To everyone wanting a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, stay away from Jesus. The danger in our lives will always increase in proportion to the depth of our relationship with Christ.

Faith is the realization that God's pleasure in you will never be based upon your performance for him.

We can accomplish more in one month of dependence on the Spirit than we can in 100 years of dependence on ourselves.

Real success is found in radical sacrifice. Ultimate satisfaction is found not in making much of ourselves but in making much of God. The purpose of our lives transcends the country and culture in which we live. Meaning is found in community, not individualism; joy is found in generosity, not materialism; and truth is found in Christ, not universalism. Ultimately, Jesus is a reward worth risking everything to know, experience, and enjoy.

God's ultimate concern is not to get you or me from point A to point B along the quickest, easiest, smoothest, clearest route possible. Instead, his ultimate concern is that you and I would know him deeply as we trust him more completely.

So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide.

When we realize that Jesus is the one who takes the initiative and invites us to follow him, everything changes-on multiple levels.