Birth, new

I’m glad I was born, but only because I’ve been born again.

Blame

Originally, there were sins, which were replaced by mistakes, which were replaced by errors, which were replaced with blaming others—including God.

Change

There is one person you can change—yourself.

Character

Character controls conduct.

Choice

Addiction is not a disease; it is a choice.

Christian way of life

A do-gooder draws attention to himself; a good doer pays attention to others.

If there weren’t so many freeloading church members, there wouldn’t be so many overworked ones.

The Bible says I should always think of you more highly than I do of myself; however, nowhere does it tell me to always agree with you.

Christianity is not a handy security blanket; it is full-time battle garb and gear.

It’s time to take my Christianity in for repairs if it’s no longer consoling or convicting me.

Christianity is about overcoming the flesh, not indulging it.

Clones

Man makes clones; God makes originals.

Commitment

Commitment is love’s stabilizer.

Communication

The nicest thing humans can do for each other is to communicate—compassionately and unconditionally.

Christian Beliefs

By nature, Christian truths and principles are generally universal; however, their interpretation, methodology and application are regional.

Christianity is significantly different in that it highly elevates the status of children and gives equality to women.

Christian Performance

Don’t blame Christ for hypocritical Christians.

Christians are The Illustrated Edition of the Gospel.

Biblical Christianity does much better under persecution than it does under prosperity.

Comfortable Christianity conceives casual Christianity which conceives careless Christianity which conceives corrupt Christianity.        

Christianity is always comforting but never comfortable.

A snug and smug life is inconsistent with the biblical Christian profile, characterized by self-denial, self-sacrifice, transitoriness, urgency and otherworldliness.

If my Christianity costs me nothing, that’s probably how much it’s worth to me.

To mold us into his image, God sometimes must restart from a formless lump.

Smooth or stormy, the real Christian life is like walking on water—a supernatural “feet.”

If there weren’t so many freeloading church members, there wouldn’t be so many overworked ones.

I live for whomever I please.

Apostle Paul demonstrated freedom in confinement.

Church

When the World and The Church are “on the same page,” you can be sure it is not a page from the Bible.

Commitment

Commitment is love’s stabilizer.

Communication

The nicest thing humans can do for each other is to communicate—compassionately and unconditionally.

A good conversationalist listens.

It is possible to say a lot without saying much.

Compliment / Criticism

A compliment a day—given or taken—keeps depression away.

Computer

God’s celestial computer (Mainframe above all other mainframes) never has a power shortage (or surge), never experiences a glitch, never deletes accidentally, never gets hacked, never picks up a virus, never crashes, never loses data.

A Christian’s computer should be consecrated to the Lord?

Conscience

The conscience is to the soul what nerves are to the body.

Control

Psychosomatic stress increases proportionately to perceived loss of control.

Creator / Creation

My Creator-Redeemer-Owner has a copy-right on me.

The One who created my mind has no trouble reading it.

Even if I give God everything I am and have, I’m only returning what I owe him.

I made a Snowman, but God made the snowflake.

Speculation about the origin of life is just that: speculation.

Look closely with unbiased eyes and you will see that the tiniest flower validates the existence of a great Creator.

Humanistic evolutionists continue to grasp at straws and, in some cases, to fabricate them.

Adam and Eve did not evolve; they were handcrafted.

The creature is foolish to criticize the Creator.

Credit

Take blame readily; take credit reluctantly.

Criticism

Precede criticisms with compliments.

Death

From God’s perspective, there is no such thing as an untimely death.

Debating

The nice thing about being right is you don’t have to raise your voice when debating with an individual.

Deeds

I think it’s better to have good deeds destroyed by God’s test of fire than have nothing to test.

Faith only gets me to heaven; my deeds decide my position there.

Depression

A compliment a day—given or taken—keeps depression away.

Diet

I am beginning to allow myself to suspect there sometimes might be a remote link between overeating and overweight.

In the energetic pursuit of significant weight loss, moving one’s mouth doesn’t count.

Discipline

There are times when God gives us an infirmity, not as punishment but as a deterrent.

God’s reprimands are to be treasured more than this world’s rewards.

Doubt

Doubt your doubts, not your faith.

Economy

Nothing goes to waste in God’s economy.

Encouragement

There is healing both in receiving encouragement and in giving it.

Evaluate

(Tongue-in-cheek) I don’t judge people; I just evaluate them.

Evangelism

Christians are The Illustrated Edition of the Gospel.

Sunday church services should inspire us to ‘show and tell’ Jesus during the week.

Man wants to reach the stars; God wants to reach earthlings.

If you have not already done so voluntarily, you will kneel before Christ, though unwillingly.

Authentic revival or genuine spiritual awakening cannot—humanly—be predicted, planned or programmed.

Evil

All too often, Evil is more zealous to win converts than is Good.

Excuses

(Tongue in cheek) I have legitimate reasons; everybody else has lame excuses.

Adam and Eve didn’t have to learn to make excuses or shift blame; it just came naturally.

Existence, God’s

Simply acknowledging the existence of God resolves nothing.

There wasn’t a time when God wasn’t.

Acknowledging the existence of God is more a matter of conscience than of science.

I cannot say there is no God until I know everything—visible and invisible—there is to know about the entire universe.

Although we cannot prove God’s existence, we can experience him.

To be everlasting in the future, God would have to be eternal in the past.

God’s existence is proved in the Person of Jesus Christ.

God was not made; he just was.

Faith

Including God’s will in your prayer requests is a sign of strong trust, not of weak faith.

Living faith is visible.

God’s promises are the rails on which our faith rides.

Beneficial belief in God includes accepting a flesh-and-blood Jesus.

Your “faith” is a belief; therefore, everyone should be free to believe or disbelieve it.

Until our faith is tested, it’s just a theory.

Faith has “eyes.”  

Fear

The Christian should have only one fear: the fear of the Lord.

Fellowship

Is the Lord enjoying my fellowship today?

Finances

God does not do a monthly direct deposit from some sort of Central Reserve Bank of Heaven to finance his churches and missions on planet earth.

Food

Some people’s idea of fulfillment is food.

Foolishness

It is as if God is saying to humanity, “Since you have become so foolish, I will challenge your foolishness with my foolishness.”

Forgiveness

Travel light: forgive.

Only the forgiving are forgiven.

An unforgiving spirit puts itself above God.

Forgiveness is not compromise; acceptance is not agreement; love is not license.

Freedom

The more I surrender to God, the freer I feel.

Man’s supposed freedom often brings the worse kind of bondage.

Free Will

We have the God-given ability to choose, to decide, to act and, simultaneously or consecutively, to enjoy or to suffer the consequences of our beliefs and of our behavior.

What weighs only one gram but is stronger than many a man’s will?

Fun

The world has short-lived happiness; the Christian has never-ending joy.

God, In general

God is compiling his own Who’s Who.

If your whole life is not glorifying God, you either don’t know him or not very well.

I didn’t lose God when I lost my health and my wealth—unless they were my god.

While you work for and with God, he works in and through you.

Do I think about God when things are going well as much as I do when things are going badly?

God is absolute

God is absolutely absolute. A superlative God deserves supreme dedication.

God is caring

You’ve been on God’s mind forever.

There isn’t a care that God doesn’t care about.

God’s children are always in his “intensive care.”

Christianity is always comforting but never comfortable

God, our Crux

God is my Crux, not my Crutch. God wants me to find my roots—in him.

God, Disciplinarian

I’m convinced God sometimes takes people, possessions or positions away from us to reintroduce, reinstate or reinforce his supremacy, sovereignty and sufficiency.

God, the Father

If I want God to be my heavenly Father, I need to be his trusting child.

God, One

There is only one God and, fortunately, he happens to be good.

God, Omniscient

I might as well act as though my thoughts, words and actions are completely and constantly audible and visible to God – because they are.

God, our Life

Life is good only when life is God.

God is good

Only God is good; humans can only act good. If God is good when he pleases me, is he not good when he displeases me?

God, Nearness of

It is impossible to put any distance between you and your Creator-Maintainer.

God’s priorities

What matters is what matters to God. You are not who you think you are; you are who God thinks you are.

God of questions

For someone who knows everything, God certainly asks a lot of questions.

Gospel

Of all the countless beliefs in this world, only God’s Gospel resolves the problem of sin.

If Jesus is not the only Savior, he is no Savior at all.

A fashionable gospel is a false gospel.

The Gospel is a proposition, not an imposition.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most crucial event in human history.

The church is not the door to heaven: Jesus is.

Let’s face it: God’s Good News (Gospel) is not humanly logical—and intentionally so.

Only the God of the Bible can forgive your past, help you in the present and assure your future.

It’s not enough to urge sinners to come to Christ; they also need to be warned about what will happen to them if they don’t.

The most important message for today’s world is “Jesus Saves!”

Grace

Insult God’s grace and incur his wrath.

Gratitude

If gratitude doesn’t come naturally, try supernaturally.

Guilt

The feeling of genuine guilt is to the soul what pain is to the body.

Happiness

Don’t limit yourself to fun or even happiness, when you can have the joy of the Lord!

Heart, new

God doesn’t overhaul hearts; he installs new ones.

Health / Wealth

What counts in God’s economy is not what wealth we have on earth but what “treasures” we have transferred to heaven.

Health + wealth does not = happiness. Peace and patience accelerate healing.

Heaven / Hell

Don’t make fun of Heaven or Hell; God will have the last laugh.

Hell has no expiration date.

I can measure my attachment to the earthly life by the depth of my homesickness for heaven.

Hell has no EXIT.

We go to Hell by Default and to Heaven by Option. Are you heaven bent or earthbound?

“It’s not what you know but WHO you know” that will get you into Heaven.

I would rather go to heaven crying than to hell laughing.

I believe one of the most painful aspects of being in Hell is not being able to stop thinking about God.

Holidays

What I hope for in the New Year reveals the condition of my heart.

Don’t worry about pleasing the Lord in the coming year; just be concerned about doing it this moment.

Holiness

To be holy is to be wholly HIS.

Holy Spirit

If the Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence in you, is he in charge or are you?

Humility

In my (humble) opinion, every opinion should be humble because, after all, it’s only an opinion.

If we don’t humble ourselves, we are apt to humiliate ourselves.

Humor

I think the finest humor comes out of adversity.

Identification

The most important part of a Christian’s armor [uniform] is not the indispensable aggression or the protection, but the identification.

Indispensable

If you think you’re indispensable, think of John the Baptist.

Investing

It doesn’t make “cents” to invest on earth but not in heaven.

Jesus Christ

Want to know Jesus better? Get yoked with him.

Jesus is the visible copy of the invisible God.

There is a biblical Jesus and there is a Hollywood Jesus.

Which one are you following? Humanity’s key issue: Jesus Christ.

Jesus came down to earth so I could go up to heaven.

Jesus is the only person guaranteed to be your perfect role model.

Christ brings wholeness to the individual but divisiveness to society.

If you will let Jesus move in with you in this life, he will let you move in with him in the next life.

The better we know Christ, the better we know ourselves.

The only way to understand Jesus is to get to know him.

The more I want the things of Christ, the less I want the things of this world.

Christ became like us, so we could become like him.

My relationship with Christ will flourish only within the divinely prescribed atmosphere.

Being molded into the image of Christ can be painful—especially when we don’t cooperate.

Are you wearing “Jesus” fragrance today?

Christ is not a rope to hang on to; he’s The Rock to stand on.

Only in Christ do I find my true identity.

God the Father sees me perfect in Christ.

Jesus Christ acquired my humanity because I required his divinity.

God is embodied in Christ and Christ is embodied in me.

You can’t run ahead or lag behind if you are harnessed together with Jesus.

Everything and everyone is out of place, until Christ is in his proper place.

The Lord himself experiences deep personal pain and supreme sacrifice—voluntarily.

Yes, of course, I can walk on water, but only if Jesus gives me permission.

The Lord is looking for love, especially ‘first love.’

It isn’t nearly as important that “I walked today where Jesus walked,” as it is for Jesus to have walked today where I walked.

Joy

The joy of the Lord is easier demonstrated than defined.

There is such an abundance of joy in heaven that it overflows to earth.

To rejoice or not to rejoice is a choice. If you want peace of mind, exercise the joy of the Lord.

Justice

God is as much Justice as he is grace.

God is not good if he is not just.

There are no statutes of limitations in the celestial judicial system.

Knowledge

Knowledge is not yet intelligence, which is not yet wisdom, which is not yet humility, which is not yet compassion.

Bible knowledge is not synonymous with godliness.

If your Bible knowledge doesn’t get to your heart, it might go to your head.

Knowledge was meant to feed the world—not my ego.

Language

Listening is also a language—body language.

Leader / Leadership

A good Christian leader is a good follower of Jesus Christ.

A good leader is a “good cheer” leader.

We follow the Good Shepherd, not the under shepherds who themselves are sheep.

Am I a compass or a weather vane?

The ideal leader is a humble servant.

Life, eternal

Only eternal life is an outright gift; earthly life is a sacred trust.

Life, general

Don’t be surprised if you encounter ethical speed bumps, moral potholes and disciplinary detours on the road of life.

The Christian life is not difficult; it’s impossible — humanly.

Life, the good

One of the most dangerous things that can befall a Christian is for life to get good and comfortable on earth.

With few exceptions, we are not handed a guaranteed long life; we are entrusted with only this fragile moment.

Love

God not only declared his love, he demonstrated it.

To have practical value, love must be transformed from words to works.

There is no love like God’s love and there is no fury like God’s fury.

There is only one right way to love God—with all your heart.

There is only one right way to love your neighbor—as yourself.

I love the Lord only as much as I live for him.

The intensity of my work for the Lord should never exceed the fervor of my love for him.

God loathes love without service and service without love.

Manager

With God, I am always a manager, never an owner.

Marriage

When God provided bachelor Adam with a wife, He didn’t give him a multiple choice;

He gave him His choice.

Work on your marriage if you want it to work.

Marriage is like a tree: love is the branches; commitment is the root system.

A bad marriage doesn’t make marriage bad.

Marriages don’t make or break people; people make or break marriages.

The more God comes between spouses the closer they become.

Mind The mind regurgitates everything it’s fed—bad and good.

Ministry Jesus’ successful ministry on earth was done by kneeling, reclining, sitting, standing and walking—never running.

Miscellaneous

Do not be mesmerized by eloquence but pay careful attention to content.

Don’t judge Jesus by his followers.

The question is not “Am I an extrovert or an introvert?” but “Am I the person God wants me to be?”

Priceless pearls are commonly cultivated inside plain shells.

The greatest mysteries and challenges are not in outer space; they are in our personal inner space.

You are what eats you.

Don’t allow yourself to become a but-this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it person.

(Tongue in cheek) Why is it that everybody has blind spots except me?

Our assignments are on earth, but our headquarters are in heaven.

Misunderstanding God, too, is misunderstood.

Money

Money is only the small change of biblical stewardship.

Those who love Mammon cannot correctly love anyone else—be it God, others, or themselves.

Be merciful, not mercenary.

Natures

Genuine patience is part of the New Nature Package; don’t neglect it.

At any given moment, do you know if you are thinking or acting in the Flesh or in the Spirit?

Both of my natures are jealous: one for itself, the other for God.

If you try to please both your new nature and your old nature, you will please neither.

Inhibit your old nature, exhibit your new nature.

You can’t change your human nature, but you can control it.

My two natures compete for domination of my life.

When I indulge my old sinful nature, I’m pleasing Satan; when I release my new pure nature, I’m pleasing God.

We are born with a major handicap—a sinful nature; we are reborn with a major advantage—a sinless nature.

Don’t waste your time trying to change your old nature; just try to stay connected to your New Nature.

If our original sinful nature could be saved, why would we need to be implanted with a different one?

Needy People

Needy people don’t go around carrying signs saying: Please Encourage Me.

Obedience

If Jesus learned about obedience through suffering, how do we learn to obey our Father in Heaven?

Offense

The one who gives offense and the one who takes offense are both in the wrong.

Better to be offended by the Gospel than never to have heard it.

Omnipresence

There isn’t a place where God isn’t.

Opinion

The Lord never has to say: “This is my opinion.”

Owner / Manager

God is my owner even when I act like he’s not.

How I use free will is the only thing I can call my own; everything else, including free will, belongs to God.

I am not my own; therefore, I must not harm, neglect or spoil myself.

We are on God’s earth, on God’s time, using God’s resources.

Parents

You are entitled to extra years of life just for honoring your parents.

Patience

Be patient in the lengthy process of developing patience.

Patriotism

You can delete God from my Pledge of Allegiance, exclude him from my classroom, and remove him from my money, white-wash him from my head, but you cannot take him from my heart.

Perfection

Apostle Paul made it clear he was not perfect; where does that leave me?

Performance

In the Olympic Games there are no medals for mediocre performance.

Pleasure

The more you please the Lord the more you displease the world.

True pleasure is in pleasing God.

Pleasing my Heavenly Father should be my greatest pleasure.

When I make delighting in the Lord a way of life, my desires will be in tune with what pleases him.

God was pleased with Jesus because he didn’t please himself.

Politics

Biblical Correctness supersedes Political Correctness.

Let us not sacrifice God-given Individuality on the secular Altar of Society.

Poor

The poor have less to lose.

POV

An optimist sees a half-full glass; a pessimist sees a half-empty glass; a realist sees both.

If you want to see this world properly, get heaven’s viewpoint.

Power

Power can’t corrupt anyone, but absolutely anyone can corrupt power.

If you want to know the true character of a man, give him some power.

Prayer

The performance of praise and prayer has no intermission.

Every prayer request should contain (literally or figuratively) the Christ Clause: “Your will be done.”

Prayer is one weapon our Enemy cannot duplicate or destroy.

If the Lord doesn’t talk to me, there is a reason; if I don’t talk to the Lord, there is no excuse.

Pride         

Satan is the personification of Pride; Jesus—of Humility.

If we get smug about our supposed superior spiritual knowledge, we need to be reminded that Apostle Paul readily admitted he knew “only in part.”

Promises

God’s promises are proposed, not imposed.

Recognition

To want recognition is not only human; it’s divine.

I could belong to myself, only if I could create myself …out of nothing.

Relationships

You don’t want to know God as an enemy; he knows too much about you.

Finding proof of God’s existence means nothing; he wants you to find him.

A healthy relationship with the Lord requires mutual trust.

Am I as interested in what God wants from me as I am in what he wants for me?

I find Christ only in proportion to how much I lose myself.

A mutually satisfying relationship with God is based on knowing and doing what pleases him.

The greater tragedy was not that Cain terminated his relationship with his brother but that his parents terminated their relationship with God.

My perception of you is colored by my perception of myself.

Religion

Humans originate Religions; God originated a Redeemer.

Manmade religions are nothing more than a whitewash.

Rewards

God’s rewards follow good deeds the way reaping follows sowing.

Why would Jesus tell us to store treasures for ourselves in heaven if—as some say—there is no way of knowing we are going there?

Generosity pays generous dividends.

Right / Wrong

When right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right, something is wrong.

Rules

Even games have rules.

Sacrifice

God sees himself in sacrificial people.

Saints

If a skill, talent or a spiritual gift doesn’t have a corresponding handicap, it can be detrimental in the long run.

Satan

Satan is the entrapment expert

There are times when the Lord permits us to be Satan-sifted.

Satan does not question God’s existence, but he does question his Word.

We believe Satan’s lies when we disbelieve God’s truths.

God’s worst is better than Satan’s best.

Innocence drives the devil crazy.

Satan is subtle; be alert.

We please Satan when we displease the Lord.

If Satan can’t get his hands on “my” money, he strongly suggests I spend it on myself – just so the Lord’s work gets little or none of it.

When I act independent of God, I follow the example of Lucifer.

Save / Salvation

God is in the soul-reclamation business.

Knowing Evangelical beliefs, jargon and subculture does not equal new birth.

On the cross Jesus not only saved my soul; he also bought my body.

Christ came into the world not only to save us, but also to save us from ourselves.

Scripture

Study the Bible not only for information or inspiration but also for personal transformation.

Scripture immunizes against sin.

God writes concise Scripture; men write voluminous commentaries.

Find your future in the Bible.

We need to receive the Christ Child with childlike faith if we want to be the children of God.

Some people don’t search Scripture because it has a way of searching them.

Do I percolate Scripture when the heat is on?

We all get “brainwashed”—either by The World or by The Word.

What water is to natural life, so The Word is to one’s spirit.

Purely human interpretation of sacred scripture should be written with a stubby graphite pencil topped with an oversized proficient eraser.

Since you’re going to be biased anyway, at least be biblically biased.

As Christians, each one of us is living our own version of the Bible. 

The words of manmade religions are dead; the Word of God is life-giving.

The Bible is a compilation of divinely inspired writings penned by ordinary men for ordinary people.

Secret

If your primary goal is to make God happy, you have found the secret of life.

Self

The problem with self-esteem is that it focuses on self rather than on Jesus.

If you’re full of self-confidence, think of Apostle Peter.

If you’re obsessed with your self-importance, think of Lucifer.

If I don’t discipline myself, God will.

In Self-control, the control is totally up to Self.

There is an upside to our being sifted by Satan: We know Jesus is praying for us.

Serve / Service

I think a Christian’s life motto could very well be: Loving Service

God loathes love without service and service without love.

It is more gratifying to serve than to be served.

Sin / Sinner

Legalized sin is still sin.

Forgiven or not, every sin extorts its price.

Sin saps spiritual strength.

Originally, there were sins, which were replaced by mistakes, which were replaced by errors, which were replaced by blaming others, including God.

Sin is not forgiven until it is forsaken.

All of us were born with a tendency-to-sin handicap.

Sorrow

Our deepest sorrow is superficial compared to God’s sorrow.

Spirituality

Let’s give people space to grow spiritually.

Your living for the Lord is good; His living through you is better.

Spiritual battles are won with broken hearts, empty stomachs and bended knees.

A deeper walk with God comes through deeper experiences.

The abundant life that Jesus gives used to be strictly spiritual; now it seems to be mostly material.

You cannot build an unshakeable spiritual life without first laying down a solid biblical foundation.

Authentic revival or genuine spiritual awakening cannot—humanly—be predicted, planned or programmed.

There is an upside to our being sifted by Satan: We know Jesus is praying for us.

Stress

Humans are too fragile to endure sustained stress.

Suffering

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as “suffering in the will of God.”

Superstition

Superstition has no power unless you believe in it.

Surrender

To surrender to God is to be liberated.

When I give Jesus all of myself, I am only reciprocating.

Temple

God does not live in stationary temples to which people go; he lives in mobile temples that go to people.

Temptation

Carry on a conversation with Temptation at your own risk.

Defy temptation before it defiles you.

Never trust a temptation to introduce itself honestly.

Temptations are meant to weaken us; trials are meant to strengthen us.

You will never become so spiritual that you will no longer be tempted.

Tests / Trials

You don’t know what you’re made of until you are tested…and tested

Tests and trials are God’s spiritual trainers.

Time

Isn’t it interesting how my time can be either limited or unlimited depending on who wants it?

The Lord may take his time, but he is always on time.

We are on God’s Time, in his Space, using his Resources.

Some people have time for God only when they are in trouble or when they are finding fault with him.

To “think out of the box,” you first need a box.

Be patient; God has a timetable and he is on schedule.

It’s always time to trust God’s timing.

Treasure

Christ advises us to lay up treasures in heaven—not on earth. We would be foolish not to take his advice.

Trust

It’s easy to trust in God when there’s money in my pocket.

I don’t risk as much trusting God as he risks trusting me.

When we understand least, we trust most.

Truth & Lies

It is easier to believe soothing lies than to accept uncomfortable truth.

Truth sets us free only because Truth is a Person.

We defend truth best by living it.

Truth is more readily received when placed in the sturdy box of love, gift-wrapped with the delicate paper of gentleness, tied with the beautiful ribbon of humility and presented in an atmosphere of mystery.

If you are always truthful, it is superfluous for you to add, “Honest!”

If you are always trustworthy, it is not necessary for you to say, “Trust me!”

Understanding

I don’t understand God very well, but that’s OK; he understands me perfectly.

Uniqueness

God brings us into this world totally unique, and we spend the rest of our lives conforming.

Unity

God loves unity but hates uniformity.

Virtue

It is much healthier to be virtuous than to pretend to be virtuous.

Wants / Needs

A lot of wants come disguised as needs.

Works

Working your way to heaven is about as easy as walking to the moon.

Nothing is boring or demeaning when done for Jesus.