Paul admitted to knowing fear, but it never stopped him. "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling," he reported in 1 Corinthians 2:3, but the verb is came. He did not stay home out of fear for the journey.

In setting forth the current liberalism, now almost dominant in the Church, over against Christianity, we are animated, therefore, by no merely negative or polemic purpose; on the contrary—by showing what Christianity is not, we hope to be able to show what Christianity is in order that men may be led to turn from the weak and beggarly elements and have recourse again to the grace of God.

Surely Paul's moral and spiritual greatness is all the more evident the more he is studied and analyzed. It is sheer irony and miracle that God would select one of the most aggressive opponents of the early Christian movement and make him into its most outstanding leader.

Successful leaders have learned that no failure is final, whether his own failure or someone else's. No one is perfect, and we cannot be right all the time. Failures and even feelings of inadequacy can provoke humility and serve to remind a leader who is really in charge.

I am in fact a Hobbit, in all but size.

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.

When I took the habit, the Lord immediately showed me how He favours those who do violence to themselves in order to serve Him. No one saw what I endured... At the moment of my entrance into this new state I felt a joy so great that it has never failed me even to this day; and God converted the dryness of my soul into a very great tenderness.

I am convinced now that virtually every destructive behavior and addiction I battled off and on for years was rooted in my (well-earned) insecurity.

The AIDS virus is not more powerful than God.

Heaven will be full of the songs of worshipers who had once been broken people in a broken world, picked up and used for God's glory.

God, as much as I've needed your power to kill the Enemy, I need your power to fix me. It's not enough that power goes out from me; I need the power of God to work in me.

Guess what? Grace is more powerful than consequences. Grace overwhelms consequences. Even with consequences there is love and grace and the mercy of God in Christ. Jesus says to us, "I know you messed up, and I know there are consequences, but I want to walk with you through the consequences. I want to love you through the consequences. And I even want to use the consequences in this whole big story.