Ethan Smith

I would not have preached the honor and glory of the cross if I feared the death of the cross.”

The Apostle Andrew

“Seek what you seek; but remember that it is not where you seek it.”

Augustine, Confessions

“All that the world has to do to escape judgment is believe—for the simple reason that, by the gracious work of Jesus, it has in fact already escaped it. It need do nothing to earn that escape, and it certainly need not compile questionable lists of good works to prove that it deserves to escape. It need not negotiate with God, or be afraid of God, or try conning God into being lenient. It has only to believe that God in Jesus has settled all his problems of sin and to laugh loud and long at how graciously easy the whole business always was.”

Robert Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment

“Yielding to God’s will can be hard. And sometimes, it really hurts. But it always brings peace.”

John Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down

Once we begin to understand and experience ‘wealth’ according to God’s definition of the term—that he himself is our only true riches and that in comparison to him money is a small and insignificant thing—our perspective on the value of persons will be reoriented. Our hierarchies of who is important and who is expendable, of who is noteworthy and who is not-worthy, of who deserves our friendship and who does not, completely fade away. Because in God’s economy, the poor in spirit—regardless of their so-called net worth—are the sole heirs of God’s riches.”

Scott Sauls, Irresistible Faith

“Hospitality is not so much a task as a way of living our lives and of sharing ourselves. … A life of hospitality begins in worship, with a recognition of God’s grace and generosity. Hospitality is not first a duty and responsibility; it is first a response of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us.”

Christine Pohl
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition

“The American dream—that hoary mythology that hard work always guarantees upward mobility—has for more than a century made the U.S. obsessed with material success and the exhaustive striving required to earn it. … The problem with this gospel—Your dream job is out there, so never stop hustling—is that it’s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion.”

Derek Thompson
“Workism Is Making Americans Miserable,” The Atlantic

“Christianity is a religion of salvation, and the fact is that there is nothing in any of the nonChristian religions to compare with this message of a God who loved, and came after, and died for, a world of lost sinners.”

John Stott, Basic Christianity

“The gospel is not a preference. It’s not another piece of flair we add to our vest. It’s something far more beautiful and disturbing. The gospel is the power to raise the dead, to proclaim the greatness of God in a fallen and confused world.”

Alan Noble, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age

“It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m free!”

Elsa, “Let it Go,” Frozen