” ‘Your money or your life?’ We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does.”- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook “God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for […]
“The person whose heart is coated with greed believes he has earned the good things that have come his way and, therefore, is determined to control his possessions and wealth the way he sees fit. Greedy people have a supersized sense of ownership.”- Andy Stanley In Chapter 15 (“Confronting Greed”) of Enemies of the Heart, […]
” . . . when a person discovers he has heart disease, his overriding concern isn’t how he got it, where it came from, or whose fault it is that he has it. His number one concern is, ‘How do I fix it?’ We should be driven by a similar concern when it comes to […]
“Forgiveness runs so contrary to our sense of justice and fairness that it’s unlikely we’ll ever feel like forgiving. But in the Scriptures forgiveness is never presented as a feeling; it’s always described as a decision. Forgiveness is a gift we decide to give in spite of how we feel.”- Andy Stanley (emphasis author’s) As […]
“In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feels like a decision to reward my enemy. But in the shadow of the cross, forgiveness is merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another.”- Andy Stanley In Chapter 14 (“Complete the Cycle of Forgiveness”) of Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley comments on the deeper meaning […]
“If we hold out waiting to be paid back for the wrongs done to us, we will be the ones who pay. If, on the other hand, we cancel the debt owed to us, we will be set free. . . . From our perspective, we have every right to hold out until we’re paid […]
“Victims don’t want to be proactive about changing — they want to be proactive about making sure that the person who hurt them pays. . . . Thus we open the doors of our hearts and welcome in the Trojan horse of bitterness. And it stands there, a monument, a constant reminder of a debt […]
“Of the four enemies vying for control of our hearts, this one’s the most obvious and perhaps the most dangerous: Anger. . . . But behind all the huffing and puffing, ranting and raving, brewing and stewing is the most basic of human experiences: We just aren’t getting our way.”- Andy Stanley “Get rid of […]
“The consequences of confession are far less severe than the consequences of concealment. Secrets are like buried splinters: The best thing to do is to get them out; otherwise, the wound gets infected.”- Andy Stanley Andy Stanley concluders Chapter 12 of Enemies of the Heart as he asserts that if your really want to understand […]
“The grace that was showered on us at salvation did not provide us with an escape hatch from our responsibility to others. On the contrary, that very grace should compel us to make restitution to those we’ve wronged.”- Andy Stanley (emphasis Andy’s) In Chapter 12 (“Out in the Open”) of Enemies of the Heart, Andy […]
“Jesus . . . says our relationship with God hinges on our relationship with other people — the two are inseparable . . . . The truth is, you cannot resolve your differences with God if you’re unwilling to resolve you differences with other people around you. You cannot be in fellowship with the Father […]
“We play the confession game because somewhere along the way, we were taught that the purpose of confession was conscience relief. That is, we confess in order to make ourselves feel better about what we’ve done. And if you want to put a theological spin on it, we confess because we think it will somehow […]