“The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.”
“Youth and age touch only the surface of our lives.”
“Blessing and obedience do comfortably and mysteriously coexist.”
“If a church’s strategy is not grounded in making disciples, the church has abandoned the mission Christ has given.”
“A true disciple is one who fully serves first the interest oh His master by doing nothing of his interest alone but first for his Master s interest . He is one who thinks the way his master thinks and do all as his master does for life and Godliness.”
“Love, like individuals, is tested by the flame of adversity. If we are faithful and determined, it will temper and refine us, but it will not consume us. Enjoy what you now have. Be a disciple of Christ. Live worthily of marriage even if it doesn t come soon. And cherish it with all your heart when it does.”
“Pandering candidates often promise that they can make the pain go away.”
“We should be more concerned with reaching the lost than pampering the saved.”
“Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision.”
“By giving us control, our new technologies tend to enhance existing idols in our lives. Instead of becoming more like Christ through the forming and shaping influence of the church community, we form, and shape, and personalize our community to make it more like us. We take control of things that are not ours to control. Could it be that our desire for control is short-circuiting the process of change and transformation God wants us to experience through the mess of real world, flesh and blood, face-to-face relationships?”
“Beginning to sense his call to preach boldly in dangerous situations even though he was young and slight, the author agreed to go only if God would give him a particular sense of His presence. The next morning, the author says it was as if God took out his human eyes and replaced them with God s own because he saw other people so much more vividly.”
“Everything in Scripture is either preparation for the Gospel, presentation of the Gospel, or participation in the Gospel.”
“If the world despises one of the brethren, the Christian will love and serve him. If the world does him violence, the Christian will succor and comfort him. If the world dishonours and insults him, the Christian will sacrifice his own honour to cover his brother s shame. Where the world seeks gain, the Christian will renounce it. Where the world exploits, he will dispossess himself, and where the world oppresses, he will stoop down and raise up the oppressed. If the world refuses justice, the Christian will pursue mercy, and if the world takes refuge in lies, he will open his mouth of the dumb, and bear testimony to the truth. For the sake of his brother, be he Jew or Greek, bond or free, strong or weak, noble or base, he will renounce all fellowship with the world. For the Christian serves the fellowship of the Body of Christ, and he cannot hide it from the world. He is called out of the world to follow Christ.”
“Discipleship is intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ.”
“Reproving others is a thankless office and an unwelcome work for the most part; men take reproofs for reproaches, yet since God has laid it on good men as their duty to rebuke and not suffer sin to lie upon their brother, they dare not omit it.”
“From our experience, if you want to make disciples, if you want to build a discipling culture in your community, you are going to need three things: 1. A discipleship vehicle (I call it a Huddle) 2. People need access to your life (the texture of Family on Mission) 3. A discipling language (the discipling language I use is called LifeShapes)”
“Teach of faith to keep all the commandments of God, knowing that they are given to bless His children and bring them joy.4 Warn them that they will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments. It takes faith to obey them, and keeping His commandments will strengthen that faith.”