Quotes About Faith

The things that we mortals see as setbacks are, in truth, simply God's way of redirecting our paths toward Him. And what sometimes seems to be a terrible setback (to us) can always be transformed into a great victory (for Him). After all, no problem is too big for God. Criswell Freeman (the man who helped me write this book)

How often today might Christians think they stand for "true" Christianity when what they stand for is a secular tradition-what cultural critic Raymond Williams would call a "selective tradition" (chapter five)-that has little to do with the kingdom of God?

Go make your mark on the world. Be a world changer! Live bold for Christ no matter the cost.

graces. No matter what your future may be, now is not meant to be a time of waiting. Instead, God is teaching you something each step along the way, preparing you to take His hand and walk with Him, trusting that God will lead you to healing.

but consider this: when you bring shards of glass together and shine radiant light through them, you create stained glass. Likewise, God can bring beauty through our scars. He can turn us into living cathedrals. All we need to do is trust in His promise: "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5).

Faith is building on what you know is here so you can reach what you know is there

Instead of asking WHY you had to do it, how about just thanking Him for safely bringing you THROUGH it.

I'd learned not to put a question mark where God put a period.

You do the foot work, and leave the results up to God.

You're not always going to be able to see the big picture. But you've got to know that, no matter what, you'll be okay. Keep praying.

You've got to learn to trust Him, Cup. You're not always going to be able to see the big picture.

A man of conviction is often more to be desired than a man of experience.

In the "grain of wheat" metaphor, Jesus insists if we wish to hold on to the throughline to eternity, we have to follow that line through death. We have to imagine death enough to see it not as some utterly aversive event we go away from or around, but instead as something recognizable enough to go through. When we thoughtfully stock our minds with images of death, we give the Spirit of Jesus the raw material to draw mental throughlines from death to resurrection.

We must nurture our capacity for prayers of submission. If we remain stuck only in prayers of avoidance, we are vulnerable to believing that avoiding loss is the only acceptable outcome. When we ask for only one thing, we are essentially insisting that it is the only acceptable thing. This insistence leaves us highly vulnerable to a range of Satan's temptations. We are vulnerable to engaging in all sorts of problematic behavior.

Our Not Yet body of glory grows out of our Now body of struggle.

To hang on through loss, I need to hang on to a throughline.

the key insight for now is that we will miss Jesus' solution if we follow some narrative that pushes everything out toward external blame. Such a narrative is like a faulty sign pointing us away from Jesus because his acceptance of us takes place inside us—it doesn't happen "out there.

If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good.

On the other hand, the Bible contains much that is relevant today, like Noah taking forty days to find a place to park.

Foolishness is the human condition, and exactly what God handles best.

reconciliation is radical because it is biblical.

Oftentimes the faith community historically has been on the wrong side, particularly as it relates to indigenous communities and sovereign nations who we are in relationship with. Today we decided to be on the right side.

It's hard to believe the old saying that "things happen for a reason" when the things happening to you are god-awful and you just want them to be over with. No matter how I looked at it, I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that this had happened for some reason that made any sense.

I viewed this image inside of a box and pictured the edges of the box reaching outer space. I knew the Divine would have to create the path; I wasn't innovative enough to do so. Within a few days, an entirely unexpected outcome emerged.