I want every one of our members to grow into maturity more quickly than they seem to, but the Lord has taught me to shepherd people, call them to repentance and let Matthew 18:12­–14 play out.

My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

God is awesome; he doesn’t need you to be awesome. He wants you to be obedient.

Love says: I've seen the ugly parts of you, and I'm staying. Our culture doesn't love love; It loves the idea of love. It wants the emotion without the sacrifice.

If you’re a church person and not a Jesus person, my heart hurts for you. It’s like being engaged and never getting married. It’s miserable.

The more you make this world about you, the more miserable you will be.

Comfort is the god of our generation, so suffering is seen as a problem to be solved, and not a providence from God.

No change of job, no increased income, no new home, no new electronic device, or no new spouse is going to make things better inside of you.

God is at work in the mess. That's the message of the Bible. That's why the Bible is not pretty. That's why it's grimy, because God is working in the mess. He's working in the tears.

Faith doesn’t mean an absence of fear. It means facing fear and trusting that God’s goodness is greater.

God does not regret saving you. There is no sin which you commit which is beyond the cross of Christ.

To enjoy a moment, you have to love and appreciate it.

Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.

If you do not expect it you will not find the unexpected for it is hard to find and difficult.

Civilization sails prettily like a child's rubber balloon until it hits a sharp object; then it is likely to collapse like the balloon.

There is a mean in all things; even virtue itself has stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.

When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would the native roses on your cheek.

An essay is something that tracks the evolution of a human mind.

I tell you, Heaven is a real, literal, physical place, a city as material, as physical, as literal as Chicago or London or New York or Tokyo.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

One cannot say everything at once.