Spirit means essentially two things: 1. The power of thinking—conscious, deliberate, rational understanding. Not sense perception; that's the work of a bodily organ, like the eye. 2. The power of willing and choosing and deliberately loving. Not sensory appetite; that's the work of a bodily function, like hunger.

Love is supposed to bring us out of the dark prison of the "my will be done" ego into the joys of "thy will be done", both horizontally and vertically, toward both the human and the divine Other.

Perhaps if you know you are insane then you are not insane. Or you are becoming sane, finally.

When we become part of God's own family, what sets us apart is not any difference in the sin environment around us, but in how we deal with it.

Unless there is within us that which is above us, we will soon yield to that which is around us.

Our attitudes are important! In fact, they are more important than our actions, because they are the foundation upon which our actions are built.

As members of God's kingdom, we're called to conquer the barriers between who we are and who God wants us to be. Our goal is to "come over" from where we are today, and to flourish as the person God made us to be. The obstacles we must overcome fall into three main categories: sin, the world, and the devil.

We should not only refrain from thinking about gratifying our desires but also avoid focusing on not gratifying our desires. The way to deal with temptation is not to grit our teeth and make up our minds that we will not do a certain thing. The key is to fill our minds with other things.

Real change, eternal change, is when your actions are meant to draw you closer to your Lord. The first act of genuine turning is recognizing that what you have done on your own, what you are capable of doing, is not enough. The second act is acknowledging who you are turning toward.

Here they were, a group as diverse as one could possibly bring together. Jew, Samaritan, Roman, Greek — all united because of one who had come from God and returned to God only a few short years ago. Surely here was living proof that the eternal truths brought to life during Jesus' time on earth meant transformation was not only possible, it was real.

You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.

Human beings are very good at adapting to what happens.