God's Outrageous Claims: Thirteen Discoveries That Can Transform Your Life (Strobel, Lee)

C. S. Lewis said, Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. . . . Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries: avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — saf

we need to resist the temptation to traffic in rumors, gossip, or unfair criticism.

“A friend is one who knows you as you are, understands where you’ve been, accepts who you’ve become, and still gently invites you to grow.”

“All of us are tempted to believe that, because we haven’t got the answers to the hard questions of faith, there aren’t any answers to those questions,”

The Lord told Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

God’s outrageous claim is that you can survive your bouts with doubt — and not only that but your faith could very well emerge even stronger as a result.

live out your faith even when you have to pay a price. Because when you take your faith that seriously, others who are watching will begin to take it seriously, too.

noting the common root of the words integrity and integer (or whole number), author Warren Wiersbe observes, “A person with integrity is not divided (that’s duplicity) or merely pretending (that’s hypocrisy). He or she is ‘whole’; life is ‘put together,’ and things are working together harmoniously.

Some Christians feel that their spiritual life is boring, bland, and routine, that it has become predictable and safe — and the reason is, they’re clutching a railing like that. They’re wondering why their heart doesn’t beat fast for spiritual matters anymore, and the simple explanation is this: no risk, no adventure.