Quotes from David R. Johnson

The way you can spot a false system is that the leaders require the place of honor. It is our belief that the less secure a leader is, the more important titles will be to him or her.

Maybe to some, the removal of recognition sounds disrespectful. The true issue is not whether you choose to use a title or not. The true issue is whether you need it—whether you have to have it. The Pharisees required it, and Jesus pointed out that this is one mark of a false spiritual leader.

Whatever kind of energy you bring to it, it will give it right back to you. If you're frustrated, it'll act frustrated. If you're calm, it's more likely to be calm, too.

don't ever let your focus be so much on the one cloud in the sky that you miss noticing the unending expanse of beautiful blue and the brilliant, shining sun all around. What I do

I had never dated someone who wanted to be with me all the time, like he did. He seemed to be attentive to everything about me, noticing what I liked and didn't like, buying me presents. His ambitious, fiery spirit was intoxicating. However, like a drunk person, I was blind to the truth.

If the spiritual relationships you have in Jesus' name don't give you rest, but rather make you more tired as time goes on, then they aren't representing Jesus' purpose accurately. He came to lift from the backs of tired people the burden of trying hard to earn God's approval.

Perhaps," she went on, "the biggest lesson of all is that people need to learn to put their faith in God and not in the men who have built institutions around faith or even in the institutions themselves.

rush, his palms are sweating

Exactly. Now think about it, Tucker. Someone walked up to that young, tender sapling and, without any regard for what was right or wrong, took out a long, sharp steel steeple and hammered it deep into the tree to hold the wire in place. It probably tore the bark and splattered sap into the air. The tree didn't ask for it and certainly didn't deserve it to be done. If you think about it, it was a cruel thing to

But that young sapling decided it wasn't going to be destroyed by its wounds. It decided to prove it was bigger than the person who harmed it. It accepted the hurt, embraced the experience, and grew around it. That, Tucker, is what forgiveness is.

I sought my death and found it in my womb, I looked for life and saw it was a shade, I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but made; My glass is full, and now my glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done. —Chidiock Tichborne

Getting stuck on the past will weigh you down and looking into the future will only create worries.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. – Alexander Pope

Americans have always thought they had a democracy form of government. We don't. We have a constitutional republic – a representative form of government.

number of years a person lives has nothing to do with whether or not they've lived a full life. Eighty years is a lot of years, I guess, when compared to twenty years. But just because a person has lived a lot of years doesn't mean they've lived a full life.