Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.
JOHN ORTBERGRelated Topics
Anand Thakur
Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.
JOHN ORTBERGI am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with the particular things I have done as with the aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.
JOHN ORTBERGEvery day you and I walk through God’s shop. Every day we brush up against objects of incalculable worth to Him. People. Every one of them carries a price tag, if only we could see it.
JOHN ORTBERGThe main measure of your devotion to God is not your devotional life. It is simply your life.
JOHN ORTBERGGod is so immense that if he were ‘too visible,’ people would give forced compliance without expressing their heart. So God made it possible, in enormous love, for us to live as if he were not there.
JOHN ORTBERGThe Holy Spirit will lead you to be with people as Jesus would be with them if He were in your place.
JOHN ORTBERGWhen preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it’s done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human.
JOHN ORTBERGAcceptance is an act of the heart. To accept someone is to affirm to them that you think it’s a very good thing they are alive.
JOHN ORTBERGsometimes we do not realize how much we have to be grateful for until it is threatened.
JOHN ORTBERGSolitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us. Solitude requires relentless perseverance.
JOHN ORTBERGThe life of Abraham Lincoln is by most accounts an amazing study in character formation. Yet he was notoriously disorganized; he even had a file in his law office labeled If you can’t find it anywhere else, try looking here.
JOHN ORTBERGGod is a God of endless opportunities to do good; the God of the open door.
JOHN ORTBERGTo love someone is to desire and work toward their becoming the best version of themselves. The one person in all the universe who can do this perfectly for you is God.
JOHN ORTBERGJesus is mysterious not just because of what we don’t know about him, but because of what we do know about him.
JOHN ORTBERGIf we are serious about loving God, we must begin with people, all people. And especially we must learn to love those that the world generally discards.
JOHN ORTBERGThe miracle of Sunday is that a dead man lives. The miracle of Saturday is that the eternal Son of God lies dead.
JOHN ORTBERG