“Christ’s salvation work on the cross has raised us from the dead, but we’re still wrapped tight in behaviors that keep us from walking free. When we are bound tight, we still have one foot in the grave, experiencing more hell than heaven. With a call to repentance, the Lord invites us to ‘Come out’ […]
“Repentance is more that turning from sin — it’s repositioning ourselves to look with Jesus. The Old Testament word for ‘repent’ (shub) means simply ‘turn.’ When you let your heart turn in the same direction as Jesus is facing, you’re repenting of your own view and taking His.”- Alan Wright Alan Wright concludes Chapter 13 […]
“Usually those who are most concerned about working for social justice do not stand up and speak clearly about the God of the Bible’s judgment on those who do not do his will. On the other hand, those who publicly preach repentance most forcefully are not usually known for demanding justice for the oppressed.”- Timothy […]
“A pretty please is like a ray of sunlight. It’s far more effective than trying to get your way through brute force. Not only does it win friends; it also wins enemies and turns them into friends. . . . Instead of issuing decrees, you ask questions. Instead of making demands, you make requests.”- Mark […]
“The distinction between true guilt and false guilt is a crucial one to make. Why? Because time will not heal true guilt. . . . The only way to deal with true guilt is to take it to the grace and mercy of God. On the other hand, moral effort and prayer will not heal […]
“One of the biggest mistakes we make is to think of surrender as a giving up of what we want, when in reality it is a letting go. When we surrender what we think we need to be happy in exchange for God, we’re not settling for less, we’re settling for more. Surrender to God […]
“Sometimes we need to turn the Golden Rule around. Do unto yourself what you would do unto others. Christians have no problem admitting that it’s wrong to criticize and put down others, but we so readily curse ourselves.”- Alan Wright Alan Wright concludes Chapter 9 of The Power to Bless as he explains why we […]
Discerning God at work through you, amid the faces, places, and spaces of ordinary life, means nothing further needs to be accomplished but humble faithfulness with the small stuff.”- Rev. Jeffrey Leininger “God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world […]
“It’s at the this point of confession and repentance that God gives us a new name. . . . Many of us forget this important step in our walk with God. We want our past to be over and done with, but God wants to give us a new name to live out of as […]
“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 […]
“Attuning to the challenging, painful, sometimes dark aspects of your soul creates a connection with them that God can use to strengthen them from within. . . . Guided by the Holy Spirit, you can weather the storms of life with hope.”- Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller As Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller conclude Chapter […]
“This [self-] examination, however, should be peaceful and tranquil, and we should depend on God for the discovery and knowledge of our sins, rather than on the diligence of our own scrutiny.”- John Ortberg “He [Sampson] awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not […]