Rick Warren

He gave us taste buds, then filled the world with incredible flavors like chocolate and cinnamon and all the other spices. He gave us eyes to perceive color and then filled the world with a rainbow of shades. He gave us sensitive ears and then filled the world with rhythms and music. Your capacity for enjoyment is evidence of God's love for you. He could have made the world tasteless, colorless, and silent. The Bible says that God "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." He didn't have to do it, but he did, because He loves us.

Jason Vallotton

Love is not love unless it costs me something. Love is not love unless it seeks only the highest good of the other person. Love is not love unless it leads to freedom.

Blake Perez

If it’s only about the people in the church to you, then you are codependent on church and not utterly dependent on God. If the church is the place where the most worship happens in your life, then you are codependent on the church, and you’re not utterly dependent on God. If the church is where you come to get prayer, and all the prayer happens in your life in this house, then the reality is - you are codependent on the church and not utterly dependent on God. If your awareness of God’s presence occurs mostly in the church, then you are codependent on the church, you’re not utterly dependent upon God.

David Platt

I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.

A. B. Simpson

Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood. He is the father of lies. Even his fears are falsehoods and his terrors ought to serve as encouragements. When Satan tells you, therefore, that some ill is going to come, you may quietly look in his face and tell him he is a liar. Instead of ill, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. And then turn to your blessed Lord and say, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee (Psalm 56:3). Every fear is distrust, and trust is the remedy for fear.

Johanna Spyri

I'll always say my prayers, and if God doesn't answer them at once, I shall know it's because He's planning something better for me.

Seth Dahl

Pity will imitate compassion while simultaneously hiding it from us. Pity wants nothing more than for us to think we are acting with compassion, so we believe we are doing something good and godly, while in reality we are assisting evil. Knowing the difference is crucial, here’s a few ways to recognize that difference: Pity steals power (by doing for others what they can do themselves) while compassion imparts it. Pity will let others convince us they are helpless so we step in and rescue them, thereby strengthening the victim mindset in them. Compassion refuses to believe people are helpless and allows them opportunities to discover that. Pity leaves people in their problems while compassion pulls them out. Pity hides the truth to protect emotions, compassion tells the truth in a loving way. Pity seems nice but isn’t. Compassion sometimes appears mean but is truly kind. Don’t let pity hide the very thing it’s pretending to be.

Frederick Buechner

Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.

Vaneetha Risner

I have something far better than a reassurance that my dreaded “what ifs” won’t happen. I have the assurance that even if they do happen, he will be there in the midst of them. He will carry me. He will comfort me. He will tenderly care for me. God doesn’t promise us a trouble-free life. But he does promise that he will be there in the midst of our sorrows.

Samuel Logan Brengle

The Bible tells us that it is 'perfect love' which must, in the very nature of the case, expel from the heart all hatred and every evil contrary contrary to love, just as you must first empty a cup of all oil that may be in it before you can fill it with water.