How much more would a few good and fervent men effect in the ministry than a multitude of lukewarm ones!" said Oecolampadius, the German Reformer.

I anticipate that our readiness to engage ensures our opportunities to participate in the mission, to complete the work God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Apparently I looked strong enough for harder work; I was told to report to the Phillips factory.

If you want your ministry to have 'it', more important than anything else we've discussed, you must have 'it'. When it has filtered through your heart - the rare combination of passion, integrity, focus, faith, expectation, drive, hunger, and God's anointing - God tends to infuse your ministry with 'it'. He blesses your work. People are changed. Leaders grow. Resources flow. The ministry seems to take on a life of its own.

Leaders with it do more than just think of new ideas; they actually do the new ideas.

I'm all of those things that I was brought up to really value: honesty, stick with it, don't quit, don't cut and run, stay in there. When you think things might fall apart, believe that you have enough for victory. That's the stuff I have in me.

Self-enrichment is that act of creating a thousand micro wins, so you can have one macro win.

All labor is joy," she tells me. "It is not washing dirty floors, but the feet of Jesus, Iola. All we do for others, we do for the One Most High.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

The men and women who have the right ideals ... are those who have the courage to strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of duty.

Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It's something we call heart power. Once a man has made his commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.