If our lives do not reflect radical compassion for the poor, there is reason to wonder if Christ is really in us at all

One of my favorite sights is to look across a room packed with people with their Bibles in their laps, studying who God is and what God has said- after midnight.

This is the curse of superficial religion: the constant attempt to do outward things apart from inward transformation.

The church I lead could have the least gifted people, the least talented people, the fewest leaders, and the least money, and this church under the power of the Holy Spirit could still shake the nations for his glory.

We will not wish we had made more money, acquired more stuff, lived more comfortably, taken more vacations, watched more television, pursued greater retirement, or been more successful in the eyes of this world. Instead, we will wish we had given more of ourselves to living for the day when every nation, tribe, people, and language will bow around the throne and sing the praises of the Savior who delights in radical obedience and the God who deserves eternal worship.

We desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical.

Surely the gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that He is.