Brian Pate > Recent Status Updates

"Rooting my identity in ministry leadership would cause me to hide important details about myself, control conversations, compete for position, deny weaknesses while projecting strength, and a host of other spiritual dangers" (p. 162).

Instead of the Crusades, Lull believed they should win the lost "by love and prayers, and the pouring out of tears and of blood" (56). He eventually did shed his own blood for Jesus' sake in North Africa.

Every new situation (+ or -) can change how we view ourselves and expose us to new threats. So we must continually recalibrate our identity in the gospel.

Great quote! "God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew" (p. 228).

Ch. 13 is worth the price of the book. Great treatment of confessing, forsaking, and mortifying sin.

Great section on confession.

"It is possible to merely assent that something is a sin without getting the new perspective on it and experiencing the new inward aversion to it that gives you the power and freedom to change" (p. 213).

Thoughts on pastoral qualifications: God values character. Character trumps performance (p. 104).