“Feelings are good servants, but they are disastrous masters.”

Bodily pleasure is not in itself a bad thing. But when it is exalted to a necessity and we become dependent upon it, then we are slaves of our body and its feelings. Only misery lies ahead.

The will is transformed by experience, not information.

The open secret of many Bible believing Churches is that a vanishingly small percentage of those talking about prayer and Bible reading are actually doing what they are talking about.

Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.

This life is not something that is imposed upon us; we receive it and work with it.

Every church needs to be able to answer two questions. First, what is our plan for making disciples? And second, does our plan work?

Theology is a part of our lives. It’s unavoidable. A thoughtless theology guides our lives with just as much force as a thoughtful and informed one.

The effect of standing before God by welcoming him before us will be the transformation of our entire life.

Grace is not opposed to effort; it’s opposed to earning.

Almost everything worth doing in human life is very difficult in its early stages and the good we are aiming at is never available at first, to strengthen us when we seem to need it most.

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.

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

Yet, after millennia of slavery by selfish/callous humans they’re made to look dumb! The ‘superior species’ in their situations would, too, appear ‘dumb’.

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

Sweet is war to those who know it not.

We are created for adventure, and if we cannot find one, we start blowing things out of proportion so it feels like we have one.

Here, beside this great black surface that is my desk, I feel as though I am on a desert island.

And how those stories relate to the larger picture of American history.

Keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as opportunity.