Currently Reading: Life Without Lack

"Categorizing people and treating them in specific ways just because of their bodily features violates the central worth of the person as the mind. The body is important, but the mind is all-important. And the most important thing about your mind is what it is fixed upon....the focus of your thoughts significantly affects everything else that happens in your life and evokes the feelings that frame your world and motivate your actions." (pg 2-3) 

"When we get up out of bed in the morning, among our first thoughts should be this: Lord, speak to me. I'm listening. I want to hear your voice. This is not because it's a nice way to start the day, but because the only thing that can keep us straight is being full of God and full of his Word." (pg 83) 

"If you have enough faith to speak it, then you may have enough faith to do it. That's why praise is so important. Praise the Lord in every situation; speak it out even if it is a struggle because things are so bad. Think about God's creation, or things he has done for you in the past, and speak praise to him for who he is and what he's done. Try to think of even one thing you can say. And if you try, God will meet you where you are." (pg 97) 

"Death to self may appear to others as if we hate ourselves, but a great part of our growth includes disengaging from the expectations of others. As we do, it will not be long before people begin to identify us as joyful, peaceful, composed people, free from anxiety and animosity and in the grip of a deep personal happiness that comes to the person who has been liberated from the domination of desire. What may appear to others to be self-hatred, is, in fact, the only way to become our true selves."

 (pg 149) 

"The goal is not to be people who do loving things but to become the kind of people who naturally, joyfully, and easily love." (pg 169) 

"Only Jesus enables his followers to live a life of selfless, joyful, anxiety-free, loving service on behalf of others. Having said that, the sad truth is that our churches today do not preach this as the message of the gospel. They have not offered this matchless life to people. They have not asked, 'Would you actually like to live like this? Would you like to be possessed by this kind of life?" (pg 175)