Quotes from Ted Dekker

The powers of insanity never slept, always vying for a voice that justified their lies. Insanity. The insane self. The false self. The flesh self. The ego, the mistaken mind, the costume, the roommate…

When you have a desperate love for God,' Father Micheal would say, 'the comforts of this world feel like paper flowers. They are easily put aside. If you really have God's love.

And yet when you get right down to it, we're all the same—rich, poor, old, young, fat, skinny, white, brown, or purple—pick your costume, none of it really matters too much. What does matter is whether or not we take offense when we think we've been wronged, regardless of who we think we are or what costume we're wearing.

If you look to anyone to satisfy your longing, you will think you need something more than him and what he has made you to be complete and at peace. The expectation of fulfillment in relationships will always fail you, and you will hold grievances that darken your world. You will become blind to the light that guides to the narrow path.

Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it's not on our side," Seth said. "Big ideas are so hard to recognize, so fragile, so easy to kill. People who don't have them can't possibly understand.

Even the bins looked beautiful to her. They simply were what they were and were doing a splendid job being just that.

I've come to tell you that it's not your fault," he said. "Michelle's beyond suffering, and yet you suffer, trapped in this hell of your own making. Set yourself free, Olivia. Free to love your daughter as she is, not as you wish she could be. In this you will find more peace than you can possibly imagine.

But the more I succeeded in the world's eyes, the more I realized that that success itself was only another prison, fashioned by the values of this world. More wealth only demanded I maintain that wealth. More status only begged me to rise higher. And fame . . . What a cruel and jealous mistress fame is.

We all get to discover who we really are at some point, and when we do, it can be quite unsettling.

What is it, then, that comprises our deepest selves and gives us worth?

Pain was not God's plan for this life. It is a reality, but it is not part of the plan." I

He knew me through and through and he found no shame in me.

The kingdom of God is not about what we see with these eyes. It's not about eating or drinking or walking or throwing away the crutches. Those can be good gifts, like wealth and prosperity. But they touch only the surface and they are quite incidental. His kingdom is about peace and joy and love and a kind of power that will turn your heart into a herd of thundering horses if you let it." It

He didn't think of the rot as a disease. His mind was sharp, but he'd been swallowed by lies that had long ago persuaded him that this was the way all good men should look and move and feel. Pain was natural. The smell of rotting flesh was more a scent of wholesome humanity than a stench.

As I knew my Father in a new way, I discovered who I was as His son. That I was already all I could hope to be because I was in Christ. All of my striving to *become* had actually hidden the truth from me, because in striving to become, I was only denying who I already was.

Yeshua shows us the Way to be saved from all that we think threatens us on the dark seas of our lives. Only when we, too, see what He sees can we leave the treasured boat that we think will save us and walk on the troubled waters that we thought would surely drown us.

People tend to react to other people in wholesale rather than in detail, right? He's a minister, so I hate him. She's beautiful, so I like her. One month later you wake up and realize you have nothing in common with the woman.

It is written that in the last days the earth will tremble at the goodness of God. So then I ask you, what kind of goodness would make you weak in the knees with gratitude and awe?

Maybe he does show himself to us, but we don't see. Maybe it's not our senses that are the problem, but our minds.

The incomparable great power we have as believers is tied up in hope. Lose the hope and lose the power.

I'm here to say that you can't make the troubled waters of life go away by defending yourself against them. You can only walk over those troubled waters if you offer peace to them and leave the safety of your boat. Or so it was once written, and I have found Jesus' teaching to be true.

It's their way. They don't understand suffering like we do. They live with it every day. - It's not their way. It's the way of Teeleh.

This is a labyrinth of wickedness and destruction and pleasure and, above all, love, because in the end it's all just one big, mind-bending love story, isn't it?

What love can you possibly need from the world if you are already full of His? None.