What is the essence of evil? It is forsaking a living fountain for broken cisterns. God gets derision and we get death. They are one: choosing sugarcoated misery we mock the lifegiving God. It was meant to be another way: God's glory exalted in our everlasting joy.

Nothing is more vital than prayer in Christian existence, and few things are more vulnerable to neglect.

We weren't meant to be somebody--we were meant to know Somebody

There will be no people in heaven who want to be around their things more than Jesus.

Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit. He died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.

Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others.

The greatest threat to your ministry, dear brothers, is that you lose your joy in God.