“You didn’t earn [God’s] faithful presence by your obedience, and your disobedience won’t take it away. The central message of Scripture is that God is with us forever because of one thing and one thing only: his grace!”- Paul David Tripp “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your […]
“In pivotal moments . . . you will lean either away from God or into him. Lean in, hard. Even if you feel nothing. I did this, and eventually the feelings of intimacy returned. Just because you can’t feel God’s love doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.”- Carey Nieuwhof In Chapter 12 (“Your New Normal”) […]
“Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words. They should remain open. Our only comfort is the God of the resurrection, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . .”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer “Pain shields us from living a […]
“Don’t just listen to God with the outer ear. That’s how things go in one ear and out the other. Give God a second hearing, with the inner ear. That’s how truth gets from your head to your heart of hearts.”- Mark Batterson “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will […]
Still Waiting (Tyndale, 2017) Author and speaker Ann Swindell titles her first book Still Waiting: Hope for When God Doesn’t Give You What You Want. In her book, Ann uncovers what the story of the Bleeding Woman reveals about Christ’s character as well as how He draws near to hurting people. Since waiting isn’t a […]
“Heartfelt honesty comes to God on its knees. Hostile honesty comes to God pointing a finger.”- Ann Swindell As Ann Swindell concludes Chapter 5 of Still Waiting, she inserts on caveat about honesty with God. As a result, it’s important to distinguish between heartfelt honesty and hostile honesty. We must come to God on our […]
“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray.”- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity “For my thoughts […]
“Look the gospel has to be good news for the stuck too. Or else it’s not good news.”- Jared C. Wilson In Chapter 7 (“The Nine Irrefutable Laws of Followship”) of The Imperfect Disciple, Jared Wilson opens with an observation about his church ministry. Pastor Wilson states he rapidly realized one thing about his parishioners. […]
“God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.”- Peter Marshall Os Hillman applies the Joseph calling to the larger stories of Jacob, Moses, and Paul, respectively, in Chapters 14-16 of The Joseph Calling. Next, in Chapter 17 […]
“Our timetable for advancement out of the valley is dependent on our obedience in the valley.”- Os Hillman Os Hillman concludes Chapter 4 of The Joseph Calling as he reminds us our God is a God of the valleys also. Therefore, it’s important that we don’t impatiently extricate ourselves from our valley experience. Premature advancement […]
“Convergence . . . when God’s circumstances, your heart, your talent, your influence, and your social capital converge to maturity.”- Os Hillman Os Hillman concludes Chapter 3 of The Joseph Calling as he notes God often moves us beyond our natural gifting. God accomplishes this as He allows us to receive via our obedience to […]
“No one achieves his or her dream without daily disciplines.”- Mark Batterson In Chapter 7 (“Frozen”) of Chase the Lion, Pastor Mark Batterson underscores the fact that no shortcuts exist when it come to dream chasing. As Mark explains, work ethic + prayer ethic inches you closer to your dream. Therefore, chasing your dream consists […]