Byron > Byron's Quotes

“Christmas split history. Foretastes of the future abound. Drink deeply on what he achieved for us. And be filled with hope for all that is coming.”
― John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent

“While Moses had his frustrations, and perhaps some doubts, throughout his interactions with Pharaoh, Moses continued to believe and obey God despite what seemed like a series of triumphs on Pharaoh’s part. Moses trusted in the veracity of God’s words and he acted upon them. He not only believed God’s words at a cognitive level, he also believed them at the volitional level. He heard God’s word and he did God’s word.”
― Anthony Selvaggio, From Bondage to Liberty: The Gospel According to Moses

“The glory of Christ in the gospel is the decisive ground of saving faith because saving faith is the receiving of Christ as infinitely glorious and supremely valuable.”
― John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

“So to “love God with all your mind” means engaging all your powers of thought to know God as fully as possible in order to treasure him for all he is worth.”
― John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

“If everyone is speaking the same language, then it becomes easier to create a team where everyone is of the same mind.”
― Ted Kallman, The Nehemiah Effect: Ancient Wisdom from the World’s First Agile Projects

“Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

“What is prayer, then, in the fullest sense? Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

“Prayer brings you into God’s presence, where our shortcomings are exposed.”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

“Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. . . . It saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. . . . So by prayer we acquire our true selves.”242”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

“Idols are much more than statues that our ancestors bowed down to. Anything that we build our lives on, anything that we lean on for meaning or identity, anything that we hope will bring us freedom, can be an idol.”
― Tullian Tchividjian, Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free

“Timothy Keller makes the point well: Some suffering is given in order to chastise and correct a person for wrongful patterns of life (as in the case of Jonah imperiled by the storm), some suffering is given not to correct past wrongs but to prevent future ones (as in the case of Joseph sold into slavery), and some suffering has no purpose other than to lead a person to love God more ardently for himself alone and so discover the ultimate peace and freedom. (Keller, Walking with God, 47)”
― Mark Howell, Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Thessalonians

“God uses every circumstance, even our sufferings and afflictions, to prepare us for future glory. Our faithfulness in affliction and steadfast hope in trials reveals the genuineness of our faith. So we demonstrate our worthiness of His calling by passionately pursuing God regardless of our circumstances. We do not prove ourselves worthy of His calling in order to be saved, but are proved worthy because we are saved.”
― Mark Howell, Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Thessalonians

“The church is the church as a creature of God’s Word—a creature that finds its life outside of itself, that does not have faith in faith so much as faith in the God of covenant promise made known in Christ. From one standpoint, the church is a gathering of sinners who are both old and young, healthy and sick, growing and dying. But, by God’s promise, the church is also people who move through birth, health, dying, and even death on a journey to resurrection because they belong to Jesus Christ. For the end of the story of God, and of the church, is not death but resurrection. “Christ has been raised from the dead,” and the defeat of death in resurrection comes through him and then to those who belong to him. “Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:20, 23).”
― J. Todd Billings, Rejoicing in Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer and Life in Christ

“Many of us are confused about what it means to have true joy if we have to embrace a delayed gratification amid the slower speeds required by the things that most matter to Jesus.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“Ways teach. They form the primary classrooms of our learning. For better and for worse, we learn to see the world and present ourselves in it for witness, not just from creedal statements we learn in class but also from relational mentoring with those with whom we do life (Prov. 13:20; 22:24–25). I”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“No one was more plain, true, reasonable, and clear than Jesus, and they crucified him. Clarity matters a great deal. But clarity can’t always solve or fix the broken things.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“Patience says to your empty hands, “God is here.” Patience looks the worst in the face and says, “God will not leave you.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“To be quick to listen means that we do not say the first thing or everything we think (slow to speak), even if we are right, even if we are preachers or evangelists. Nor do we give immediate voice or vent even to the strongest emotions that pulsate within our chests (slow to anger), no matter how strongly we feel them. If you don’t mind, take a moment and reread those last two sentences.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“Mark this down if you can. Silences, not just sentences, form the work of pastoral ministry. Wise pastors are listening preachers.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“Second, God sometimes calls us to a congregation when we don’t yet have what it needs. Sometimes we can’t help a people until after we’ve been with them for a while, and being with them is the means God uses to teach us what he wants us to offer them. For”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“Nothing is sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name. KATE DICAMILLO”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“G. K. Chesterton: “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” And”
― Stephen Mansfield, The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World

“The worst ministry work assumes that the old ways of doing things are the best ways simply because “that’s the way it’s always been done.” You”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo