James > James's Quotes

“Our task as image-bearing, God-loving, Christ-shaped, Spirit-filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to a world that has discovered its fallenness, to announce healing to a world that has discovered its brokenness, to proclaim love and trust to a world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion...The gospel of Jesus points us and indeed urges us to be at the leading edge of the whole culture, articulating in story and music and art and philosophy and education and poetry and politics and theology and even--heaven help us--Biblical studies, a worldview that will mount the historically-rooted Christian challenge to both modernity and postmodernity, leading the way...with joy and humor and gentleness and good judgment and true wisdom. I believe if we face the question, "if not now, then when?" if we are grasped by this vision we may also hear the question, "if not us, then who?" And if the gospel of Jesus is not the key to this task, then what is?”
― N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is

“The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.”
― Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

“God will not quit until every bit of his work is complete in each of his children. We can have courage and hope in any situation. God’s dream for us will come true.”
― Timothy S. Lane, How People Change

“Life is seldom simple. Growth in God’s grace is a process and not an event. Tough things are not going to turn around overnight because you have entrusted them to the Lord. The Bible is honest in its description of how grave and comprehensive our war with sin is. Individuals, friendships, churches, marriages, and neighborhoods don’t turn around in a moment. The Bible describes the Christian life as a journey that often takes us through the wilderness. You will get tired and confused. You will have moments when you wonder where God is. You will struggle to see God’s promises at work in your life. You will feel that following God has brought you more suffering than blessing. You will go through moments when it seems as if the principles of Scripture don’t work. It will sometimes seem as if the wrong side wins. There will be moments when you feel alone and misunderstood. There will be times when you feel like quitting. This passage is meant to encourage you to be full of hope in the midst of things you don’t fully understand. You don’t have to figure everything out. You do need to know and trust the One who does understand, and who knows exactly what he is doing. Do you look at your life as Paul looked at the”
― Timothy S. Lane, How People Change

“This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute. We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“Some people are born into families that encourage education; others are against it. Some are born into flourishing economies encouraging of entrepreneurship; others are born into war and destitution. I want you to be successful, and I want you to earn it. But realize that not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when judging people, including yourself.”
― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

“Planning is important, but the most important part of every plan is to plan on the plan not going according to plan.”
― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

“No one likes the rate-buster because the rate-buster makes them look bad and establishes a new standard and norm. The rate-buster makes the 2x people around them uncomfortable. Why do they need to achieve so much? Why are they always pushing against the status quo? Why don’t they just let things be? Interestingly, entire organizations and industries, despite claiming they want growth, can get defensive against rate-busters who may be the very linchpin to going 10x. Even still, when you’re operating at 2x your objective isn’t to evolve but to maintain. When you’re 2x, you don’t want to rock the boat. You don’t want to face hard truths in the mirror. You’re committed to your 80 percent, which is your comfort zone, culture, and habitual way of operating.”
― Dan Sullivan, 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less