The Spirit inspired the Word and therefore He goes where the Word goes. The more of God's Word you know and love, the more of God's Spirit you will experience.

The word mediates the glory, and the glory confirms the word.

Let all your frustrations with this world throw you onto the Word of God.

What I have learned from about twenty years of serious reading is this: It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don't begrudge the 99%.

After escaping from Paris and finally leaving France entirely, Calvin spent his exile in Basel, Switzerland, between 1534 and 1536. To redeem the time, "he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew." (Imagine such a thing! Would any pastor today, exiled from his church and country, and living in mortal danger, study Hebrew? What has become of the vision of ministry that such a thing seems unthinkable today?)

What must be seen is not mere news and not mere knowledge. What must be seen is light.

Not all question asking is good. It depends on the attitude. Is there a submission to the Word of God and a readiness to obey God when we understand what he wants of us? Is there a willingness to embrace the mysteries of God if something is plain but over our head?

We must train our people that it is not irreverent to see difficulties in the biblical text and to think hard about how they can be resolved.

Put the ballast of biblical truth in the belly of our little boats, lest the crashing waves of calamity of these changing times cause us to capsize in the sea of trouble

What you and I need is usually not a brand-new teaching. Brand-new truths are probably not truths. What we need are reminders about the greatness of the old truths. We need someone to say an old truth in a fresh way. Or sometimes, just to say it.

If we could live a thousand years, and experience a thousand relationships in the thousand times and places and cultures, perhaps we wouldn't need books in order to (eventually) become wise. But our lives are short, and God has been merciful to give us many places, many times, many cultures, and many experiences distilled into books. Find the ones that strengthen your faith and make you want to live all-out for God.

Reading is more important to me than eating.