The more I focused on my need to get better the worse I actually got - the more neurotic and self-conscious and self-absorbed I became.

Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ's accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours.

The people who tend to be the most gracious are those who know how badly they need grace

Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.

God's acceptance of us cannot be gained by our successes nor forfeited by our failures.

God's ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.

The desperate addict is closer to the heart of grace than the devout moralist.

Here's one way I can know that I've forgotten the gospel of grace: when your sin bothers me more than my sin.

Christianity is not about good people getting better. It is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good.

If people knew the REAL us, they would run. God knows, stays, and loves.

Nothing makes me want to obey more than knowing that God unconditionally loves me and forgives me even when I disobey.

What good is the present if you cannot change the future?

Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other.

In the same [hospitable] manner that a Calabrian would press you to eat his pears.

Sun of my soul, thou Savior dear, It is not night if thou be near. Oh, may no earthborn cloud arise To hide thee from thy servant's eyes.

Mostly, though, I dream of good things...I dream that flowers will bloom in the streets..again and music will play in the...houses and kites will fly in the skies.

I daily disconnect and read a good book or listen to a good sermon or call a friend or my mom and talk on the phone with my feet up. I also take baths with bath salts that I make myself.

So it was a thing that my mother always taught me to go for your goals and never give up no matter what they are, and I started believing that later on in life.

Never forget that the nurturing and preservation of your own muse is job one. Lose it and you may be losing a great deal.

It's Christmas time and my rhyme's steady bumpin. Everybody happy, hair still nappy, Gonna steal a gift for my old grandpappy.

We need a revolution in development thinking and practice. Foreign aid, debt relief, family planning, democracy, education, and free markets have not succeeded.