But the point is that we live in a culture that idolizes happiness, and if we idolize happiness, it will always elude us.

Humans are needy by design. Will we abandon the myth of independence and seek God?

To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness, in our lives.

When you have to manage the world, please everyone, earn more than you did last year, and work off five pounds, you will be driven. If not, you run the risk of being un-American or even un-Christian because our economy and churches rely on such people. Even when paralyzed by circumstances, a stressed person is a driven person.

Are you worried? Jesus says there is nothing to worry about. It isn't our kingdom, it's God's. We take our cue from the King, and the King is not fretting over anything. He is in complete control.

In order to make the Kingdom of God a practical reality, it was necessary for Him to dissociate it from all the forces of this world, and to bring morality and religion into the closest connexion. "The law of love was the indissoluble bond by which Jesus for ever united morality with religion." "Moral instruction was the principal content and the very essence of all His discourses." His efforts "were directed to the establishment of a purely ethical organisation.

You can work all your life and make all the waters in all the rivers on Earth drinkable, but if, when you die, you are not ready to meet God, it doesn't matter.

Lord, make my way prosperous, not that I achieve high station, but that my life may be an exhibit to the value of knowing God.

Our ministry is debt free and we have not had to beg or plead for finances.

As the fire doth mount upwards, and the needle that is touched with the loadstone still turneth to the north, so the converted soul is inclined to God. Nothing else can satisfy him, nor can he find any content and rest but in his love. In a word, all that are converted do esteem and love God better than all the world; and the heavenly felicity is dearer to them than their fleshly prosperity.

If God be not enough for you, you will never have enough. Turn to him more, and know him better, if you would have a satisfied mind. -Directions Against Sinful Desires and Discontent.

The work of God needs to be done. Souls must not perish while you give your attention to your worldly business or worldly pleasure, take your ease, or quarrel with your brethren.