first episode of ‘Hannah Montana.’ That’s when I knew I wanted to be a singer and an actress.

No one came to our neighborhoods with stand-up jobs and showed us there’s a different way. Maybe, had I seen different role models, maybe I’d’ve turned on to that.

I don’t really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.

I came here with the perfect chemist’s perception. The formula they had was perfect and any added ingredient could make it go bad or worse.

I created this ‘ideal America.’ Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, ‘Oh, I don’t belong here, either.’

Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as though the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction.

At least 50 times. I’ve jumped off a building, jumped off a cliff in a car. I’ve been in bedrooms when women came in with knives and guns.

You’ll get back to where you came from.