“Spiritual growth is more like an upward winding path in which we do revisit issues, but on different levels. That same old spot is not in the same old place. Addressing an old issue in a new season is often a sign of growth, not failure.”- Alicia Britt Chole “Now the Lord is the Spirit, […]
“I’ve decided if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. . . . I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would devote not one more minute to monitoring […]
“Sustainable spiritual growth happens when I actually want to do what I ought to do (emphasis author’s).”- John Ortberg As John Ortberg continues Chapter 4 of The Me I Want to Be, he asks this proven conversation stopper. He queries, How are your spiritual disciplines going? Most people, John quips, mention a very short list […]
“The Bible does not say you are God’s appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced. Masterpieces . . . handcrafted.”- John Ortberg “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”- Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) In Chapter […]
“Each of us has a me that we think we should be, which is at odds with the me that God made us to be. Sometimes letting go of that self may be a relief. Sometimes it will feel like death.”- John Ortberg In Chapter 2 (“The Me I Don’t Want to Be”), John Ortberg […]
Today John Ortberg discusses the first two reasons why some doors remain closed to us (Chapter 9, All the Places to Go). 1. Knocking at the wrong door. Pastor Ortberg states that sometimes doors are closed because we want the wrong thing. Throughout the Bible we see closed doors in response to wrong requests. As […]
In Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg discusses statements people think are in the Bible but are not to be found there. One is: When God closes a door, he opens a window.” Pastor Ortberg points out that Mother Superior from The Sound of Music says that. The Bible says: “What […]
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.”- Matthew 17:20 “It is better to have little faith in a big God than to have big faith in a little God.”- John Ortberg John Ortberg concludes Chapter 2 of […]
“Routine is one key to spiritual growth. . . . But when the routine becomes routine, you have to change the routine.”- Mark Batterson As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 11 of The Grave Robber, he asserts that if we want to get well, we need to hear what we’d rather not hear and do what […]
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”- Hebrews 10:35-36 In Chapter 5 (“Claiming God’s Promises: Actively Expressing Faith in the Delays”) of Waiting on God, Charles Stanley emphatically states […]
“. . . you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”- Colossians 3:9-10 “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.”- C. S. Lewis Opened in 1925, the Crystal […]