KenBoa

Handbook to Wisdom

•Quotes are sometimes modified. Statements without attribution are either my own or sources I could not identify. References are to authors rather than giving additional bibliographic detail—not the purpose of the book to provide this detail.

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--You can't be spontaneous without a plan. Don't confuse chaos with spontaneity. Chaos is dissipated when I don't live life from one crisis to the next./ G. Jackson --"What do you want to be?" is the wrong question. It is better to ask, "Whenever I get where I end up, what will I see when I look back?"/ G. Jackson

--Spiritual goals
--Intellectual goals
--Cultural goals -
-Professional/homemaking goals
--Financial goals
--Physical goals
--Social goals

--G. Jackson/global purposes: (1) to know God and God's character for the reason of knowing God and His glory (Jer. 9:23-24); (2) to know myself in the light of God's character for the reason of humility (not comparing myself to others, but in meekness comparing myself to His character); (Ps. 139:23-24); (3) to see others in the light of God's character for the reason of service.
--G. Jackson/role purposes: (1) to love and serve my wife in such a way that she can live up to her full potential as a woman of God (Prov. 31:10-31); (2) to love my children in such a way that they know that mom and dad love God; to have them sense loyalty and fun in the family.

--Areas: evangelism, church, poor, children, parents, spouse, job, . . .
--Roles: child of God, husband, father, son, worker, . . .
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1. General affirmations: what do I want to be like (about 50; then combine and refine
to about 35)
2. Scripture verse for each
3. Ultimate goals (relationships, great commission, image of God within). E.g., I want a life of _____. Focus on the pursuit of the image of God within.
4. Specific goals in each area
     a. Turned into affirmations/goals
     b. Also list of objectives

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--Be a man of the Word [read, study (topics, books), memorize, meditate; specifics in each]. --Be a man of prayer [daily, weekly, quarterly, annually, prayer list, partner].
--Be a man of faith [risks, giving].
--Maintain physical disciplines [eating, exercise, weight, sleep].
--Simplicity of life [slow down].
--Focus on fewer things with more quality.
--Turn life, expectations, and needs over to God.
--Contentment.
--A lifestyle of evangelism [pray for opportunities, people, sensitivity].
--Reading program.
--Control TV.
--Be teachable [humility].
--Repentence [lust, lover of money, pride, competition and strife].
--Be a servant [wife, kids, office, others].
--Dependence on God [health, provision, kids].
--Know and support wife more and appreciate her as gift from God [time off with her twice a month, plan weeks on Sunday, don't manipulate or reject verbally, discuss budget, pray together, help her get ahead on projects, gifts and cards, projects around the house].
--Raise kids so that they know we love God and love Him, know our value system, know they are dependent upon God, know they are of value [serve them spiritually, mentally, physically, socially].
--Help and love others; pray for them and serve them [prayer list, regular contacts, letters]. --Consistency in devotional life.
--Practicing the presence of God.
--Spontaneous times with God.
--Appreciate the creation.
--Wait before making decisions.
--Attitude of God as provider and source of money.
--See career as ministry.
--Willingness to accept limits, especially as I grow older; decreased capacity.
--Willingness to accept increasing responsibility as I grow older.
--Desire to complete the course without dropping out.
--Awareness of purpose.
--Continue to think.
--Think before speaking and acting.
--Building righteousness into people.
--Be grace oriented (His time, talent, energy) rather than works oriented (my time, talent, energy).
--Christ-centered rather than hierarchical or compartmental.
--Aware of tests that show me where I place my focus.
--Focus on God rather than how-tos and to-do lists.
--Focus hope on Christ, not self.
--Moving from function (doing) to substance (being).
--Stranger, alien, exile, pilgrim mentality rather than citizen of this world.
--Living with ambiguities rather than looking for answers.
--Supernatural dependent process rather than rational independent process.
--Freedom and grace with others rather than control and manipulation.
--Understanding joy rather than seeking happiness.
--Accepting tribulation rather than rejecting and avoiding and insulating myself from it.
--Time managed loosely to accomplish relationships rather than time managed tightly to accomplish objectives.
--Learn not to judge the value of my direction by my present circumstances.
--Pursue God's standards of success.
--Understand that my hope in in the character and promises of God.
--Develop a set of convictions for my business.
--Problem of double-mindedness. Learning how to give up a lie.

--Reckoning myself as dead to sin (the flesh).
--Resisting spiritual forces of wickedness (the devil).
--Do all things by faith.
--Remain conscious of God's presence.
--Forgiving others who trespass against me as I have been forgiven.
--Looking for opportunities to encourage others.
--Looking for opportunities to share Christ with others.
--Ministry opportunities.
--Evaluate gifts and skills, strengths and weaknesses (build on strengths rather than trying to strengthen weaknesses).
--Able to defend the faith in life and words.
--Look to God in the midst of trials and tribulations; changing and unchanging circumstances. --Trust God in all situations.
--Look to God for physical and psychological needs to be met.
--Thankful in all things.
--Depend on God in all circumstances.
--Willingness to submit to God's will.
--Walk in the power of the Spirit.
--Not to allow myself to live a trivial life.
--Not getting caught up with doing to the exclusion of being.
--Not to insist on self-sufficiency.
--Not to seek to avoid or insulate myself from pain.
--Avoid drifting into complacency.
--Grow in understanding to the gentleness, compassion, kindness, goodness, and love of our Heavenly Father.
--Sensitive to my own sins and pitfalls; familiar with the nature of my flesh (1 Cor. 11:31-32). --Walking in anticipation of what God has prepared for us (1 Cor. 2:9-10).
--Aware of the believer's judgment (1 Cor. 3) and motivated to build what will last.
--Willing to be disciplined by the Lord (Heb. 12:4-13).
--Not comparing myself with others but only with what the Word of God tells me I should be. --Learning the secret of contentment (Phil. 4:11-12; Heb. 13:5).
--Not consumed by having; one who has learned that unrestricted satisfaction of all desires is not conducive to well-being.
--One who knows that whatever I have (health, energy, food, shelter, things, peace) has been given to me; I have received these gifts for the purpose of being a good steward in my unique context.
--A faithful steward of my time, talents, treasure.
--Not putting off joy until my circumstances improve; recognizing the difference between happiness (depends on circumstances) and joy (Hab. 3:17-19).
--Be a consistent responder to the nudges of God.
--Aware of the sacredness of each unrepeatable moment.
--Not a player of the "as soon as" game ("as soon as _____, then I'll _____").
--Not a player of the "if only" game.
--A discerner of the difference between the urgent and the important, and acting on it. --Aware of the purposes behind affliction (test and builder of character, teaches dependence on God, benefits others).
--Looking to God for the grace to go on in the midst of unchanging circumstances (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
--Aware of how self-pity robs my strength, vitality, and time.
--Aware that life is difficult, and not expecting it to be easy.
--Not characterized by worry or anxiety, but an attitude of settled trust.
--An accepter of God's process of transforming me into the image of His Son.
--Seeking first His kingdom (Matt. 6:33) and losing my life for His sake (Matt. 10:38-39).
--Loving others by preferring their good rather than fighting for my own rights (Rom. 15:1-4; Gal. 6:1-5).
--Serving others in pain and in need (Matt. 25:34-36).
--Comforting others as I have been comforted (2 Cor. 1:3-11).
--Anticipation of heaven (Rom. 8:17-25; Rev. 7:16-17).
--Concern for personal revival; holiness.
--Turning away from materialism, ease, and luxury into single-minded devotion and service.
--A risk-taker rather than fleeing into the hedonism of safety.
--Praying for the shaking of institutions of society. Wanting to see Christianity reclaim lost territory; meeting needs of the whole man.
--Feeding myself on the vertical and multiplying on the horizontal.
--Buy into a process that from start to finish belongs to God and is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.
--A personal commitment to excellence.
--A disciple-maker. Building Christ and the Word into the lives of others.
--Must test my assumptions regularly. Rethink my convictions and my response to them. --Development of a winsome lifestyle unselfishly directed to the purpose of giving away the faith.
--Knowing that where prayer focuses, power falls.
--People need to see me as one who can help them become what they know they ought to be. Cultivate other people's vision.
--What will I have to see in order to be able to say that I'm satisfied with life?
--Not looking behind me.
--It is not a tragedy to die for something you believe in , but it is a tragedy to find at the end of your life that what you believed in betrayed you (Joan of Arc).
--Sensitive to the process of responding to what God is doing in my life; more critical than the product.
--Not a conformity to prevailing standards of holiness but a step-by-step response to the working of God in my life.
--Resisting the prodding of God in an area of your life is a more serious grievance to the heart of God than the kinds of sin most Christians think about.
--Asa a good study of a man whose first half was godly and who turned away from God in the last half. He refused totrust God but trusted instead in his physician.
--Being rich toward God: giving your life in exchange for the things He declares to be important.
--The ultimate good in life is to treat things according to their true value (Jonathan Edwards). God is first in the area of value. Love is always a response to value. The heart always provides for what it values. Must treat God according to His true value, then myself and others in the same way.
--Not satisfied with mediocrity; staying on a cutting, growing edge.
--Avoid erosion in the aesthetics of the spirit.
--An artist needs three things: an eye to see, a heart to feel, a hand to perform (John Ruskin). --Discovering the principle of appropriating God's promises in my hour of need.
--Several angles to the spiritual life: lordship of Christ; abiding in Christ; doing His commandments; appropriating the love, wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit; reckoning onself not only dead to sin, but alive to God; spending time in His presence (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6) beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Christ.
--Availability.
--Growing knowledge of God and His Word; knowing the Word with the purpose of doing it; learning with a view to obedient action.
--Openness and sharing secrets with Him.
--Developing spiritual gifts.
--An encourager.
--Obedience first, emotions secondary. Obedience brings its own reward. There will be dry as well as warm times with God.
--The Lord's face should be the first face you see in the morning. Commit yourself and your day to Him to walk in obedience.
--God responds to every response man makes to Him. Isa. 64:8; God in His sovereignty will never clash with His paternity. Cannot and must not challenge His ways.
--After prayerfully and thoughtfully making a decision, don't dig up in unbelief what you have sown in faith.
--Your spiritual life is the soil out of which everything else grows.
--You can unknow spiritual truth as well as know it. Must continue to respond to the light you are given.
--The cleanness of the heart secures the clearness of the vision.
--Be a sensitive observer of my environment; people, creation.
--Practicing the skill of listening.
--Learning to look for the humor of life.
--Developing an eternal perspective.
--Understanding more of my resources in Christ.
--Admitting my mistakes and learning from them.
--Focusing on and serving others; an agent in meeting their needs.
--Not letting myself get nibbled to death by minnows.
--Develop myself as a person and never stop evaluating my strengths, weaknesses, and what I need to change.
--Need to pursue a higher set of standards than people look for.
--Need a few trusted friends who will tell me what I need to hear.
--Give more than you expect to get.
--Ministry, not manipulation.
--Don't minister for the strokes you get; that's walking by sight rather than by faith.
--Trust God for all results of ministry.
--Don't tolerate personal immorality.
--Plugged into reality; avoiding what is phony.
--Being a student of two worlds; need to know culture to be able to relate the biblical world to today. Difficult to be both contemporary and biblical.
--Care for body. Problem of combination of overeating and underexercising. Need lifetime commitment to a proper physical exercise program.
--A called, not a driven lifestyle.
--Focus on being rather than doing.
--Need to be an intellectual self-starter. Continued intellectual growth. Continue to be a student. Problem of hardening of the categories.
--An active rather than a passive spectator lifestyle.
--Pursuit of quality relationships. Difference between acquaintances and friends.
--Don't want to dispense answers that work for others but not for myself.
--Avoid competitive posture.
--Avoid comparisons with others. Only with Christ.
--Avoid criticism of others.
--Avoid unrealistic expectations and goals.
--To fail to learn from our problems (evaluation) is to repeat the same experiences over and over again.
--Learn that God's grace is sufficient for you.
--Priorities are not successive; they are simultaneous. Christ central, not first; not a list but a life.
--A clear sense of objectives. What do I want? Your objectives determine your outcome; achieve that for which you aim. (Hendricks) Few people are really fulfilled.
--A clear sense of priorities. What price am I willing to pay? What do you think it will take to make you a man of God?
--A clear sense of schedule. What means will I use? This will reflect what you really want. A schedule is a tool to help you get where you want to go.
--A clear sense of discipline. What dynamic will I pursue?
--What it means to be under the control of the Spirit.
--Say no to something every day just to keep in the habit.
--Moderation in all things. Sex life, thought life, money, time, etc. Control in all areas of life. --The Christian life is a life of tension. Not what I was but not what I will be. In this world but not of the world.
--Commitment to a ministry of multiplication in the lives of people.
--Believing God in proportion to who I know He is. Filling my mind with the greatness of God. --Communicating to others on intellectual, emotional, and volitional levels.
--Attitude of expectancy.
--Attitude of enthusiasm.
--Attitude of confidence in God.
--Attitude of wonder and sense of freshness.
--Spending time with non-Christians.
--Never get over the fact that God can use you; only reason you are being used is because God's hand is on you; don't put yourself in a position where He withdraws His hand from you. --Study in Word with wife; pick a book and study it with a view to application.
--Take regular walks with wife.
--Use resources and love God; not loving resources and using God; avoid love of money. 1 Timothy 6:5ff
--Mark 4:19/the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.
--Money is either a tool or an idol. 1 Timothy 6:17 Spiritual investment of what God has given to you.
--Money cuts deep into character; the greatest barometer of the spiritual life; where a man's treasure is, there his heart is.
--Need to be on a growing edge at all times.
--Special times alone with each child.
--Dinner two times each month with wife.
--Schedule semiannual retreats to be alone with wife.
--Schedule semiannual retreats to be alone with God.
--Looking for fresh bread from the Word every day.
--Willfully choosing to acknowledge the deep personal needs of your life and to be open to change.
--Commitment to time in prayer and in the Word each morning. A discipline.
--Whatever you try to lay claim of is not yours; if I want to have something, I need to give it away; put your hook in it and you lose it.
--Enjoy what God has given you, but don't find your joy there; find your joy in the Lord. Materialism is very subtle.
--If you're willing to trust God for your eternal destiny, why not with the day-to-day?
--Thank God when He meets your needs.
--Need a hungry heart and an open hand.
--Victorious Christian living in the midst of a Babylonian atmosphere. No compromises.
--Need biblical agenda and goals, not cultural (including Christian culture) goals. Otherwise setting yourself up for defeat.
--Faithfulness in the little things.
--Focus on creating godly disciples rather than going for the big numbers.
--The way you change a man is by changing his understanding of God.
--The principle of living by the grace of God; even more difficult than the principle of being saved by the grace of God. 2 Peter 3:18/ grow in grace.
--The proper response to the grace of God (Rom. 6:1).
--My relation with God should become so important that the trivia of this world pales in comparison.
--Valuing my relationship with the living God above all else. Job 2:3-6,10. --Need to review God's promises or we will stop taking risks.
--Men hate the grace of God when God chooses to express it in ways that are a surprise to them. Jonah 4. Trying to define, control, and dispense God's grace.
--We cannot manipulate God by our obedience; He must respond in the terms of grace.
--We revert by instinct to checklist living. --The cause of hell is in great danger when there is one believer who sees no tangible evidence of God but believes Him in spite of it.
--God makes distinguished servants out of people whose views are imprecise because He knows their hearts.
--The essence of legalism is manipulation of God.
--Giving and serving out of sacrifice, not abundance.
--The hope of God does not disappoint.
--Feed yourself on the vertical and give your life away on the horizontal.
--The hand of God is in our lives more than we think; His sovereignty always means a purpose for us. God's plan is not capricious. Esther 4:14.
--The Father imputes value to our work; otherwise nothing. 2 Cor. 3:5.
--A privilege to be cut in on the action.
--Two purposes: to know God and to make Him known.
--We grow only by taking risks. What are we giving our lives for?
--Not giving my life to mediocrity. The overcomer is impervious to a commitment to mediocrity. Daniel the model overcomer of the Bible. The overcomer lives in the midst of a temporal world with eternal values.
--A man of vision.
--What is visible is less important than what is invisible. 2 Cor. 4:17-18 --Investing in God's eternal work; our works quickly evaporate and are lost forever. But His works done through us last forever. Psalm 90:1-2,17
--A powerful biblical self-image. The byproduct of the gospel.
--Humility proceeding not from weakness but from strength. Not playing the game of one-upmanship.
--Only when we see who we really are will we be willing to take risks. Gal. 2:20
--Not intimidated by the forces and powers in this world. Acts 25:23; 26:29
--Seeing life from God's side. Catching up to God's perspective. Numbers 13:30-33; 14:7-9.
--The truth will make you free; John 8:32.
--Satan has no power to match the power in us.
--Every other religion bases acceptance on performance, merit, striving; only the New Testament offers a true basis of acceptance.
--God anticipates every need I will face; nothing lacking or overlooked.
--The Word of God provides an authoritative and accurate word in a time of confusion. --My performance has nothing to do with my value.
--The mind is the battleground of the Christian life; "every thought into captivity"; also, Phil. 4:8.
--Most of our unhappiness comes from listening to ourselves rather than talking to ourselves. Depression is the distance between expectation and reality. Take the Word and talk to yourself with it.
--Must recognize the destructiveness of sin and also reckon myself dead to it; Romans 6.
--The will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect; Romans 12:2.
--God has committed unto us the message of reconciliation.
--Must restore a sense of discipleship and calling.
--Need dependence on the working of the Spirit.
--Awareness of how culture shapes me. Need to back off and get the picture.
--Awareness of my roles.
--Our prayer life is our greatest act of dependence; the lack of prayer is our greatest act of independence.
--Everyone has an agenda for your life; don't be distracted from the purpose to which God called you.
--Don't put your joy in what you are able to accomplish but in who God has made you; Luke 10:18.
--My identity and confidence should be in Christ alone; any other thing that I look to will be inadequate and let me down.
--Don't miss out on the purpose for which you were called; be obedient to God so that you don't miss out on the blessing; Esther 4:14.
--Seize the opportunities God places before you and look to Him for the victory.
--Need to regularly rethink relationship to God or vitality disappears.
--"The object of life is not prosperity but the maturing of the soul" (Solzinitskyn).
--It is not so important what you do, but what a sovereign God chooses to do in your life. --"When Christ calls, He bids a man come and die" (Bonhoeffer).
--God meets us in unexpected ways. Need to be open, sensitive. Stop, look, and listen.
--Must see your spiritual poverty; the prerequisite for healing.
--Must admit that without Christ, we will fail.
--"The doctrines of grace humble a man without degrading him and exalt a man withous inflating him."
--Information does not change us; obedience to what you know is the key. The simplicity of loving Christ.
--Need to get to the reality of brotherhood, oneness, caring, compassion.
--God's secret plan
--Christ in you; Col. 1:27.
--The gospel is not information about Christ; it is the person of Christ.
--Our purpose is to love Christ, not to do things for Christ. He is our identity.
--The things we do (Bible study, prayer, etc.) should be a byproduct of loving Christ; otherwise we can do them without loving Him.
--It all boils down to the heart; 1 Chron. 16:9. God reaches down and changes the heart.
--God does not think the way we think; Isa. 55.
--Allow Christ to remold your mind from within; Rom. 12:2.
--Make sure your everyday life is worthy of the gospel; Phil. 1:27. The relationships you develop, the decisions you make, the attitudes you have.
--To look to your job for fulfillment is idolatry.
--The greatest thing you can do for your mate is to love Christ; the greatest thing you can do for your children is to love your mate.
--Need to make a covenant to walk together with other likeminded believers. To protect and encourage one another; to stand together; take responsibility for each other; accountability relationship. Ask God for a small core of people and stick with them. The power of people knit together in the love of Christ.
--Make a friend, be a friend, win a friend for Christ.
--Love God completely (running the course is not easy; a hard discipline). Love self correctly (identity--who am I? a child of the King; dignity--what am I worth? Christ's death; security--how long will it last? eternal). Love others compassionately.
--All is vanity without eternity in perspective.
--Evaluate self with your head and others with your heart.
--If you want your neighbor to see what Christ can do for him, let him see what Christ has done for you.
--I want to be uncomfortable with my present level of sinning. How ruthless will I be with the sin in my life? Will I pass off what looks good on the outside? Danger of being lulled into a comfort zone. Called to a life of tension. Am I willing to go for broke?
--I want to show compassion to the people I've been praying about.
--Must be involved in the lives of people, and have something to offer them.
--Do my time commitments reflect my verbalized priorities?
--I don't want to reach a point in my life when my children invalidate my ministry.
--I don't want to shoot blanks by depending on natural abilities.
--The illusion that business is productivity, and we love the roar of the crowd.
--Are you going to live courageously or cautiously? Jeremiah 12:5. Jeremiah was the only sober man in an intoxicated generation.
--What are you taking to the ultimate show and tell? Everyone is trying to show off now. Building their big buildings, structuring their programs, weaving the tapestry of their lives. What will last for eternity?
--The more we are attracted to Christ, the less we are distracted by this world. Proverbs 23:26/ "Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways."
--Biblically literate, culturally relevant, evengelistically responsible.
--Balance between control and chaos.
--Daniel wasn't impressed with what I'm impressed with. Maintained a consistent walk in spite of outward circumstances. Several snapshots of a faithful man in an antagonistic environment. Never lost sight of the eternal.
--Psalm 92:14/ "They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green." What do you want at the end of your life? Only by walking in this realization now will it be possible when and if you are old.
--Bifocal vision. Thinking globally and acting locally. Without this vision, we are apt to drop out of the process. Know the fleeting nature of life and the imminence of Christ's return. The only way suffering makes sense (James, 1 Peter, Paul).
--James 4:15/ "we shall live"--even our lives depend on His grace.
--2 Timothy 2:15/ Is the Lord well pleased? Is the work well done? Is the Word well used? Reflective questions.
--Luke 10:38-42/ Distractions that cause us to be double-minded.
--Know and love both God's Word and man.
--Retreat with wife. Dream, look at what dreams are realistic, prioritize them, and plan them in.
--God has a provision for unrighteousness but no provision for selfrighteousness.
--We are saved by God's mercy, not by our merit; by Christ's dying, not our doing.
--To handle yourself use your head; to handle others use your heart.
--Hurry dissipates energy; worry constipates energy.
--When a person is at the height of his sin, he is at the low point of his options.
--Only the fear of God can deliver us from the fear of men.
--Your temper is one of your most valuable possessions--don't lose it.
--Give out of your need--love, money, acceptance.
--Under the Word, under authority, under discipline.
--Making money: knowing when enough is enough. --Begin to work at the values level of your life. Program your mind, spend time with people who cherish the same values, and pursue love as a major characteristic of your life.
--Your significance in life should not be too tightly related to your job.
--Knowing how possessions and work relates to what is most important; God, people, self. --Problem of forgetting what side of the grave we are on [e.g., Bibletown].
--I miss out on being a part of what God is doing when I don't obey. God will accomplish His purpose with or without me, but He offers me a piece of His action.
--Needing to adapt to others when evangelizing (1 Cor. 9), but must remain who you are. Getting rid of any part of your culture that is not serving God.
--Living with ambiguities in the power of the Spirit of God.
--Let God define the ministry, not me.
--Fundamental flaws, if they aren't dealt with, will eventually bring God's temporal discipline. --The tragic error of measuring the compassion of God by circumstances.
--The test of my life is the degree to which I imitate Christ by the power of the Spirit, not by way of effort or struggle. My job is to be clean, open, and honest about the process. --Awareness of brevity of time on earth. When you leave this planet you will never again have the privilege of sharing the gospel, serving the lost, feeding the poor. Enjoy the opportunity and privilege of representing Christ to the world.
--The love you give back to the Lord drives the opportunities you have.
--If I'm going to die, help me to die well; if I'm going to live, help me to live well.
--Don't let the usefulness of your skills get beyond your character development. Service that comes out of integrity, not out of giftedness.
--Glory, honor, power, and majesty belong to Jesus Christ; we must not pursue these things for ourselves.
--Ministry is not what you do but who you are.
--Self-pity and self-indulgence are great enemies.
--As you live on the cutting edge, you need an extra measure of strength to keep your focus. --Believers may believe everything about God without really believing in Him.
--Parable of the talents/ God expects responsible actions, not knowledgeable excuses.
--The heart of God cares for the lost ones, the little ones, the lonely ones, the left out ones. --God calls us to be more concerned with living, not timing.
--The importance of relationships; the things that are important in life are people.
--It is God who does the work; we are called simply to be obedient to Him.
--Don't want to have uncompleted relationships with other people in which there are regrets; need to be healed.
--What things would you attend to if you knew this was the last day of your life? Do them now. --1 Peter 2:4ff/ Our calling; we must understand who we are, what we are worth, and where we are going.
--Three personal worth needs: love and acceptance (sought in the lust of the flesh [people] but fulfilled in the Father), significance and identity (sought in the lust of the eye [possessions] but fulfilled in the Son), competence and fulfillment (sought in the pride of life [position] but fulfilled in the Holy Spirit).
--Don't dwell so much on your need to belong that you forget who you belong to. --God doesn't tell us what our purpose is without telling us our position in Christ.
--1 Peter 2:9/ Proclaim to those outside what has taken place inside.
--1 Peter 2:11/ If we are going to be effective, proclaiming people, we must first of all have inward discipline. This should spring not out of guilt but out of a loving response. Remember your citizenship; know who you are. Why do I work harder for my comfort than I do for my character? Because I forget my citizenship.
--Must value relationships. The world calls us to compare, control, consume, corrupt. What is my value system? What do I crave more than anything else? What do I dream dreams about? Is it consistent with my citizenship in heaven? There will always be a struggle in this area.
--1 Peter 2:11/ Fleshly lusts wage war against your soul. The need to resist sin.
--Don't spend so much time worrying about your possessions that you forget about people.
--I need to live life so that others will truly love God.
--Don't love life as if you will never leave but knowing that you will leave. Not what is passing but what is coming.
--Fear God, not suffering or circumstances.
--1 Peter 3:15/ We are called to sanctify Christ; to enshrine Him. I must set Him up as head; if not, He will not be Lord.
--1 Peter 3:15/ The non-Christian has no answer to the Christian who has hope in the face of suffering. Our witness has a greater impact in these times than in prosperity. A greater impact when you share your hope rather than your prosperity.
--If we understand our salvation, we have a hope; what we have you can't buy. The suffering will pass, but the significance remains.
--Roles of a Christian: You are an alien. It is crucial to go through life with an eternal perspective, realizing that you are a sojourner. You are a servant. Your goal is to serve Christ and to serve others. You are a steward. Your goal is to invest your time, talents, treasures in the pursuit of the Great Commission, and the image of God within. You are a witness. Your goal is to manifest the character and proclaim the name of Christ. You are an ambassador. You are to represent God's interests in your dealings with the world. You are a warrior. Your goal is to advance the Kingdom of God, doing battle with the forces of darkness. You are a subject. Your life is to be lived in worship, to the glory of your heavenly king. You are a master. You are to rule and to enjoy the fruit of heaven that is available here on earth. You are a child. You enter into the same love relationship with God as a child has with his father. (Anders)
--When believers are consistent, they are different from unbelievers in what they admire, in what they do, and in their awareness of what they can do. The Christian and non-Christian belong to two entirely different realms.
--The beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12/ "Blessed" describes aspects of the believer's inner condition. The believer is characterized not so much by what he does as by what he is. --Matthew 5:3/ "Poor in spirit"--the opposite of spiritually self-sufficient. No power within myself to please God; utterly dependent on His grace.
--Matthew 5:4/ An anguish for sin. Need for self-examination and repentence.
--Matthew 5:5/ The meek or gentle are those who humble themselves before God in utter dependence on Him for forgiveness of sin, wisdom, and strength to move through a day effectively.
--A teachable spirit; ready to listen and learn from others.
--Willingness to leave everything--myself, my rights, my cause, my whole future--in the hands of God, and especially if I feel I am suffering unjustly.
--Matthew 5:6/ A keen appetite for, a deep craving for, a deep passion for righteousness. The goal of Christian growth is the achievement of righteousness. God calls us to be holy. A man who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness always puts himself in the way of getting it. --The Christian gospel places all its primary emphasis upon being, rather than doing. The gospel puts a greater weight upon our attitude than upon our actions. A Christian is something before he does anything; and we have to be Christians before we acn act as Christians.
--Matthew 5:7/ The one who truly realizes his position face to face with God is the one who must of necessity be merciful with respect to others. The believer stands on middle ground; he is to show mercy to others as it has been shown to him.
--Matthew 5:8/ The quality of singleness of heart, the honesty which has no hidden motive, no selfish interest, and is open to all things. Such single-minded individuals are free from the tyranny of a divided self, and do not try to serve God and the world at the same time. --Matthew 5:9/ One who is at peace with God "the author of peace and lover of concord." Seeking to bring individuals into harmony with God (reconciliation) and with one another. --Matthew 5:10-12/ We are not to be offensive or foolish, or unwise. We can never be like Christ without being entirely changed. To become like Him we have to become light; light always exposes darkness, and the darkness always hates the light. Because goodness rebukes the world's sinfulness, the world turns against them and even persecutes them. They uphold God's standards of truth, justice and purity, and refuse to compromise with paganism or bow the knee to the idols that men tend to erect as substitutes for God (2 Tim. 3:12).
--Matthew 8:8-9/ To have authority you must be under authority. All authority is derived. Must know what it is to take orders. Spiritual authority produces results that we alone cannot produce. Therefore abandon yourself to the Lord Jesus. Authority comes from Jesus alone (Luke 9:1-5).
--Luke 10:20/ Whether I succeed or fail, I am still joyful because my name is in the book of life. Is God enough for me, or do I need Him plus success?
--Luke 22:24-27/ Being a servant to others.
--The devil is only in charge of the world as defined by John: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
--Nothing to fear in following Christ's leadership. You can trust that kind of authority. To the extent that we become like Jesus, we too become leaders who give people nothing to fear. --If I bow before God, I will stand before Satan; if I stand before God (in arrogance), I will bow before Satan.
--God has so made the world that our search for love, beauty, and truth is really our search for Him.
--Everything that puts value before possessions is a movement toward the kingdom; everything that puts possessions before value is a movement away from the kingdom. Everything that seeks to help people, that sees time in the light of eternity, is movement towards the kingdom.
--All Christians are called to minister. Ministry issues out of mercy.
--Full-time paid ministry is no better or worse than unpaid ministry. Ministry is a response to vocation; God's call.
--Ministries are given by God. Gifts are not playthings in the nursery of the Christian life.
--A balance between Word and sacrament, evangelism and edification, prayer and activism. --The most valuable experiences of life involve taking risks.
--Problem of being harried and driven by outside demands--being nibbled to death by ducks. Need to have regular time alone.
--Being open to new ideas rather than rejecting out of hand what seems strange.
--Need for deep and intimate relationships; a group of trusted, intimate friends.
--Need to care for a person for whatever he or she is rather than what I think they are or wish they would be. Dropping my expectations of what I want him or her to be for me, dropping my desire to change this person to suit my needs.

 

Three global purposes emerge from this personal mission statement:

Global Purpose 1 (loving God completely): To know God and His character and grow into conformity with His Son in faith, hope, and love.

Global Purpose 2 (loving self correctly): To see myself in the light of God's character and grow in humility and obedience.

Global Purpose 3 (loving others compassionately): To see others in the light of God's character and grow in love and service.

Seven role purposes emerge from global purpose 3:

Role Purpose 1 (husband): To love and serve my wife in such a way that she is free to live up to her full potential as a woman of God.

Role Purpose 2 (father): To love and serve my daughter and son-in-law in such a way that they know that dad and mom know and love God.

Role Purpose 3 (son): To love and serve my mother and father in such a way that they know that they are honored and cherished.

Role Purpose 4 (friend): To love and serve my friends in a way that nurtures commitment, transparency, and vulnerability in relationships of mutual acceptance and esteem.

Role Purpose 5 (neighbor): To love and serve my neighbors in such a way that they want to know Christ (seekers) or grow in Him (believers).

Role Purpose 6 (minister): To love and serve unbelievers and believers in such a way that seekers are evangelized and Christians are edified.

Role Purpose 7 (publisher): To love and serve readers in a way that helps them manifest eternal values in a temporal arena by drawing them to intimacy with God and a better understanding of the culture in which they live.

Role Purpose 8 (citizen):

• Faith: a radical trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God. God is in control and has my best interests at heart.
•Hope: anchored in the promises of God.
•Love: a deepening love for God (mind, emotions, will, actions) based on growing intimacy with Him.
•The temporal versus the eternal—I must treat the temporal as temporal and the eternal as eternal by esteeming the invisible over the visible.
•More than anything else, a passion to know God.
•Compassion for the lost.
•Since I cannot live on yesterday’s faith, I must be willing to take greater risks based on God’s character and promises.
•A growing awareness of my profound need for grace in all things.
•A clearer understanding of the truth that my deepest needs are met in Christ, so that I am secure enough to serve others without manipulating relationships to get my needs met. •Developing a spirit of humility, complete dependence, and teachability.
•A willingness to forgive others as Christ has forgiven me.
•Treating people with grace, dignity, and possibility.
•A stewardship mentality—increased awareness of God’s ownership of all things and an attitude of contentment in all things.
•Commitment to ongoing exercise and renewal of spirit, soul, and body.
•Personal integrity—a congruence between the inside and the outside. •Openness and honesty in relationships.
•Radical commitment to the Great Commandment.
•Radical commitment to the Great Commission.
•Standing firm in the spiritual warfare by submitting to God and resisting the lures of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
•Practicing Christ’s presence in all things and doing everything to His glory.
•Accountability to godly men and a willingness to respond with humility to exhortation and rebuke so that I will not be enmeshed in self-deception.
•Maintaining an ongoing sense of childlike wonder and awe.
•Focusing on the process and not the product; genuine ministry flows out of being as an extension of who I am in Christ.
•Walking in the power of the Spirit and putting no confidence in the flesh.
•Being fully alive to the present and not living in the past or the future.
•Living each day as though it were my last, and treating relationships in the same way. Cultivating the mentality of a sojourner, pilgrim, stranger, and alien as I wait expectantly for my true home.
•Growing responsiveness and sensitivity to God’s loving initiatives.
•An ongoing attitude of thanksgiving and joy that transcends my circumstances. A willingness to cling to God’s character in the midst of life’s pains and pleasures.
•Manifesting the fruit of the Spirit by abiding in Christ.
•A commitment to ongoing renewal of the mind so that I can grow in intimacy with God and not be seduced by the culture.
•An increased willingness to live out the truth that everything God asks me to do is for my ultimate good, and that everything He asks me to avoid is detrimental to my soul. •An awareness that good and evil both increase at compound interest, and a corresponding desire to live in the light of Luke 16:10.
•A desire to give my life in exchange for the things God declares to be important; a willingness to define success by the standard of the Word (relational) and not by the standard of the world (functional).
•The pursuit of godly mentors who are farther along in the spiritual journey.
•An understanding that habits of holiness are sustained by discipline and dependence; unholy habits are sustained by default.
•I must be faithful to the process and let go of ownership of the results.
•A firm belief that since the ministry cannot be measured, I must be content with what God has given me and not compare my ministry with others.
•Asking God for the three faithful wounds of contrition, compassion, and longing after God. •Continued and responsible cultivation of giftedness while at the same time depending less on knowledge and skills and more on the power of the Holy Spirit.
•Commitment to the centrality of Christ in all I am and do.

Trying to come to grips on a daily basis with what it means to seek first His kingdom. The problem of drifting back into complacency. To seek the kingdom is to seek the manifestation of the intimacy already accomplished in Christ. Both now and not yet. Bringing the Lord into the daily process of living.

Ask God to help you want what He wants and to love what He loves.

The Great Commandment is not a part-time commitment.

The tension of living in a temporal arena and being called to demonstrate our commitment to the eternal. The abundant life is pursuing the eternal.

Being motivated in the direction of the promises of God.

No promise of temporal gain by following Christ. Temporal things are given as a result of grace. Difference between the Old Testament and New Testament on this.

What you do as a Christian appreciably affects eternity.

Contentment because I’m convinced that the promises of God are valid, and I’m giving my life for them. His promises are an extension of His character.

The secular becomes spiritual if you are giving your life for the eternal; the spiritual becomes secular if you are giving your life for the temporal.

Hope in the Bible is concerned with the promises of God; hope in the world is concerned with the promises of the world. Don’t hope for what God does not promise. Don’t let it consume your life or motivate you. Don’t make your joy dependent on it. We don’t jettison the temporal; we just don’t put our hope in it.

The Bible requires us to hold many things in tension.

Like Jacob, as long as we are on this earth we shall keep wrestling with the visible and the invisible, the earthly city and the heavenly city, the natural and the supernatural, the health of the body and the eternal salvation of the soul, the desire to live here below and the hope of going up above, the hunger for bread and the insatiable desire for heaven, the dream of enjoying the seasons of life and the knowledge of entering the one eternal season of the kingdom.—Carlo Carretto

God is in control; not the fickle finger of fate but the providential hand of the living God. Like Israel, we may struggle with God over what our best interests look like, but this does not alter His commitment to them.

In all our relationships in life, we perceive that we give more than we receive. But we must be committed to giving rather than grabbing.

When our standard of living is threatened, we throttle back from commitment and obedience. A false perception that the meeting of our needs was our responsibility. But in an ultimate sense, our destiny is shaped by no one else but God.

The real question is pragmatic, not theological; will we look to God or elsewhere for the meeting of our needs?

Everyone has an agenda for your life. Some are more overt. Who determines this agenda?

Jesus dealt with His weariness by getting alone with His Father. The lonely places, and the practice of solitude. We are schooled to hate silence. The beauty of solitude. But Jesus paid a price to do it. In the midst of pressure He prayerfully pondered His purpose. The pressure to lose sight of our unique calling. Solitude is not a place, but a condition of the soul.

Jesus clearly understood His mission and measured His use of time against that sense of mission. He also understood His own limits. Thirty years of relative obscurity and privacy for three years of important activity. He knew that time must be properly bugeted for the gathering of inner strength and resolve in order to compensate for one’s weaknesses when spiritual warfare begins. His private moments with the Father were a fixed item on His time budget. Must analyze opportunities in light of your purpose. Stick with what few things you do well. Need constant refocusing.

It is the characteristic of God to give—it is the characteristic of sin to take. We must be willing to cling to the goodness of God in the face of life’s pain. In His goodness, He wants to be kind to us forever, he always acts for our benefit, and he is committed to our joy. Biblical pictures that illustrate God’s goodness: shepherd/sheep, father/son, groom/bride. We sometimes view God as carrying out His plans at our expense. But if He cannot be trusted, there is no hope.

When God is glorified, we are satisfied, and the world around us is evangelized/edified.

There is greater pain in sin and disobedience than in faithfulness and righteousness. Everything He asks of us is for our good, and everything He asks us to avoid is to our harm. The sanity of holiness.

God’s ultimate intention for man is to glorify Himself by demonstrating to the universe through man that He is who He says He is.

Temptation and deception relates to thinking God is trying to achieve His program at our expense.

We are inherently motivated to meet our needs. But we have been deceived into the world’s thinking that our needs can be met in some place other than the hand of God. Needs for love and acceptance (security), significance and identity (who you are), and competence and fulfillment (what you do).

“Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love. . . . Do not quarrel therefore with your lot in life. Do not complain of its never ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor for prayer. That is your practice.” (Henry Drummond)

“You will give yourselves to many things, give yourself first to love. Hold things in their proportion. . . . You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. . . . Everything else in all our lives is transitory.” (Henry Drummond)

“Love transforms . . . ambition into aspiration, greed into gratitude, selfishness into service, getting into giving, demands into dedication.” (Mary Crawley)

“Worry is a misuse of the imagination; assuming responsibility that God never intended you to have.” (Mary Crawley)

“It is better not to live than not to love.” (Henry Drummond)

“The people who influence you are people who believe in you. . . . To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost.” (Henry Drummond)

“Love covers all things . . . the self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others’ faults; the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but ‘covereth all things’; the sincerity of purpose which endeavors to see things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion feared or calumny denounced.” (Henry Drummond)

Problem of unlearning spiritual truth. Like losing a skill. Need daily reinforcement.

If you cannot measure the work of God, you cannot measure success. Therefore, you must live with the ambiguity of not knowing. The natural human bent is to measure, create, and control. We are in the ballpark when we talk about faithfulness to opportunity, but in danger when we look at things in terms of productivity or results. (Henrichsen)

Even when we evaluate growth in another, we can never know the degree to which we had an impact in moving him in that direction.

Counsel is never better than the information on which it is based.

90% of the problem in discerning God’s will is overcoming our own will.

You can be too big for God to use, but you cannot be too small.

Knowledge is proud because it thinks it knows so much; wisdom is humble because it realizes it knows so little.

Jesus came not to free us from tribulation but to free us from the power of sin.

You don’t learn more about Christ until you start sharing what you do know. Then you discover what you don’t know and desire to learn as fast as you can.

Even a dead fish can go with the stream. It takes a strong, live believer to swim against the stream.

Reducing the Christian life to a set of techniques. Spending all the time in Col. 3-4 rather than 1-2.

You cannot have a regular intake of Scripture and not desire to be holy.

Our natural propensity is to be with the crowd rather than the Lord.

A person all wrapped up in himself is the world’s smallets package.

We will not become men and women of God without the presence of solitude.

When you have nothing left but God, then you become aware for the first time that God is enough.

Lord, do what you want to me so that You can do what you want through me. (Jack Taylor)

There is no future in any job; the future lies in the person who holds the job.

If a man could have even half his wishes, he would double his trouble. (Ben Franklin)

Authority is a poor substitute for leadership. To be really effective, authority must be earned.

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only the the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. (Hellen Keller)

Only the fear of God can deliver us from the fear of men.

When God measures a man, He puts the tape around the heart, not the head.

Luck lies at the intersection of preparation and opportunity.

If you can’t think of anything for which to give thanks, you have a poor memory.

Good will is achieved by many actions; it can be lost by one.

The narrower the mind, the broader the statement.

Whether on the road or in an argument, when you see red, it’s time to stop.

The failure to realize God’s sufficienty in my life. Problem of focus changing from Christ to my circumstances.

It is unrealistic to expect more than God’s sufficiency. Cannot properly quantify expectations.

Desk motto: no reservations, no retreats, no regrets.

A person without accountability will always consider the commandments of God to be negotiable.

Loving people who are unlovable is a matter of perspective. What God has done for human beings gives them a dignity that nothing in this world can bestow. Love recognizes the dignity inherent in human beings, and with Christians it is doubly awesome. Serving people through the lens of the cross.

God is not accountable to me; I am accountable to Him.

“Imagine one selected day struck out of [your life], and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” (Charles Dickens)

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. (C. S. Lewis)

It is easier to act one’s way into a new way of thinking than to think one’s way into a new way of acting. (Erich Fromm)

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. (John Barrymore)

The need to keep your mind and spirit alert; don’t rest too long between times with God.

Life is difficult, but shared burdens are lighter.

Use Personal Affirmations re four temptations.

When God is glorified in our lives, we are satisfied and others are edified.

“The world expects of Christians that they will raise their voices so loudly and clearly and so formulate their protest that not even the simplest man can have the slightest doubt about what they are saying. We stand in need of folk who have determined to speak directly and unmistakably and come what may, to stand by what they have said.” (Albert Camus)

Character is letting the mood pass.

It is always difficult to find time to do the things you should do because it is so easy to do the things you want to do.

The Lord is more desirous to talk to us than we are to talk to Him.

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.” (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 72-73)

“Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” (Jim Elliott)

God waits on the other side of a temptation to compromise to reward those who walk in integrity.

The more we are willing to release earthly possessions, the more we will be willing to grasp eternal treasures.

If we are not satisfied with what we have, we will never be satisfied with what we want.

God has already given us everything we need for our present happiness.

Contentment is not found in having everything but in being satisfied with everything we have.

Most of us don’t know exactly what we want, but we’re certain we don’t have it.

The danger of spending more time looking in the rear view mirror to check and compare ourselves to ourselves and others than looking where we are going. It only leads to pompous self-satisfaction if we compare well, and feelings of inadequacy and inferiority if we do not. (Dick Keyes, Beyond Identity, 90)

Spiritual dissatisfaction lies at the root of most of our noblest accomplishments.

“Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” (Peter Marshall)

Any dead fish can float downstream.

Diagnostic questions: Who are you? What are you good at? How do you define success? What have you outgrown? What do you care deeply about? (Phil Hook)

Five things to seek: At peace with your past; in step with God; inner contentment; giving and receiving in relationships; a clearly defined purpose that affects your schedule. (Phil Hook)

When it’s painful for you to criticize, you probably do it well; if you would get the slightest pleasure out of doing it, it’s usually best to hold your tongue.

“Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you, or disputed the passage with you?” (Walt Whitman)

“Suppose someone invented an instrument, a convenient little talking tube which, say, could be heard over the whole land. . . . I wonder if the police would not forbid it, fearing that the whole country would become mentally deranged if it were used.” (Soren Kierkegaard [1813-1855])

While people in our culture are reading the Times, we should be reading the eternities. . . . When ultimate ends disappear, only toys remain. (Peter Kreeft)

Do I have a biblical system of ethics, or is it shaped by my culture? Am I willing to pay the price to be totally Christian in all my relationships? Am I ready to minister to the needs of those affected by this shifting value system?

God has passed many men by in order to achieve His purposes.

“What is the greatest wonder?” “Each day death strikes, and we live as though were immortal. This is the greatest wonder.” (The Mahabarata)

God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things so that He and not the people receive the glory.

Our ministry is successful in God’s sight to the degree that we decrease and Jesus increases.

A functioning disciple is a product of a multiplicity of influential lives.

The work of God cannot be measured or controlled; we can only participate in it. (Walt Henrichsen)

We cannot control most of our lives, but most of us don’t admit it. The only thing we can decide is our response to the things we don’t decide.

We cannot measure the work of God in our lives, let alone the true extent of our influence on others.

We are not called to live with a philosophy of fear but of faith in the overcomer (Rev. 2-3).

Some sheep follow close on the heels of the shepherd, while others move only because other sheep have moved. Our relationship with the Good Shepherd should not be a first-hand experience, not the second-hand experience of others.

“It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.” (Dag Hammarskjold)

We teach what we believe, but we reproduce what we are.

The gospels illustrate three levels of discipleship: the curious, the convinced, and the committed. A committed disciple is one who has genuine affection and love for the Savior and is obedient to His word.

We will not always understand the ways of God, but we are always called to trust Him. We honor Him best by continuing to trust Him in times when we do not understand Him.

Only true disciples will have the eyes to see, take the time to pray, and have the heart to go.

True education is a process of moving from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.

Solomon for a while kept ahead of the power curve of sin. But Solomon grew tired and sin did not. (Walt Henrichsen)

As we grow older in our faith, we tend to forget what it was like when we were lost. Remembering this motivates us to share our faith.

We are playing our lives before the grand audience of the Godhead.

We are invited to participate in the holy process of populating heaven and depopulating hell.

An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

A poor workman always finds fault with his tools.

We can do much more when we think we can do it and we cannot do what we don’t think we can do. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.

Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street.

Faith is radical risk unsupported by advance information on the outcome. Faith is obedience—a leap and a commitment. It cannot be made without a measure of courage, and courage increases with repeated commitment. Daring to prove the mysteries that yield their secrets only as reward for risking. (Bennett Sims)

Faith works by love, not duty. It must be felt in the heart; it is a heart exchange. We should read the Word of God not just to learn about God but to love God. (Al Whittinghill)

Accepting the counsel of the Lord will bear fruit in the long run, though the results may be ambiguous in the short run. As we grow in Christ, we must learn to live with ambiguity and let loose of the craving to have all the answers.

Believers argue with God; skeptics argue with each other.

Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door. (Benjamin Jarett)

It would be a convenient arrangement were we so constituted that we could not talk better than we live. For reasons known to God, however, there seems to be no necessary connection between our speaking and our doing...we are long on talk and short on conduct. We use the language of power but our deeds are the deeds of weakness. (Tozer, Born After Midnight, 32)

Live your life so that you wouldn’t be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

Reputation is what others say about you; character is what God knows about you.

The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Every Christian will become at last what his desires have made him. We are all the sum total of our hungers. (Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, 55)

The secret to living is dying (John 12:24-26). Follow Christ; don’t ask Him to follow you. There can be no half measures in your commitment.

We forfeited our rights when we became Christians.

God ascribes no value to temporal assets; He imputes worth to the individual.

Possessions are grease provided by God to lubricate the skids of life so that we can concentrate on the things that are truly important. (Henrichsen)

Self-ambition, self-indulgence, self-pity cause us to forget our calling to stand in the gap. Wallowing in the victimization of our lives rather than the victory we have in Christ.

Called to live with integrity and skill.

Questions related to discovering our character. What do I want most out of life? What do I think most in this life? What do I do with my leisure time? Who is the company I enjoy? Whom and what do I admire? What do I laugh at? (Adapted from Tozer)

In the perfect happiness of heaven nothing more will remain to be desired; in the full enjoyment of God man will obtain whatever he has desired in other things. (Aquinas)

We resist having to change. We just want to escape the consequences of the world being truly what it is and of our being who we truly are. (Adapted from Dallas Willard)

We can fashion ourselves by placing ourselves in the hands first of the supreme Artist, God, and then by subjecting ourselves to such holy influences and such formative powers as shall make him into a man of God. Or he may foolishly trust himself to unworthy hands and become at last a misshapen and inartistic vessel, of little use to mankind and a poor example of the skill of the heavenly Potter....We fashion ourselves by exposing our lives to the molding influences, good or bad, that lie around us. (Tozer, Born After Midnight, 127-28)

The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones. (Somerset Maugham)

It was not as said in Lord Acton’s well-known statement, that “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Rather, power makes corruption apparent, and absolute power makes corruption absolutely apparent. Thomas à Kempis was correct: “Occasions make not a man fail, but they show what the man is.” (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 240-41)

Cultivate the mind of a subject in a kingdom. The King has all power and authority in His hand. The subject’s life, occupation, deportment are dependent on the good pleasure of the King. Our lives are in His hands. He fashioned us in the womb. Recognize His sovereignty and develop a sense of dependency and submission. A trusting relationship.

There is no sin so great that God will not forgive, but there is no sin so small that it does not need to be forgiven.

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all—friends? (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Takers ultimately lose, but givers win forever. This is a rule the universe never breaks. (Douglas M. Lawson)

Reflect often on the person of God (self-existence, infinitude, eternity, unchangeableness, majesty), the powers of God (omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence), and the perfections of God (holiness, love, mercy, trughfulness, faithfulness, goodness, patience, justice). Jeremiah 9:23-24.

God is what thought cannot better; God is whom thought cannot reach; God no thinking can conceive. Without God, man can have no being, no reason, no knowledge, no good desire, naught. Thou, O God, art what thou art, transcending all. (Eric Milner-White)

To think steadily of that to which the idea of origin cannot apply is not easy, if indeed it is possible at all. Just as under certain conditions a tiny point of light can be seen, not by looking directly at it but by focusing the eyes slightly to one side, so it is with the idea of the Uncreated. When we try to focus our thought upon One who is pure uncreated being we may see nothing at all, for He dwelleth in light that no man can approach unto. Only by faith and love are we able to glimpse Him as He passes by our shelter in the cleft of the rock. (Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 33)

Love among men is awakened by something in the beloved, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves men because He has chosen to love them. (Packer, Knowing God, 112)

A simple test before speaking of any person or subject that was perhaps controversial. THINK: Is it true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind? (Alan Redpath)

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness. (Reinhold Niebuhr)

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. (G. K. Chesterton)

One act of thanksgiving when things go wrong is worth a thousand thanks when things go right. (John of Avila)

Martin Luther, holding a rose in his hand, said: “Tis a magnificent work of God: could a man make but one such rose as this, he would be thought worthy of all honor, but the gifts of God lose their value in our eyes, from their very infinity.

The virtue of gratitude. Whatever we become, wherever we go, whatever we do, we should never be unaware of what once was, what might have been and what could well be again. For the believer who understands this, “By God’s grace I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10) is never pious rhetoric. “There but for the grace of God go I” is as realistic a statement as any we ever make. (Os Guiness, In Two Minds, 69)

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. (Frederick Buechner)

Seek guidance and you get nothing; seek God and you get guidance.

Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself. (C. S. Lewis, The Best of CSL, 112)

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will de done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. (C. S. Lewiw, The Best of CSL, 156-57)

Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of. ¶How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. (Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 52-53)

Hope does not reduce the ingredients of living, but adds God to the equation. Hope shouts, not because there is no enemy, but because God gives the triumph. Hope sings, not because there is no night, but because God gives songs in the night. The pulse of hope is praise. (Morris Inch, Psychology in the Psalms)

If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.

I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. Really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, incredibly merciful. (John Ruskin)

Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with. (Peter Marshall)

Man is only a reed, the feeblest thing in nature, but, he is a thinking reed. It is not necessary for the entire universe to take up arms in order to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water, is sufficient to kill him. But if the universe crushes him, man would still be nobler than the thing which destroys him, because he knows that he is dying, and the universe which has him at its mercy is unaware of it. (Blaise Pascal)

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. (Oliver Wendall Holmes)

When you put your stock in the world’s system to evaluate yourself, you will wait in terror looking over your shoulder until someone rides into town who is faster on the draw than you. (Walt Henrichsen)

Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am Your sin. You took on You what was mine; yet set on me what was Yours. You became what You were not, that I might become what I was not. (Martin Luther)

Idolatry is trusting people, possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do. (Bill Gothard)

It is literally true that in judging others we trumpet abroad our secret faults. Allow any man to give gree vent to his feelings about others and then you may with perfect safety turn and say, “Thou art the man.” (J. A. Hadfield)

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) We are revealed by what we praise and what we condemn. Romans 2:1-2.

The Lord’s Prayer: I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself. I cannot say “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like his child. I cannot say “who art in heaven” if I am laying up no treasure there. I cannot say “hallowed be Thy name” if I am not striving for holiness. I cannot say “Thy kingdom come” if I am not doing all in my power to hasten that wonderful event. I cannot say “thy will be done” if I am disobedient to His word. I cannot say “on earth as it is in heaven” if I’ll not serve Him here and now. I cannot say “give us this day our daily bread” if I am dishonest or am seeking things by subterfuge. I cannot say “forgive us our debts” if I harbor a grudge against anyone. I cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path. I cannot say “deliver us from evil” if I do not put on the whole armor of God. I cannot say “Thine is the kingdom” if I do not give the King the loyalty due Him from a faithful subject. I cannot attribute to Him “the power” if I fear what men may do. I cannot ascribe to him “the glory” if I’m seeking honor only for myself, and I cannot say “forever” if the horizon of my life is bounded completely by time.

The paradox of the moral life consists in this: that the highest mutuality is achieved where mutual advantages are not consciously sought as the fruit of love. For love is purest where it desires no returns for itself;; and it is most potent where it is purest. Complete mutuality, with its advantages to each party to the relationship, is therefore most perfectly realized where it is not intended, but love is poured out without seeking returns. That is how the madness of religious morality, with its trans-social ideal, becomes the wisdom which achieves wholesome social consequences. For the same reason, a purely prudential morality must be satisfied with something less than the best. (Reinhold Niebuhr quoted in A Shattered Visage, 145-56)

There is no act that begins with the love of God that does not end wit the love of neighbor.

Four Personal Affirmations concerning temptation.

Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it rest in Thee. (Augustine)

There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the dark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not find in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. (Blaise Pascal)

God’s purpose in creating you is that He wants to demonstrate to the universe through you that He is who He says He is and, in the process, wants to fulfill all your deepest longings. (Max Anders)

The thoughts that go through our minds early in the morning and late at night reveal much about our character and affections.

The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all our money. (John Henry Jowett)

The heart of the Bible is faith, which is commitment before knowledge. Growth in our relationship with God, involves a tremendous amount of risk. The more committed you are, the closer you are to the edge, and the more dependent you must become.

[Satan’s] cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God’s] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. (C. S. Lewis)

Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself; he is not at peace with himself, because he is not at peace with God.” (Thomas Merton)

I know of nothing more important than perseverance. Genius—that power which dazzles mortal eyes, is oft but perseverance in disguise.” (Henry Austin)

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. (Confucius)

To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour. (William Blake)

Your perspective determines your priorities/purpose, and your priorities determine your practice.

We are all conceived in close prison, and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death. Was any man seen to sleep in the cart . . . between prison and the place of execution? But we sleep all the way. From the womb to the grave, we are never thoroughly awake. (John Donne)

It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards. . . Life can never really be understood in time simply because at no particular moment can I find the necessary resting-lace from which to understand it—backwards. (Soren Kierkegaard)

It is indeed natural to us to wish and to plan, and it is merciful in the Lord to disappoint our plans, and to cross our wishes. For we cannot be safe, much less happy, but in proportion as we are weaned from our own wills, and made simply desirous of being directed by His guidance. This truth (when we are enlightened by His Word) is sufficiently familiar to the judgement; but we seldom learn to reduce it into practice without being trained a while in the school of disappointment. The schemes we form look so plausible and convenient that when they are broken we are ready to say, What a pity! We try again, and with no better success; we are grieved, and perhaps angry, and plan another, and so on; at length, in a course of time, experience and observation begin to convince us that we are not more able than we are worthy to choose aright for ourselves. Then the Lord’s invitation to cast our cares upon Him, and His promise to take care of us, appear valuable; and when we have done planning, His plan in our favor gradually opens, and He does more and better for us than we could either ask or think. I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied that, had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their present appearance, but the Lord sees them in their consequences; if we could do so likewise, we should be perfectly of His mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is spoken of as one of His heaviest judgements, when He gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk after their own counsels. (John Newton)

If a man could have even half his wishes, he would double his troubles. (Ben Franklin)

In our prayers we seldom ask for a change of character, but always a change in circumstances.

Life becomes so filled with the if only’s of the future that today becomes an inconvenient obstacle in the path of reaching tomorrow. And yet today is all we have. Life is filled with todays, and God wants His children to find joy in contentment.

Life is never long enough to put the Lord off until tomorrow. The things that are before are all too soon behind. We can never pick up the years we have put down. If we intend to walk with God tomorrow we must start today.

To live in the past and future is easy. To live in the present is like threading a needle. (Walker Percy)

To procrastinate is to put off until tomorrow the things you have already put off until today.

Our great business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. (Thomas Carlyle)

Instead of asking, “What will I leave behind me?” it is better to ask, “What am I going to take with me?”

The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration but its donation. (Corrie Ten Boom)

Jesus Christ’s death purchased us and all that we have. We are His, not only by creation, but by redemption; this makes us doubly His.

Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their life-styles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot. (Gordon Dahl)

The idol of accomplishment produces overcommitment. This hinders the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and makes us relationally shallow. The danger of pursuing functional success while succumbing to relational failure.

Each person needs a Paul (a mentor who is willing and able to build into your life), a Barnabas (a colaborer who loves you and is willing to ask you tough questions to keep you honest), and a Timothy (a disciple into whose life you are building).

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. (Charles H. Spurgeon)

When you are dealing with people, hope, but don’t expect. (Leo Bartimier)

Give yourself to “the higher vision of the inner significance of people.” (William James)

If you are serious about achieving progress with God against the temptations in your life, take your needs and weaknesses before God in prayer. Without repentance and obedience we remain mired in mediocrity, chained in the bondage of a visionless life. God cannot give us the blessings of faith until we take steps toward Him. This is the only way to know God’s peace and power at the deeper levels. (Tom Eisenman)

It is awesome to realize that at the end of our lives we will be the sum total of our responses to God’s answers to our prayers, for God has chosen to be limited in His next action by our response to His previous answer. The final outcome of our lives is decided by a life-long series of responses of God’s answers to our prayers. The way we respond to God and then He, in turn, to us actually determines the direction our lives will take. (Evelyn Christenson)

The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult, and left untried. (G. K. Chesterton)

There are only two kinds of people in the world; and they are not the good and the bad, but the living and the dead, the twice-born and the once-born, the children of God and the children of Adam, the pregnant and the barren. That is the difference between heaven and hell. (Peter Kreeft)

There are two elements which are central in the Christian experience. First, a man hears God say, “Thou art the man.” Secondly, he replies, “Thou art my God.” (Brennan Manning)

When we refuse to acknowledge and repent of sin in our lives, it quenches the Spirit and removes our joy, certainty, and peace.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not on figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means to an end; that end—beginning, mean, and end to all things—is God. (Philip James Bailey)

God’s glory is the sum of His intrinsic eternal perfections. (Marvin Rosenthal)

God wants us to be elitist about ideas and egalitarian about people. Our culture tells us to do the opposite. (Peter Kreeft)

It is easy to lip-synch in the chorus of life, but each of us will have to sing solo before God.

Criteria for the believer’s judgment: (1) obedience to the Lord’s commandments, (2) stewardship of opportunities and resources, (3) response to circumstances, (4) our participation in the Great Commission. (Walt Henrichsen)

The only way to freedom is to live in the present now.

Securing yourself to admiration adulation will unsecure you to Christ.

There are times when it is necessary to let go of the illusory securities of the world so that we can find our true security in Christ. Luke 5:27— Levi’s letting go of the trapeze and flying through midair to catch the arms of Jesus.

The petition “Lead us not into temptation” shows us that life is dangerous, that it can trip us up and ruin us, that we can stake everything on the wrong card.

God is the absolutely exalted, the holy King who dwells “in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). There is but a single way which leads to God and that is not magic, not the possession of bewitching formulas or bewitching drinks, nor the precise and respectful following of cosmic rules. The only way is the way of bowing down in humility before the countenance of God, of accepting His grace in Jesus Christ. At the moment that you do this, God becomes your God, and then in the most veritable sense the entire cosmos is yours, “and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God” (1 Corinthians 3:23). (Hermann Bavinck)

Austerity has always made me happy and its opposite, miserable. I find it strange that, knowing this, I should so often have inflicted upon myself the nausea of overindulgence, and had to fight off the black dogs of satiety. Human beings, as Pascal points out, are peculiar in that they avidly pursue ends they know will bring them no satisfaction; gorge themselves with food which cannot nourish and with pleasures which cannot please. I am a prize example. (Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time)

Dying men have said, “I am sorry I have been an atheist, infidel, agnostic, skeptic, or sinner,” but no man ever said on his deathbed, “I am sorry I have lived a Christian life.” (Bob Jones, Sr.)

Take an ocean full of beef stew, complete with carrots, potatoes, celery— the works. All the amino acids, DNA, RNA, peptide chains and organic molecules needed for life. Stir it around for several billion years, and what will you have? Very, very old beef stew. And we actually give credence to an explanation of the origins of life that evolved with so much less to go on? Wrong recipe. One might better direct one’s attention to the Cook. (Paul Thielen)

No one should hold the fantastic idea that he knows himself well enough. (Erasmus, Enchiridion)

It is easy to find a logical and virtuous reason for not doing what you don’t want to do. (John Steinbeck, East of Eden) A person always has two reasons for doing anything—a good reason and the real reason. (J. Pierpont Morgan)

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem. (John Galsworthy)

The fact that modern man has been able to preserve such a good opinion of himself despite all the obvious refutations of his optimism particularly in his own history leads to the conclusion that there is a very stubborn source of resistance in man to the acceptance of the most obvious and irrefutable evidence about his moral qualities. (Reinhold Niebuhr)

The man who lives by himself and for himself is apt to be corrupted by the company he keeps. (Charles H. Parkhurst)

We usually think that God’s calling is in the dramatic and large things and thus miss the many subtle day-to-day opportunities to serve others.

We lose the peace of years when we hunt after the rapture of the moment.

You can accomplish much more when you don’t care who gets the credit.

It is much easier to serve the masses rather than the Master.

People today are much more interested in being envied than respected. (Gary Trudeau)

Unbelief is the basis of sin, deceitfulness is the character of sin, and pride is the strength of sin. (Edwin Cole)

The best response to spiritual truth: study it through, pray it in, live it out, pass it on.

Our vocation in this world is to extend the invisible geography of the new creation.

The gospel is the offer of God’s ability to make us into the people we were meant to be all along.

The three spiritual wounds of contrition, compassion, and longing after God.

Jesus gave His life for us that He might give His life to us that He might live His life through us. (Bob George)

The principle of first and second things: in any area of life, putting second things first loses not only the first things but also the second things, and putting first things first gains not only the first things but the second things as well. (C. S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft)

Questions for self-examination: (1) Am I fully confessed? Are there any unturned stones? (2) What are my fears for the future? Are there any things I am not laying on the altar? (3) What am I risking for Christ? What principles guide my life? (5) What am I currently doing that others can do, while missing those things that others cannot do? (6) Who are the people I should seek as resources? (Larry Moody)

Three characteristics of a new creation in Christ: (1) a recognition of sinfulness, (2) a renovation of character, (3) a redirection of energies. (John MacArthur)

Three central qualities of the spiritual life: (1) a renewed mind, (2) reliance on the Spirit, (3) radical obedience.

There is a significant difference between wanting to serve God (doing) and wanting to be like Him (being).

There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It’s not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels. The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion. (C. S. Lewis)

I may, I suppose, regard myself as, or pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets—that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Internal Revenue—that’s success. Furnished with money and a little fame even the elderly, if they care to, may partake of trendy diversions— that’s pleasure. It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time—that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you—and I beg you to believe me—multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing—less than nothing, a positive impediment—measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are. (Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered)

Seven scriptural laws of success: (1) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). This means putting God first in our lives, even our business lives. Value the God connection you have. (2) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Care for your associates, treat them as you would want to be treated. If you want to be helped then help others to be successful. (3) Meditate upon His Word day and night. Read God’s Word regularly and put it into practice. Read the first psalm. It says that if you stay in His Word you will be successful in whatever you do. (4) Develop a good prayer life and make your requests known to God. This improves your relationship with God and you will be surprised with the friends that you have in high places. (5) Give of your success. With what you have been blessed of God then sow back into His kingdom. Take time to give of yourself as well as your resources. (6) Feed your mind with a good positive attitude. Listen to good teaching tapes. Remember the reports of Joshua and Caleb against those of the twelve spies. They saw big grapes whereas the others saw themselves as grasshoppers. (7) Fellowship with good friends. God’s word says in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Associate with people whose opinions you respect and know that you can rely on. A support group can be a great help when things seem to be going wrong.

Power, success, happiness, as the world knows them, are his who will fight for them hard enough; but peace, love, joy, are only from God. And God is the enemy whom Jacob fought there by the river, of course, and whom in one way or another we all of us fight—God, the beloved enemy. Our enemy because, before giving us everything, He demands of us everything; before giving us life, He demands our lives—our selves, our wills, our treasure. (Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat)

Especially should ministers of the gospel search their own hearts and look deep into their inner motives. No man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No man is morally worthy of success in religious activities until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go to another if God so wills. (A. W. Tozer, Born After Midnight, 58)

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ. (Malcolm Muggeridge) [Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge, 66-67]

We must cultivate a spiritual appitite so that we will love the things that endure and reject the things that pass.

Four truths to hold onto during times of fear and adversity: (1) God brought me here, (2) He will sustain me here, (3) He will teach me here, (4) He will bring me out in His time and way. (Steve Ellis)

When God wants to accomplish an impossible task, He takes an impossible man and crushes him.

God makes chaos out of our order to teach us to look to Him to make His order out of our chaos.

We must be freed from sin in order to be free to love.

God always gives His best to those who leave the choice to Him. (Jim Elliot)

It would be well for us if we could learn early the futility of trying to obtain forbidden things by over-persuading God. He will not be thus stampeded. Anything that falls within the circle of His will He gives freely to whosoever asks aright, but not days or weeks of fasting and prayer will persuade Him to alter anything that has gone out of His mouth. (A. W. Tozer)

We must care for our bodies as though we were going to live forever, but we must care for our souls as if we were going to die tomorrow. (St. Augustine)

Write your obituary now and see if it will play well in heaven. (Bill Garrison)

What are you taking under your arm to the ultimate show and tell? (Bill Garrison)

Everyone ought to fear to die until he has done something that will always live.

As the wedding at Cana illustrates, the world pours out its best wine first, but the miracle in the Christian life is that the best is reserved for last. (Soren Kierkegaard)

When elderly people are asked what they would change if they could live their lives again, many say they would reflect more, risk more, and do more things that would last. God is more interested in changing you than in changing your circumstances.

We must trust God in the darkness for what He has revealed to us in the light. (Larry Moody)

God’s past performance is the basis for our future reliance.

Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one things it cannot be is moderately important. (C. S. Lewis)

Our opinions become fixed at the point we stop thinking. (Joseph Ernest Renan)

To know things as they are is better than to believe things as they seem. (Tom Wicker)

Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. (C. S. Lewis)

O Lord, I know only one thing, and that is that it is good to follow You and wicked to offend You. Beyond this, I do not know what is good for me, whether health or sickness, riches or poverty, or anything else in this world. This knowledge surpasses both the wisdom of men and of angels. It lies hidden in the secrets of Your providence, which I adore, and will not dare to pry open. (Blaise Pascal)

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us; and the art of life is to get the message. (Malcolm Muggeridge)

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind by His truth; the purifying of the imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy of that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. (William Temple)

If a tree is worthy of aesthetic admiration, a dog of personal affection, and a person of self-giving love, then the only worthy relation that a human being can have to God is worship. (Edward John Carnell)

We must learn the reflex of trust and allow God in His timing to do what He knows to be best; a conscious choice of the will to transfer the outcome to God. (John Willett)

Sometimes we are tempted to think of God as carrying out His plans at our expense. But the biblical portrait of His character as revealed in His costly acts of redemptive love proves that this is a distorted view of God. It is His gracious intention to fulfill our needs and thus draw us to Himself. It is Satan's intention to deceive us into going anywhere--to ourselves, to other people, to things--anywhere but to God in our quest for significance and identity. (Reflections)

God tells us and demonstrates in Jesus that we have extraordinary worth and importance in His sight. Our task is to accept by faith the truths that we have been created in His image to know and enjoy Him forever, that we have been placed in the body of Christ to function as an extension of His incarnation, and that we have been chosen to rule the universe as viceregents with Christ. (Reflections)

We were created to know God and to find in our relationship with Him the joy and meaning we seek. Thus, God in His love and mercy uses our needs to drive us from futility to fulfillment. (Reflections)

God has gifted us to achieve whatever He asks of us, and He has given us enough time to do it. Moreover, success in His sight is not the same as success in the sight of men because it does not depend on results. Our work is faithfulness; His is results. "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). The Christian who grasps the implications of these truths becomes free from the competitive need to win, free from dominating and resenting others, and free from pursuing achievements in order to validate selfworth. (Reflections)

Wisdom is the Lord's plan by which He transforms a lifeless chaos into a living cosmos (Prov. 8:22-31). Similarly, wisdom is the Lord's plan by which He can transmute the moral and spiritual chaos of a human life into an incarnation of God's sublime attributes of justice, equity, truth, and faithfulness. (Reflections)

According to James, "the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy" (Jas. 3:17). Without a relationship with the Source of wisdom, we are limited solely to human shrewdness and craft: "This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing" (Jas. 3:15-16). The Scriptures draw a sharp contrast--earthly wisdom leads to disorder, evil, ugliness, and disappointment; divine wisdom bears the fruit of order, goodness, beauty, and fulfillment. The tragedy is that so many people pursue earthly wisdom hoping to attain the fruit that can only be produced by the wisdom which comes from above. (Reflections)

We should daily remind ourselves of who God really is: the Creator of the hundreds of billions of galaxies; the sovereign God who inhabits the future as well as the present and the past; the almighty One who dwells in all places, and from whom no thought is hidden; clothed in power, glory, and dominion, He reigns over the cosmos in the beauty of holiness. (Reflections)

"The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor" (Prov. 15:33). The walk of wisdom is the conscious recognition that all we have and are come from God, and that every aspect of our lives needs to be under His dominion. The fool arrogantly vaunts an attitude of independence and autonomy, but the person who is wise lives in dependence and radical trust in the Author and Giver of life. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). We will grow in wisdom as we daily cultivate the attitude of awe and humility in our walk with God. (Reflections)

The cultivation of a reverential attitude of awe for the eternal, holy, and almighty Ruler of all creation and a humble attitude of radical trust and dependence upon Him in every facet of life is the foundation upon which true skill in the art of living is built. (Reflections)

Only two things on earth will go into eternity--God's Word and people. God has placed us here to grow in Christ and to reproduce the life of Christ in others. Each of us has specific opportunities to do this in our own spheres of influence, and as we abide in Christ and let His words abide in us, we will bear lasting fruit (John 15:7-8), and the living God will confirm the work of our hands. (Reflections)

Paul had only two days on his calendar: "today" and "that day" (the day he would be with the Lord). He had a heart of wisdom because he lived each today in light of that day. Because he daily reminded himself of the real purpose for his sojourn on earth, he cultivated an eternal perspective that influenced all his work and all his relationships. (Reflections)

1. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the skill in the art of living life with every area under the dominion of God. It is the ability to use the best means at the best time to accomplish the best ends. Wisdom is the key to a life of beauty, fulfillment, and purpose.

2. How do we pursue wisdom? The treasure of wisdom rests in the hands of God. Since it comes from above (Jas. 3:17), we cannot attain it apart from Him.

3. What are the conditions for attaining wisdom? True wisdom can only be gained by cultivating the fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10).

4. What is the fear of the Lord? To fear God is to have an attitude of awe and humility before Him. It is to recognize our creaturehood and our need for complete dependence upon Him in every activity of our lives.

5. Why have so few people developed this twin attitude of awe and humility toward God? The temporal value system of this world is based on what is seen, while the eternal value system of Scripture is based on what is unseen. The former exerts a powerful influence upon us, and it is not surprising that so many Christians struggle with giving up the seen for the unseen.

6. What can enable us to reject the temporal value system and choose the eternal value system? An eternal perspective can only be cultivated by faith, that is, believing God in spite of appearances and circumstances.

7. How do we grow in faith? Our ability to trust God is directly proportional to our knowledge of God. The better we know Him, the more we can trust Him.

8. How can we increase in our knowledge of God? The answer rests in the fact that God is a person. Scripture tells us that God, the most significant person in the universe, wants us to know Him. He is the initiator, and He waits for our response. When we accept Christ's gift of new life by trusting in Him, the relationship begins. It is only as we get to know God as a person that we will grow in our love for Him. He knows us completely, and we do not need to be afraid of being open with Him in our thoughts and feelings. We cannot become intimate with God unless we talk with Him and listen to His voice in Scripture on a daily basis. To know God is to love Him, and to love Him is to want to respond to His desires for our lives. Faith in God is simply trusting Him as a person, and trust is manifested in action. (Reflections)

Tests are a normative experience for a believer in Christ. "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (Jas. 1:2). James is not advocating a form of spiritual masochism--trials and tests come in all shapes and forms ("various"), and none of them are fun. But if we recognize the divine purpose behind them, we can "consider it all joy" not because of what they are, but because of what they produce. (Reflections)

Christian character is forged and refined in the furnace of affliction. God uses this process to reveal impurities in our lives by bringing them to the surface so that we can deal with them. As we respond by trusting God in spite of circumstances (the essence of faith), we continue to mature into greater Christlikeness. "And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (Jas. 1:4). (Reflections)

God hates sin, not only because it is contrary to His character, but also because of what it does to our lives. We must learn to hate sin for the same reasons. As new creatures in Christ, we no longer need be slaves of sin (Rom. 6:10-23). Instead, we can walk in the wisdom of this passage by recognizing the anatomy of sin and dealing with it in its earliest stages. When we walk in the Spirit in conformity with who we have become in Christ, we can say no to the deceptions and enticements of sin and yes to the meaning and purpose we have found as the first fruits among His creatures. (Reflections)

God's gifts are always good and He never tempts us. When we succumb to temptation, it is because we have taken our eyes off Him and forgotten who we have become in Christ. (Reflections)

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was" (Jas. 1:23-24). The Word is like a moral mirror that strips away our outer veneer and shows us what we are really like (see Heb. 4:12-13). Working through Scripture, the Spirit reveals areas of our lives which need to be changed. When we see these areas and do nothing about them, it is as foolish as a person who looks in a mirror, realizes he has forgotten to put on his pants, and continues to walk out of the house. Revelation is designed to transform, not merely inform, but it cannot accomplish this without our response. (Reflections)

It is easy to engage in ritual without a relationship and to pursue outer conformity without inward commitment. There is a strong tendency in our culture to compartmentalize Christianity by reducing it to church attendance, prayers, and giving. When this happens, we fail to see its relevance to the rest of life and we become "religious" people whose behavior outside of church is hardly different from that of those who have not trusted in Christ. (Reflections)

The truth of Scripture was revealed not only to change our way of thinking but also our way of acting. Without an active response of obedience, it cannot accomplish its purpose in our lives. But before we can respond to the truth we must know and believe it. There is a reciprocal relationship between belief and behavior: just as attitude leads to action, so action creates or reinforces attitude. Faith grows as we plug it into life. When we put a principle into practice, the principle becomes more real to us, which then makes it easier to practice, and so forth. A loving attitude toward another person leads to loving actions on that person's behalf. But the other side of the coin is that by acting as if we love another person, our attitude toward him or her actually moves in that direction. (Reflections)

James says in 2:8-11 that receiving others on the basis of outward appearances is contrary to the "royal law" which says that "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Jas. 2:8). Our neighbors are the people whose need we see (cf. Luke 10:30-37). "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors" (Jas. 2:9). When we show partiality toward those with higher socio-economic status, we are loving ourselves above our neighbors by treating people not for who they really are, but for what they can do for us. (Reflections)

Those who show partiality do so by sitting in judgment of others and acting without mercy toward those who do not measure up. But just as God's mercy in Christ triumphed over our condemnation as sinners, so mercy should triumph over condemnation in our attitudes towards others. (Reflections)

Scripture frequently calls us to examine ourselves. What is there about you that cannot be accounted for apart from the reality of Christ in your life? If your belief in Christ has not produced any qualitative change, the epistle of James would counsel you to consider whether yours is a professional or a possessional faith. Is yours merely an intellectual acknowledgement about Christ, or is it also a volitional response to Christ? It is one thing to believe about Him; it is another to trust in Him. (Reflections)

We are springs with two sources. One source produces the bitter water of angry, jealous, spiteful, hateful, malicious, sarcastic, slanderous, critical, abusive, self-pitying, cruel, proud words. The other source produces the fresh water of encouraging, comforting, kindhearted, compassionate, considerate, humble, gracious, gentle, patient, loving, respectful, thoughtful, prudent words. The source of the former is the flesh; the source of the latter is the Spirit. We should memorize Paul's words and bring them to mind each day: "walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. . . . If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16,25). (Reflections)

The Scriptures repeatedly call us to unify our words and our works, our lips and our lives. Consider James 3:13: "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom." A person may be able to speak the truth, but if he does not live it, the disparity between his deeds and his doctrine reveal a lack of wisdom, the skill of incarnating eternal values in a temporal arena. (Reflections)

Earthly wisdom is derived from the values of the world system which lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). Divine wisdom is not earthbound, but comes down from above and reflects the character of God. The life of Christ Jesus, "who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30), is the supreme manifestation of godly wisdom. (Reflections)

O the extent that we do not look to the Lord to meet all of our needs, we inevitably turn to people, things, or circumstances to fulfill them. Worldly wisdom tells us to use people, not serve them. Divine wisdom tells us that we are free to serve people because our needs are already satisfied in Christ. We are unconditionally loved and accepted as children in the Father's family; we have true significance and identity as members of the body of Christ; and the indwelling Spirit has given us the competence to achieve God's purposes for our lives as living stones in His temple. If we do not find our security and significance in Christ, we become grabbers rather than givers. Like two people trying to get the same parking space, we compete for power, prestige, status, pleasure, and recognition. The inner conflict in the lives of Christians who are walking after the flesh and not in the power of the Spirit produces the outer conflict of competition and contention. (Reflections)

If we accept the perspective of Scripture, there are only two courses of action which are open to us. We will either pursue friendship with the world by adopting a set of temporal convictions, or we will pursue friendship with God by adopting eternal convictions. Many believers, however, deceive themselves into thinking there is a third option: the best of both worlds. Usually this translates into a quest for success as the world defines it (prosperity, pleasure, power, prestige), covered by a Christian veneer. James plainly states that Christian values will never stick to the world's surface. They are as incompatible as light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness, hope and despair, freedom and slavery, life and death. Either the unseen or the seen will be ultimate in our lives; there is no third way. (Reflections)

The solution to adultery with the world is allegiance to God. We were created to serve, but we have been given a choice: serve the world as slaves of sin and selfishness or serve the Lord as "slaves of righteousness" (Rom. 6:18). It is only as we submit our desires, plans, careers, and hopes to Christ that we will find the freedom and fulfillment that we seek. By taking His yoke upon ourselves we become free to realize His high calling for our lives. (Reflections)

Those who presume against the future become complacent about the present. "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin" (Jas. 4:17). "I know I should be giving to support Christian ministries . . . maybe later when this deal goes through." "If I can just get my business on a firmer foundation, I'll be able to spend more time with my wife and children." The problem is that there may not be a later; we can only be sure about now. We miss out on the opportunities of the present when we dwell in our speculations about the future. Those who presume against the future have embraced the illusion that their destiny is in their own hands. It is foolish to sacrifice present opportunities for doing good on the altar of future prospects. (Reflections)

"You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand" (James 5:8). From a human perspective, it would appear that the promise of the Lord's coming is an empty hope. But from God's perspective, the last two thousand years is more li