God has decided, for his own good reasons, that people are not transformed outside of community. 
The soul is hidden in God's creating hand: 'In his hand is the soul of every living thing' " (Job 12:10). 
The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become. 
We all want to feel spiritually vigorous, and we hurt when we don't. This pain is intensified for people who lead church ministries. 
Jesus' life as a foot-washing servant would eventually lead to the adoption of humility as a widely admired virtue. 
We will always take the most care of that which we value most deeply. 
Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism. 
The soul without God for eternity is in an abyss. 
Tithing is a bad ceiling but an excellent floor. 
Jesus did not come as a servant in spite of the fact that he is God; he came precisely because of the fact that he is God. 
Wise people build their lives around what is eternal and squeeze in what is temporary. Not the other way around. 
Imagine watching all that God might have done with your life if you had let him. 
Work is a form of love. We cannot be fully human without creating value. 
Jesus is mysterious not just because of what we don't know about him, but because of what we do know about him. 
Your world could grow infinitely bigger if you were only willing to become ... appropri ately small. 
Our bodies are these collections of appetites that veer out of control and habits that drag us down paths we don't want to travel. 
God's primary will for your life is not the achievements you accrue; it's the person you become. 
God never grows two people the same way. God is a hand-crafter, not a mass-producer. 
Ghettos and barrios and abusive homes and trauma wards may produce scarred souls; they can cripple more human spirits than they strengthen. 
When you give your soul rest, you open it to the peace Jesus intends for you. 
As long as we have unsolved problems, unfulfilled desires, and a mustard seed of faith, we have all we need for a vibrant prayer life. 
At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. 
Prayer allows us to wait without worry. 
We may be unlovely yet we are not unloved. 
You have a "turn" every time you have an opportunity to choose. But most of us only see a tiny fraction of the choices we have. 
This was the great irony of his day: The 'righteous' were more damaged by their righteousness than the sinners were by their sin. 
Going in faith does not necessarily mean going with serenity or without doubts. Faith can be difficult. 
A soul can be saved. But it will take softness and depth and space. The world won't help much. 
The reason our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our strangest dreams. 
Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences. 
The day people around me stop questioning my character is the day my character begins to grow vulnerable. 
Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world. 
The most important thing about you," Dallas would often say, "is not the things that you achieve; it is the person that you become. 
Greatness of soul is available to people who do not have the luxury of being ecstatic about the condition and appearance of their bodies. 
When you discover your strengths, you are learning an indispensible part of what it means to be made in the image of God. 
THE NEGLECTED SOUL DOESN'T GO AWAY; IT GOES AWRY 
Christianity is like a nail," he (Yemelian Yaroslavsky). "The harder you strike it, the deeper it goes. 
Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don't have. 
When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human. 
Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. 
Women are the first witnesses to the resurrection and pillars of the early church. 
In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God. No thought is purely neutral. 
Self-improveme nt is no more God's plan than self-salvation. 
The single dynamic that helps people be most aware of God and most experiencing the fruit of the Spirit is gratitude. 
The only true and lasting inspiration for life is genuine love for God, and submitted gratitude that I get to be a part of the redemptive quest. 
People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller. 
If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat. 
A deep soul lives in conscious awareness of eternity, not simply today. 
The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us. 
The question isn't if someone will sign up for spiritual formation; it's just who and what our spirits will be formed by. 
The hurried can become unhurried. But it will not happen by trying alone, nor will it happen instantly. You will have to enter a life of training. 
Love me, love my rag dolls," God says. It's a package deal. 
The only cure from sin is by maintaining a vision of God. 
Sometimes the opportunity doesn't involve going to a new place; it means finding a new and previously unrecognized opportunity in the old place. 
Authority can be faked. That's why impersonating a police officer is a crime. Sometimes the outward appearances of authority can be deceiving. 
People who live with largeness of soul are occupied by large problems. 
Repenting is a gift God gives us for our own sake, not his. 
Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, sometimes painful clinging to God. 
Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. 
When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate. 
Grace is the offer of God's ceaseless presence and irrational love that cannot be stopped. 
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers. (James 1:22 NRSV) 
In my love-challenged condition, seeing a difficulty for someone else can leave me feeling a little more smug or superior-by-comparison. 
There is a me I cannot see. 
as Aristotle said, "The soul never thinks without a picture. 
Repenting of our sin is never despairing of our sin; it is always done in hope. 
God is a God of endless opportunities to do good; the God of the open door. 
We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer to conformity to Christ or farther away from it. 
The Bible does not say you are God's appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced. 
I know that those of us who go into church work are to regard ourselves as servants, are to offer our lives as a gift. 
If you want to do the work of God, pay attention to people. Notice them. Especially the people nobody else notices. 
The character of the faith that allows us to be transformed by suffering and darkness is not doubt-free certainty; rather, it is tenacious obedience. 
When Jesus came in the form of a servant, he was not disguising who God is. He was revealing who God is. 
In solitude we remember we are not what anybody thinks of us - we are sheep tended to by the Shepherd.-John Ortberg
Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation. 
It's better to have the faith to embrace reality with all its pain than to cling to the false comfort of a painless fantasy. 