[Spiritual friendship] is eagerly helping one another know, serve, love, and resemble God in deeper and deeper ways.

Every religion has a prophet who is pointing people to God. Jesus is the only one who says, 'I am God, and I am coming to find you.'

You are worse than you think you are, but also far more loved than you feel you are.

Jesus asks for far more than you ever thought, but offers more than you ever dreamed.

If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.

Happiness is a by-product of wanting something more than happiness-to be rightly related to God and our neighbor.

When Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think “I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me.” No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us - denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him - and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, “Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing.” He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.