God's word tells us that righteousness is a gift; it cannot be earned. But godliness is not a gift. We must pay a price to touch godliness through a daily decision to die to self and embrace the cross. God calls us to learn godliness in the classroom of life among people as we sit on airplanes and buses, walk among our neighbors and labor at our factories or desks.

I believe the enemy has numerous tactics to keep us from praying because he knows that it is the greatest way for the kingdom of God to expand.

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages". To that, Calvert replied, "We died before we came here". Believers who have the Gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story.

In order to plant the Gospel, we must take risk.

All too often, it seems, we're willing to be students of Christianity rather than disciples of Christ.

To obey the Lord unseen—in secret—is the foundation of genuine godly service.

If something fit in with what God had said to me, then I considered it. If not - no matter how attractive it appeared - I refused. The secret of following God's will, I discovered, usually is wrapped up in rejecting the good for God's best.