A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Lower your expectations of earth. This isn't heaven, so don't expect it to be.

You change your life by changing your heart.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

There is a time for risky love. There is a time for extravagant gestures. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. And when the time comes - seize it, don't miss it.

A season of suffering is a small assignment when compared to the reward. Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

About four days a week, I do pretty good at having a morning prayer time. But even at that, it's a rambling sort of thing. What I have learned to do better is to try to keep my mind turned toward God and ear inclined toward God throughout the day, and I think I'm doing better at that, but I've got a long way to go.

Be a doer, not a stewer.

Become a worry-slapper. Treat frets like mosquitoes. Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin? 'I'll take care of it in a moment.' Of course you don't! You give the critter the slap it deserves. Be equally decisive with anxiety.

For years I thought my assignment or the Church's assignment was to articulate the Gospel and nothing more. Now I believe that if we don't support the verbal expression of the Gospel with physical demonstration of compassion, we are not imitating Jesus.

God meets daily needs daily. Not weekly or annually. He will give you what you need when it is needed.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart - poisoned as it is with pride and pain - and replacing it with his own.

I don't believe our works save us, but I believe they follow us into heaven and bring glory to God.

I was raised in the greatest of homes... just a really great dad, and I miss him so much... he was a good man, a real simple man... Very faithful, always loved my mom, always provided for the kids, and just a lot of fun.

If we think that this life is all there is to life, then there is no interpretation of our problems, our pain, not even of our privileges. But everything changes when we open up to the possibility that God's story is really our story too.

My book centers in on the New Testament, the goal being to help a person who wants to understand the Bible to see how what God did as revealed in the New Testament will reveal to them their own personal story.

My first encounters with faith came about the time I was a Boy Scout, at about 14 or 15. I made the logical deduction that they operate the same way; I treated my faith like earning a merit badge, and everything about Christianity was about earning merit badges.

One of the greatest gifts we can give people is the hope that their death is nothing to fear - you know, not that it has no fear in it, but the promise of scripture is that God will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death.

The apostle Paul never seemed to exhaust the topic of grace - what makes us think we can? He just kept coming at it and coming at it from another angle. That's the thing about grace. It's like springtime. You can't put it in a single sentence definition, and you can't exhaust it.

The idea of a spiritual heart transplant is a vivid image to me; once you have the heart of somebody else inside you, then that heart is there. Jesus' heart is inside me, and my heart is gone. So if God were to place a stethoscope against my chest, he would hear the heart of Jesus Christ beating.

The meaning of life. The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: 'grace.'

We are Jesus Christ's; we belong to him. But even more, we are increasingly him. He moves in and commandeers our hands and feet, requisitions our minds and tongues. We sense his rearranging: debris into the divine, pig's ear into silk purse. He repurposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Little by little, a new image emerges.

Well, I think the main message is there is more to your story. There is more than what happens between the crib and the grave, and that is what I am really trying to speak to, this idea that all of life is this life and that there is nothing more than what we see and experience right here on this earth.

What we realize is number one, people want to know what the Bible says. In their heart, they want to know the Bible but it is just hard to understand the big picture of it. And number two, they want to know where they plug in.

When grace happens, we receive not a nice compliment from God but a new heart. Give your heart to Christ, and he returns the favor.

You know people just assume, 'Well, all my life I'll be a worrier.' That doesn't have to be true. There's a way to drink from God's presence so much that worry begins to dissipate.

Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.

Don't equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not.

Baptism is the initial step of a faithful heart.

Indeed baptism is a vow a sacred vow of the believer to follow Christ. Just as a wedding celebrates the fusion of two hearts baptism celebrates the union of sinner with Savior.

Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess.

Become a worry slapper. Treat frets like mosquitoes. Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin Ill take care of it in a moment. Of course you dont You give the critter the slap it deserves. Be equally decisive with anxiety.

When Christ was born so was our hope.

Christ became one of us to redeem all of us.

God never said that the journey would be easy but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.

Jesus tends to his people individually. He personally sees to our needs. We all receive Jesus touch. We experience his care.

We may speak about a place where there are no tears no death no fear no night but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.

God created marriage. No government subcommittee envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and born in the mind of God.

You are heavens Halleys comet we have one shot at seeing you shine.

I choose kindness. I will be kind to the poor for they are alone. Kind to the rich for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind for such is how God has treated me.

The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards.

Dont quit. For if you do you may miss the answer to your prayers.

Are you weary Catch your breath. Are you strong Reserve passing judgment on the tired.

Lower your expectations of earth. This isnt heaven so dont expect it to be.

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.

The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.

Filter your pain through the brevity of this life and the unending beauty of the next.

How grimy did God get when He reached down to clean you up How grimy are you willing to get in order to be an imitator of God