Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People

by Bob Goff

faith

Good quote on childlike faith here at the beginning of oage 17

wished He

Good quote on what God sees when he looks at us

spotlights.

Quote for Matthew 5.13

Here’s

Purpose

I spent far too much time circling the field that night because I didn’t get all the green lights I wanted. I think a lot of us do the same thing with much of our lives too. Don’t let a nickel light bulb keep you from fulfilling your purpose. God isn’t surprised we want more confirmation. He just hopes we won’t get stuck waiting for it.

was a great sermon you gave at church.”

Witness illustration

The guy who is up in front at church needs to be the same guy in the back of the rental-car line. If you can’t do that, either stop driving or get off the stage.

Witness Selfishness Role model illustration

I spoke to a guy once who said the church had hurt his feelings, so he was leaving it. I told him, “You can’t leave the church, you are the church.” That guy is part of our church. Your church is part of our church too. Even if you don’t think you go to a church, you’re part of our church. At our church there is nothing to join, just Jesus.

Church illustration

you know what makes the bride look terrific? It’s not the fancy dress or the building or the flowers or the music. Those things are great, but what makes the bride look terrific is everyone in the room knows the groom chose her to be his and she’s chosen him to be hers. The two of them can’t wait to spend forever together. I think this is the reason why God calls us His bride.

Church is the bride of Christ. Ditto, the next paragraph

Sometimes God uses the most difficult things in our lives to show us the most accurate things about our lives—if we have the guts to receive a little grace.

Cornovirus 2020 (illustration)

Someone once asked me what I would write if I only had six words for my autobiography. Here’s what I came up with: What if we weren’t afraid anymore? Throughout history, God has spoken three words more often than any others when the people He loved were scared and confused, lost or lonely, paralyzed or stuck. In those times, He usually didn’t make a big speech. He just said to His people, Be. Not. Afraid.

Fear illustration Corona virus

I was reminded again how grace never seems fair until you need some.

Note on Grace

He just knew I was following him closely. I think Jesus feels the same way about us. We’re all going to trip as we try to follow Him through the difficult terrain of our lives. But when we do, we’ll bump into Him all over again. Following Jesus means climbing, tripping, dusting ourselves off, and climbing some more. Faith isn’t a business trip walked on a sidewalk; it’s an adventure worked out on a steep and sometimes difficult trail.

Following Jesus

It’s hard to walk with Jesus and run ahead of Him at the same time. Yet I’ve been doing that my whole life. I’ve misunderstood going slow as lacking enthusiasm and going fast as joy. I’ve confused patience as a lack of will and activity as purpose.

Following Jesus, part 2

Here’s the thing: loving people the way Jesus did either changes everything in us or it changes nothing. It can’t just change a couple of things. But, it can change a couple of things at a time. If you want to become love, what will it change for you?

Change New creation