"I don't know why God loves me so much." Beatrice, Congolese refugee
"The key thing to remember here is that being Christian in the world does not mean we’re stuck here, simply surviving until we get beamed up. Jesus wants us to be deeply embedded in the muck and more of humanity without pulling our hair out trying to rid the world of evil. We are here to be salt and light, not judge and jury. As Jesus prayed in John 17:15, specifically for us, 'My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.'" Hugh Halter, Brimstone, the Art and Act of Holy Nonjudgmental
"Because every one of us is suffering from brokenness in our foundational relationships, all of us need 'poverty alleviation,' just in different ways. Our relationship to the materially poor should be one in which we recognize that both of us are broken and that both of us need the blessing of reconciliation. Our perspective should be less about how we are going to fix the material poor and more about how we can walk together, asking God to fix both of us." Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts - How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself
"The next generation is screaming, 'We can’t find God in church! How does God work in the broken places? Why are Christians so mean and scared and defensive? Where is the ‘good news’ part? Why does the church spend so much money on itself? Why do believers insist on Jesus being in the White House when He spent His time with lepers? If He didn’t redeem the world on the throne, then why would He do it now? Why does so much Christianity smack of power and aggression when Jesus was humble and subversive?'" Jen Hatmaker, For the Love
"So if the Bible is not mainly a rule book or a manual for Christian living, what is it? It's about God and God's glory. It's about God freeing us to live as we were intended to live in the story of all creation being made new. The scriptures are meant to draw me to the authority of Jesus in my life first and foremost." David A. Livermore, Serving With Eyes Wide Open, Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence
"My understanding of God's protection is constantly expanding. Lately I've been thinking that God's plan of protection doesn't revolve exclusively around miraculous interventions on his part. Perhaps his plan of protection includes a component, a potentially huge component, that involves life choices, a philosophy of choices that might be called 'other focused' choices. A life philosophy that says, 'I will experience authentic security when I choose to care for others first instead of expecting to be cared for.'" Carl Wilkens, I'm Not Leaving
"Privilege is an othering of people that is supported institutionally in such an way that has become the norm. Privilege is saying that the God in you is less than the God in me. But if you are Christian, you must believe that God resides in each and every one of us." Reverend Traci Blackmon
“Bravery may mean learning when to shut our mouths and to observe rather than to opine, to seek to understand rather than to be understood.” Jonathan Merritt
“Integrity consists not in having no presuppositions but of being aware of what one’s presuppositions are and of the obligation to listen and interact with those who have different ones." N.T. Wright
"The world God is making is a world where my flourishing no longer trumps yours." Jer Swigart
"Humility is only achieved as a byproduct of understanding, believing, and marveling in the gospel of grace. . . . when we listen to the gospel preached or meditate on it in the Scriptures, we are driving it so deeply into our hearts, imaginations, and thinking that we begin to instinctively ‘live out’ the gospel.” Timothy Keller
"Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.” C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
"Humanity needs to get away from the world of 'things as they are' into the world of 'things as they ought to be.' This means that men and women must learn to live for others. It is only when we can live a life of self-forgetfulness that we get our truest joy out of life. One needs to keep on thirsting because life grows and enlarges." Alexander Stuart Baillie
"Who you are I do not know, and yet perhaps I know something. I know that like me you wake up each morning to a day that you must somehow live, to a self that you must somehow be, and to a mystery that you cannot fathom if only the mystery of your own life. Thus, strangers though we are, at a certain level there is nothing about either of us that can be entirely irrelevant to each other." Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace
"I'm afraid we sometimes get sidetracked into a negative theology, thinking that if we could just stop sinning, then we would be what God wants us to be. But biblical holiness is a positive rather than negative term. In spiritual terms, to walk well is to walk with God. To walk worthy of Him is to put feet to the conviction that no one is worthier than He." Beth Moore
"What if we quit trying to fit in and fully embraced our differences as gifts given to us to radically impact the world?" Jenni Catron
"Who would you be if you loved Jesus with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength? That's what you're meant to look like." Beth Moore
"I wish the church would be brave enough to acknowledge that there are questions to which, during our mortal lives, we have no answers. Too many answers lead to judgmentalism and to human beings (rather than God) deciding who can and who cannot go to heaven." Madeleine L'Engle
"Remember the passion that stretched out on the cross and said stop performing for love. Stop trying to measure up for love." Ann Voskamp
"There are no better or worse people. There are only God made souls. The moment anybody tries to measure a soul, that amounts to trying to usurp God. Souls defy measuring. You can't measure souls. You can only love souls. So what if we did that? What if we carried each others burdens and carried each others prayers and dreams and held souls carefully. Every beautiful woman who feels less than, judged, tired - today your sisters are done. We are breaking all the measuring sticks." Ann Voskamp
"We are the most resourced, educated advantaged women on earth. Can you imagine what we can do. We can be a people who say here we are. Send us." Jen Hatmaker
"One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are." Henri Nouwen
"The basic purpose of prayer is not to bend God's will to mine but to mold my will into his." Timothy Keller
"When God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. And He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity." Jonathan Martin Prototype
"Knowing who God says we are and following Jesus into this new way of being human will change everything about our lives." Jonathan Martin Prototype
"When we know we are loved by God, we don't have to prove anything to anyone. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves more beloved than we are." Jonathan Martin Prototype
"'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure but it is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world... We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." Marianne Williamson
"In a sad paradox, the more important and enduring a relationship (say, with a partner or relative), the more we tend to participate in narrow, habitual conversations where our experience of our self and the other person becomes fixed and small. " Harriet Lerner, The Dance of Connection
"As life carries on, I hope my edges soften, my defenses weaken. I so desperately want it said of me that I loved well." Jen Hatmaker
"We live out our call most fully when we are a community of faith with arms wrapped about a community of pain." John M. Perkins
"It's really, really important to separate your theology of the kingdom from the church. These are two separate, autonomous entities. Yes, there is overlap and the lines blur and bleed, but they are two different ideas." John Mark Comer, My Name is Hope
"When God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. And He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity." Jonathan Martin, Prototype
"I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a life of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, a life where love does. . . It's the invitation to actually live, to fully participate in this amazing life for one more day." Bob Goff, Love Does
"We have a long history in wanting to make God into our image and use him for our purposes." Eugene Peterson, The Pastor
"Everything that is revealed in Jesus and the scriptures, the gospel, is there to be lived by ordinary Christians in ordinary times. This is the supernatural core, a lived resurrection and Holy Spirit core, of the Christian life." Eugene Peterson, The Pastor
"If our liberty in Christ is going to be a reality in life, we are going to have to learn to walk in the freedom of Christ, independent of everyone else we know." Beth Moore, Breaking Free.
"A thankful heart is constantly extending grace because it has received grace. Love and grace are uneven. God poured out on his own Son the criticism I deserve. Now he invites me to pour out undeserving grace on someone who has hurt me. Grace begets grace." Paul Miller, A Praying Life
"There is nothing secret about communion with God. If we live a holy life before God, broken of our pride and self-will, crying out for grace, then we will be in communion with God. It is really that simple." Paul Miller, A Praying Life
"The cross is where we present our wounds to God and say, 'Here, you take them.'" Rob Bell, Sex God
"I know the one place I can't go wrong is the place where Jesus is. I can be weak, sinful, foolish, and even rebellious. I can fail others, ruin ministries, fumble my work, and still, I cannot go wrong when I stand with fear and trembling, knowing only Jesus." Carl Medearis, Speaking of Jesus
"Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is a truth if we don't know how to live it? What good is an intent if we can't sustain it?" Eugene Peterson
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