“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.”

It’s impossible to have met the real Jesus and be indifferent. You either bow down in wonder OR go away offended.

After creation God said, ‘It is finished’-and he rested. After redemption Jesus said, ‘It is finished’-and we can rest.

It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.

The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access

The main human problems often are that we misidentify what will make us happy; and we ask people and things to save us beyond their ability.

We need to remember that we are saved by grace when we fail. But we need to remember it much more when we succeed.

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.

In terms of pots and pans, I just use the basics – Im not a snob like that.

Flow systems have two basic features (properties).

It won’t be decided in one election, but it is a basic choice between an open and progressive Iraq and one that is backward and continues to fall behind.

I find that your basic Internet chat board is way too vitriolic for my taste.

The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society’s most basic values.

The element of chance in basic research is overrated. Chance is a lady who smiles only upon those few who know how to make her smile.

When we cannot cure or save a life, our patients can at least feel cared for. It should be a basic human right.

The common people don’t believe this kind of religion [of islamic fundamentalists] because first and foremost they want to solve their basic problems, including human rights and economic.