If you don't have a teacher you can't have a disciple.

If you don't have a teacher you can't have a disciple.

'Discipleship' as a term has lost its content, and this is one reason why it has been moved aside. I've tried to redeem the idea of discipleship, and I think it can be done; you have to get it out of the contemporary mode.

God may not guide us in an obvious way because he wants us to make decisions based on faith and character.

Human beings are at their core defined by what they worship rather than primarily by what they think, know, or believe. That is bound up with the central Augustinian claim that we are what we love.

I believe that every human being is sufficiently depraved that when we get to Heaven, no one will be able to say, 'I merited this.'

I think that when I die, it might be some time until I know it.

If you have a group of people come together around a vision for real discipleship, people who are committed to grow, committed to change, committed to learn, then a spiritual assessment tool can work.

Many churches are measuring the wrong things. We measure things like attendance and giving, but we should be looking at more fundamental things like anger, contempt, honesty, and the degree to which people are under the thumb of their lusts. Those things can be counted, but not as easily as offerings.

Reality is what you can count on.

So many people would like to have guidance from God because obviously, if you have a word from God, it's the best possible thing. But they don't relate that to life as a whole. Often they want guidance as a way of opting out of the responsibility of making decisions.

Spiritual formation in a Christian tradition answers a specific human question: 'What kind of person am I going to be?' It is the process of establishing the character of Christ in the person. That's all it is.

Spiritual formation is character formation. Everyone gets a spiritual formation. It's like education. Everyone gets an education; it's just a matter of which one you get.

The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at the very heart of this community as its prime Sustainer and most glorious Inhabitant.

The basic question 'will I obey Christ 's teaching?' is rarely taken as a serious issue. For example, to take one of Jesus' commands, that is relevant to contemporary life, I don't know of any church that actually teaches a church how to bless people who curse them, yet this is a clear command.

The core of the person is what he or she loves, and that is bound up with what they worship - that insight recalibrates the radar for cultural analysis. The rituals and practices that form our loves spill out well beyond the sanctuary. Many secular liturgies are trying to get us to love some other kingdom and some other gods.

We Christians should be aware that there's something at stake in cultural participation that we wouldn't have been concerned about if all we did was worry about the messages in culture.

What sometimes goes on in all sorts of Christian institutions is not formation of people in the character of Christ; it's teaching of outward conformity. You don't get in trouble for not having the character of Christ, but you do if you don't obey the laws.

What you present as the gospel will determine what you present as discipleship. If you present as the gospel what is essentially a theory of the atonement, and you say, 'If you accept this theory of the atonement, your sins are forgiven, and when you die you will be received into heaven,' there is no basis for discipleship.

When I left home after graduating high school, I left as a migrant agricultural worker with a Modern Library edition of Plato in my duffel bag. It sounds kind of crazy, but I loved it. I loved the stuff. Before I knew there was a subject called philosophy, I loved it.

When pastors don't have rich spiritual lives with Christ, they become victimized by other models of success - models conveyed to them by their training, by their experience in the church, or just by our culture.

We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.

Fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in Him a source of sustenance beyond food.

Grace is not opposed to effort its opposed to earning.

Other kingdoms are still present on earth along with the kingdom of the heavens. That is the human condition.

The kingdom of God is the true ecology of the human soul.

As we reach out to God, we get another source of strength.

We renovate the heart by, of course, changing it, but we can't do that, really, without changing the other essential parts of the human personality.

We renovate the heart by, of course, changing it, but we can't do that, really, without changing the other essential parts of the human personality.

Long hair is an unpardonable offence which should be punishable by death.

I think it is important to let your kids have independence and ownership. Let your kids do what they have a passion for.

I now get to have the life I wanted when I was 18 years old. Now, I'm like, 'I can buy any skateboard I want.'

I've learned the importance of changing people's minds at the grassroots level so that whoever does run will have a much better chance of encountering public opinion that reaches a critical mass and brings about a change not only in White House policies but in the Congress and in the state legislatures and all around the world.

In order to continue in office, any government (not simply a 'democratic' government) must have the support of the majority of its subjects. This support, it must be noted, need not be active enthusiasm; it may well be passive resignation as if to an inevitable law of nature.

They see a work ethic in both of us. But, they also see that my husband is more in control of his future, and I am more reliant on other sources for my career.

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

'Free the Gang,' that's my favorite song because it's so real. All my music is real, it's authentic, but it's something about that song that I love.

My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.

It's fine when you careen off disasters and terrifyingly bad reviews and rejection and all that stuff when you're young; your resilience is just terrific.

I enjoy speaking to other women about turning 50, and how we can enjoy it, and how we can explore it.

This industry is tough on relationships. I've always thought that my wife should have a credit up alongside mine because I couldn't do what I do without her support.

Lack of charisma can be fatal.

North and South were equally confident that God was on their side, and appealed incessantly to Him.

I think that to make something alive, instead of on a page, is an honorable task. And it turns me on.

Don't follow in any footprints, make your own prints. Because, you are the future of tomorrow.

I just write and do what I think is funny. Sometimes, you do have it in your head about certain bits. There are certain jokes where I know if I did them in certain situations, it would irk people. There are times where I look at the news and see a story going on, and I'm like, 'Wow, if I tweeted this, I would get press if I wanted to.'

This depravation of our nature is nothing else but the blotting out of God's image in us.

One of my books, 'Rain Falling on My Face,' earned me the 39th Edogawa Ranpo prize. It's a very prestigious literary prize in Japan, mostly for mysteries and thrillers.

Only blacks can play the race card, apparently; only they think in racial terms, at least to hear white America tell it.