Quotes from C.J. Mahaney

Because what's perplexing is not that you and I encounter suffering in this life; what's really perplexing is that He suffered in our place. Why did the innocent One suffer for our sins?

Truly edifying words are words that reveal the character and the promises and the activity of God. They're cross-centered words. They're words rooted in and derived from Scripture, words that identify the active presence of God, and words that communicate the evidences of grace that you observe in others. They're words that flow from a humble heart.

We know the inner call to lay down our lives for one another because He laid down His life for us. What a powerful death! The cross ransoms, the cross liberates, the cross transforms!

Students in the school of prayer never graduate from the school of the Gospel.

abide close to the cross, and search the mystery of His wounds

Laughter is a divine gift to the human who is humble. A proud man cannot laugh because he must watch his dignity; he cannot give himself over to the rocking and rolling of his belly. But a poor and happy man laughs heartily because he gives no serious attention to his ego.

CHARLES SPURGEON once preached on the foolishness of pride, calling it "a groundless thing" and "a brainless thing" as well as "the maddest thing that can exist."1 But despite the sheer folly and unreasonableness of pride, it manifests its stubborn presence in countless ways within all of us. Even the disciples of Jesus weren't immune; in fact, they were prime offenders.

Pride takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification. That's the motive and ultimate purpose of pride—to rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him. The proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God, thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only He is worthy to receive. No wonder God opposes pride. No wonder He hates pride. Let that truth sink into your thinking.

All topics should be studied through the lens of the Gospel.