Quotes from Timothy S. Lane

Good relationships are always built on the foundation stones of identity and worship.

This passage is not encouraging unwise activity that overloads your schedule with church events and obligations. Nor does it ask you to turn normal relational moments into abnormal witnessing encounters.

Godly relationships flourish best between two humble people who acknowledge their weaknesses and sins and their need for grace.

but the call here is not so much about specific activities as it is about a lifestyle committed to God's purposes, encompassing all the details of daily life.

Self-Satisfaction

What we are getting at is that, because you are a human being, there is always something you are living for; always some desire, goal, treasure, purpose, value, or craving that controls your heart.

This passage is saying, "Make the most of every area in which God has placed you." Are you single, married, retired, parent, child, friend, employer, employee, student, or grandparent?

When I live out of a biblical sense of who I am (identity) and rest in who God is (worship), I will be able to build a healthy relationship with you.

Repentance is not true repentance unless it is specific and intelligent. We don't sin in the abstract; we sin in concrete, particular ways. Since that is true, we need to take an honest look at our lives—both heart and behavior. Spiritual awareness is a blessing. Through it, we can experience change.

For this reason we can say that we all live theologically; that is, the things we believe about God and ourselves are the foundation for all the decisions we make, all the actions we take, and all the words we speak.

have a tendency to do this with parenting: If I can just get through the diaper phase. . . . Once my children were out of diapers, it became: If I can just get through these early years of elementary school, then I can minister to others.

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." That good work begins in relationship to Jesus and is brought to completion within an ever-deepening union with him.

Do you see how money and time reveal your heart in relation to God and others? How you use time and money in your human relationships says much about your relationship with God.

If I am married to Christ, the core of my present life is not personal happiness, but spiritual purity.

If Christ is indeed the only prize worth living for, we need to ponder just how wonderful he is.

Either I get my identity vertically, out of my sense of who God is and worship who he has made me in Christ, or I will seek to get my identity horizontally, out of my circumstances, relationships, and successes.

Your spouse, your friends, and your children cannot be the sources of your identity.

When you seek to define who you are through those relationships, you are actually asking another sinner to be your personal messiah

the anger we reveal in the middle of trial says more about us than it does about the trial.

Is there evidence that you are looking to your relationships to give you things you have already been given in Christ?

Christian friendships do not simply help us bask in the sunshine of God's grace; they also help us to roll up our sleeves and strive after holiness.

Change within community is counterintuitive to the way we often think, but Scripture clearly presents it as God's way of making us more like Christ.

He is near, with, and in you. This means there is hope for you, even in relationships that leave you confused and disappointed.

Worship is first an identity before it becomes an activity.