THE Truth

"Do not be intimidated by this world. It seeks answers but condemns anyone who claims to have them. It honors openness to all kinds of "truths" but scoffs when one accepts THE truth." ~ Chris Tiegreen

Ordinary People

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extraordinary destiny." ~ C.S. Lewis

Get Back Up Again

"The greatest in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail." ~ Nelson Mandela

His Timing

"Faith in God includes faith in His timing." ~ Neil A. Maxwell

His Peace

"If our minds are stayed upon God, His peace will rule the affairs entertained by our minds. If, on the other hand, we allow our minds to dwell on the cares of this world, God's peace will be far from our thoughts." ~ Woodroll Kroll

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

 Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. ~ 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

Poverty is the Solution

"For Jesus, it is clear, poverty is not the problem; it is the solution. Until human beings learn to live in naked contact and direct simplicity and equality with each other, sharing all resources, there can be no solution to the misery of the human condition and no establishment of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ radical and paradoxical sense of who could and who could not enter the Kingdom is even more clearly illustrated by his famous praise of children." ~ Andrew Harvey

Thy Will Be Done

“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 to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” ~ Elizabeth Elliot

Practical Solutions

"As we share the loving heart of God, we are moved by the challenges and pain in the world around us and passionately work to provide practical solutions for these challenges." ~ S. Vassel

There Is NO Plan B

“We should be more concerned with reaching the lost than pampering the saved.” ~ David McGee

Hold on to Hope

"You know how you feel on those days when you’re at the point of exhaustion and feel as though your efforts are in vain? Pause. Regroup. Hold on to hope, courageously." ~ Jume

In Christ Alone by Owl City

Encourage One Another

"Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement—and we will make the goal." ~ Jerome P. Fleishman

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV 1984)

Three Stages of Great Work

"I have found that there are three stages to every great work of God: first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done." ~ J. H. Taylor

Search for Significance

Much of what is known as low motivation or laziness is better understood as hopelessness. If people believe they will fail, they have no reason to exert any effort. The pain they endure for their passivity seems relatively minor and acceptable compared to the agony of genuinely trying and failing ~ Robert S. McGee (The Search For Significance)

A Quality Life

“God will never stop helping us to become quality people. I promise you this. He will constantly help us to be our best when we walk in the light of truth, hope, and appreciation. Make yours a quality life, for you are important to the Lord and to us.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Community and Private Experiences

"Those of us raised in the "Jesus and me" context need to know that true holiness is found in community and not just in our private experiences with God." ~ J. Serrao

Discipline Is...

Discipline is doing what you really don't want to do so that you can do what you really want to do. ~ Jeff Fisher

Actions Speak Loudest

“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.” ~ John Locke

More than Motions...

"Young people are not going to put up with a ho-hum church that’s only going through the motions—the church has to start seeing youth as one branch of the body of Christ." ~ K. C. Dean

A Man's god...

"A man's god is that for which he lives, for which he is prepared to give his time, his energy, his money, that which stimulates him and rouses him, excites and enthuses him." ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Investment of the Lord's Money

"Whatever possessions the Lord puts in our hands we are to hold for Him and use unto Him. Great and prayerful care should be taken in reference to the investment of the Lord's money He has entrusted to our care." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Pleasure Without God...

“Pleasure without God, without the sacred boundaries, will actually leave you emptier than before. And this is biblical truth, this is experiential truth. The loneliest people in the world are amongst the wealthiest and most famous who found no boundaries within which to live. That is a fact I’ve seen again and again.”

Happiness Is...

"Happiness is the absence of discord; joy is the welcoming of discord as the basis of higher harmonies. Happiness is finding a system of rules which solves our problems; joy is taking the risk that is necessary to break new frontiers…. The good life, obviously, includes both joy and happiness at different times. What I am emphasizing is the joy that follows rightly confronted despair. Joy is the experience of possibility, the consciousness of one’s freedom as one confronts one’s destiny. In this sense despair, when it is directly faced, can lead to joy." ~ Rollo May 

A Leader...

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." ~ John C. Maxwell

New Way of Life

While we’ve been charged to “equip the saints” for works of service, the brutal truth is that most of us have reduced our expectations of “serving” to a once-a-month tour of duty as an usher or greeter. We’ve settled for serving ourselves and serving as an event rather than serving those in need and living a new way of life that Jesus has called us to. ~ Brandon Hatmaker (Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture)  

Why Pray?

"Why pray when God knows what we need? We have to say it, so God hears us voicing it. Sometimes when attempting to put thoughts into words, we find an answer—new insight. You have to come to God as a needy person." ~ Perry

"It Ain't Easy"

“I thought I could change the world. It took me a hundred years to figure out I can’t change the world. I can only change Bessie. And honey, that ain’t easy either. ~ Annie Elizabeth Dalany

Sin is...

Once John Wesley asked his mother, Susanna Wesley, for a definition of sin. She answered, “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things…that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

Let It Go

"Leave it all in the hands that were wounded for you." ~ Elizabeth Elliot

HE Came to...

"We need to dispense with the idea that Jesus came to affirm everyone and take hold of the idea that He came to radically reorient people, kingdoms, and cultures." ~ Chris Tiegreen

Inspire Others...

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” ~ John Quincy Adams

Minor Role of the Bible

"Given the minor role the Bible evidently plays in the lives of most churchgoers, it becomes much easier to see why participation in a local congregation has failed so many persons in supplying a meaningful religious identity." ~ David Lose

Risks

"Thankfully, the church is a witnessing community, dedicated to making disciples—and nobody can be a disciple without taking a few risks." ~ Ralls

Hear, Listen, Help

"Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help." ~ William Booth

I Must. I Can. I Will

“Every day of my life, I must remind myself that I am a child of God and have God the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering me to say no to sin and yes to God. Every day I must live in the truth that I can present the members of my body for righteousness because of this indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Every day I must make it my will to live for God. I must. I can. I will.” ~ Kay Arthur

Principles

“Back of every life there are principles that have fashioned it.” ~ George H. Lorimer

Life Is Struggle

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today. 
~ Pope Paul VI

What Do You Want?

“But the question to precede all others, which finally determines the course of our lives is, 'What do I really want?' Was it to love what God commands, in the words of the collect, and to desire what He promises? Did I want what I wanted, or did I want what He wanted, no matter what it might cost?”  ~ Elizabeth Elliot

Struggles...as in the life of Job

"We never know the trials that await us in the days ahead. We may not be able to see the light through our struggles, but we can believe that those days, as in the life of Job, will be the most significant we are called upon to live." ~ Robert Collyer

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." ~ Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence)

A Journey...

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao Tzu

A Missionary Church

"Our church is preeminently a missionary church. It knows no difference between home and foreign fields–in these days all fields are near." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

When the Holy Spirit Moves

"In those marvelous occasions [when the Holy Ghost moves] we all rejoice, but they do not take the place of the ordinary, which are equally as necessary as the extraordinary." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

My Greatest Trouble...

"I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man." ~ Dwight L. Moody