John Ortberg
Although the church has often been far too slow to follow his lead, Jesus' insistence that women, as well as men, bear the full image of God has had a way of sparking reform movements across the centuries.
Jesus is why women have traveled continents, spent decades learning a strange language so they could translate the Gospel, planting churches, caring for the sick, educating the illiterate, and marching for the oppressed.
No one wants pain. Not even long-time, mature Christians who want to grow. We will always find ways to avoid pain. Pain itself is a bad thing.
When someone is in crisis, don't start by teaching, leveraging, or explaining. Just be with.
We do not need answers or formulas to minister in crisis.
Ghettos and barrios and abusive homes and trauma wards may produce scarred souls; they can cripple more human spirits than they strengthen.
Opposition is an inevitable reality of pastoral life.
Some leaders are not intimidated by opposition; they actually thrive on it. It wakes them up. It energizes them. It calls them to battle. It causes them to mobilize their thoughts and energy.
I have given up the idea that there is an opposition-free church out there. But I have gained something else - an appreciation for the gift of opposition. When it comes, I learn something about my motives. When it comes, I get to test my courage.
I hate how spiritual formation gets positioned as an optional pursuit for a small special interest group within the church.
Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like it or not, by accident or on purpose, so there is an 'inner you.' You have a spirit.
The question isn't if someone will sign up for spiritual formation; it's just who and what our spirits will be formed by.
Better to be a loving person without knowing how you got there, than an expert no one can stand to be around.
What repeatedly enters your mind and occupies your mind, eventually shapes your mind, and will ultimately express itself in what you do and who you become.Collection: Christian
Peace doesn't come from finding a lake with no storms. It comes from having Jesus in the boat.Collection: Christian
The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become.Collection: Important
The most frequent promise in the Bible is ‘I will be with you.’Collection: Promise
If you want to do the work of God, pay attention to people. Notice them. Especially the people nobody else notices.Collection: Godly
Today, see each problem as an invitation to prayer.Collection: Prayer
Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don't have.Collection: People
Never try to have more faith - just get to know God better. And because God is faithful, the better you know Him, the more you'll trust Him.Collection: Faithful
Your Mission starts where you are,Not where you think you should be.Sometimes we're tempted to think that our current position/job/situation is a barrier to our mission, but, in fact, it is where it starts.Collection: Jobs
Wise people build their lives around what is eternal and squeeze in what is temporary. Not the other way around.Collection: Wise
Everybody wears an unseen sign that reads: Inspire me. Remind me that my life matters; call me to be my best self; appeal to whatever in me is most noble and honorable. Don't let me go down the path of least resistance. Challenge me to make my life about something more than the acquisition of money or successCollection: Self
Failure does not shape you; the way you respond to failure shapes you.Collection: Doe
There is such a love, a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself onto ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason. This is the love of God.Collection: Rags
If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.Collection: Teamwork
When we live in the love of God, we begin to pay attention to people the way God pays attention to us.Collection: People
To become truly free, you must surrender.Collection: Surrender
I need to worship because without it I can forget that I have a Big God beside me and live in fear. I need to worship because without it I can forget his calling and begin to live in a spirit of self-preoccupation. I need to worship because without it I lose a sense of wonder and gratitude and plod through life with blinders on. I need worship because my natural tendency is toward self-reliance and stubborn independence.Collection: Gratitude
Disciplined people can do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason.Collection: People
If ever there were a true "just as I am" church, if ever there were a community where everybody could bring all their baggage and brokenness with them without neat and tidy happy endings quite yet, if ever there was a group where everyone was loved and no one pretended - we could not make enough room inside the building.Collection: Love
God is never a God of discouragement. When you have a discouraging spirit or train of thought in your mind, you can be sure it is not from God. He sometimes brings pain to his children-conviction over sin, or repentance over fallenness, or challenges that scare us, or visions of his holiness that overwhelm us. But God never brings discouragement.Collection: Children
Grace is the offer of God's ceaseless presence and irrational love that cannot be stopped.Collection: Grace
The greatest moment of your life is now. This moment is God's irreplaceable gift to you.Collection: Life Is
One of the great illusions of our time is that hurrying will buy us more time.Collection: Illusion
I'm more concerned about who you're becoming than what you're doing.Collection: Leadership
Skepticism can keep us from blessing, can keep us trapped in two minds.Collection: Blessing
Jesus changed how the world thinks about science, medicine, human rights, education & more.Collection: Jesus
Real question is not who was this man (Jesus), but who is this man?Collection: Jesus
The miracle of Sunday is that a dead man lives. The miracle of Saturday is that the eternal Son of God lies dead.Collection: Lying
You have a "turn" every time you have an opportunity to choose. But most of us only see a tiny fraction of the choices we have.Collection: Opportunity
At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus death and resurrection.Collection: Christian
Passion for our work is not usually a subterranean volcano waiting to erupt...It is a muscle that gets strengthened a little each day as we show up - as we do what is expected of us, and then some.Collection: Passion
The character of the faith that allows us to be transformed by suffering and darkness is not doubt-free certainty; rather, it is tenacious obedience.Collection: Character
The Holy Spirit says: You are it. You are God's plan. In a thirsty world, people need to be refreshed. It is a broken world, and people need to be healed. Now get out there and do it!Collection: People
One reason why we fail to hear God speak is that we are not attentive. We suffer from what might be called 'spiritual mindlessness.'Collection: Spiritual