I just finished reading Surprised by Grace by Tullian Tchividjian!

Here are several quotes that made the book well worth reading:

In seminary I had a professor who referred to the New Testament as the Bible’s footnotes. He meant no disrespect; he knew that the New Testament is just as inspired and trustworthy and infallible as the Old. He was simply saying in a different way what Augustine said centuries earlier-that the New Testament is contained in the Old, and the Old Testament is explained in the New.

God is more interested in the worker than he is in the work the worker does. He’s more interested in you than in what you can accomplish. If accomplishing Project Ninevah was all God cared about, he could have discarded Jonah and found a more reliable prophet. He knew Jonah would run; so why did he ask Jonah to go in the first place? It was because Jonah was God’s project. God comes after Jonah not because he needs Jonah, but because Jonah needs God.

But before we go to far in condemning Jonah’s self-righteousness, we need to be aware of another (prehaps more subtle) side to self-righteousness that “younger brother” types need to be careful of. There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plaques the unconventional and the non-religious types. Anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean? Those who are more like the younger brother -more irreligious-can easily take sinful pride in that fact.

Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” It screams out, “That’s right! I know I don’t have it all together, and you think you do; I know I am not good, and you think you are. And that makes me better than you!” See the irony? We become self-righteous against the self-rightesous.

God is in the business of relentlessly pursuing rebels like us and that he comes after us not to angrily strip away our freedom but to affectionately strip away our slavery so we might become truly free.

We learn about the danger we experience when we run from God’s will, the deliverance we experience when we submit to God’s will, the deliverance others experience when we fulfill God’s will, and the depression we experience when we question God’s will.

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I just finished reading  Leaders Who Last [Kindle Edition] Dave Kraft (Author)

Here are some quotes that will make you want to read this book:

Followers don’t do what leaders say as much as they do what leaders do.

The author wrote an article entitled “Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders,” a satire based on Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Here’s the list:

1. They spend too much time managing and not enough time leading.
2. They spend too much time counseling the hurting people and not enough time developing the people with potential.
3. They spend too much time putting out fires and not enough time lighting fires.
4. They spend too much time doing and not enough time planning.
5. They spend too much time teaching the crowd and not enough time training the core.
6. They spend too much time doing it themselves and not enough time doing it through others.
7. They make too many decisions based on organizational politics and too few decisions based on biblical principles.

A Christian leader is humble, God-dependent, team playing servant of God who is called by God to shepherd, develop, equip, and empower a specific group of believers to accomplish an agreed-upon vision from God.

Author Dallas Willard observed that “grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning.” That means that it is not wrong to expend energy and effort to get to know the Lord, but it is unbiblical to do so with the thoughts of earning God’s love, favor, and acceptance through the effort.

This is my favorite of the book!

Some people come into our lives and quietly go. Others stay awhile, and leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.

A purpose statement is, in essence, a written-down reason for being. Jesus’ mission helped Him decide how to act, what to do, and even what to say when challenging situations arose. Clarity is power; Once you are clear about what you were put here to do then ‘jobs’ become only a means toward accomplishing your mission, not an end in themselves.

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The following quotes and ideas come from

Redemptive Divorce: A Biblical Process That Offers Guidance for the Suffering Partner, Healing for the Offending Spouse, and the Best Catalyst for Restoration [Kindle Edition] Mark W. Gaither (Author)

One of the good men in our church asked me to read this book. It is a good book well worth your time reading. You will see some great quotes as you read the following:

Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person’s sin. Forgiveness is costly; we pay the price of the evil we forgive. Yet you’re going to live with those consequences whether you want to or not; your only choice is whether you will do so in the bitterness of unforgiveness or the freedom of forgiveness. That’s how Jesus forgave you–He took the consequences of your sin upon Himself. All true forgiveness is substitutional, because no one really forgives without bearing the penalty of the other person’s sin.

This is quoted in the book but is actually a quote by Neil Anderson in his book the Bondage Breaker.

Here are some more quotes on forgiveness and the process of healing and restoration and the three distinct stages involved:

1. Forgiveness has to do with the past. Forgiveness is not holding something someone has done against her. It is letting go. It only take one to offer forgiveness. And just as God has offered forgiveness to everyone, we are expected to do the same. Matthew 6:12. 18:35
2. Reconciliation has to do with the present. It occurs when the other person apologizes and accepts forgiveness. It takes two to reconcile.
3. Trust has to do with the future. It deals with both what you will risk happening again and what you  will open yourself up to. A person must show through his actions that he is trustworthy before you trust him again, Matthew 3:8, Proverbs 4:23

This quote comes from Henry Cloud and John Townsend in How to have that Difficult Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding

The author states:

Restoration will not be easy for anyone. The upright partner must open himself or herself to the possibility of re injury. The repentant partner must endure the excruciating process of self-examination and reformation. The rebuilding of the marriage will be fraught with danger and marked by setbacks. And, truth be told, few couples make it. Nevertheless, redemption is possible, not only for individuals but for couples. Given the right environment and expert guidance, God can raise a temple of extraordinary grace from the ashes of sin. But it won’t happen automatically. Reconciliation and restoration must be intentional. Redemption requires tough love backed by consequences and actions that have genuine impact.

This book was worth it for the quotes on forgiveness alone. It certainly also has some questions and answers for those who are in horrible marriages where one of the partners is consumed with drunkenness or adultery!

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