If our stubborn minds would absorb that we are accepted by God because of Jesus Christ, our choices and subsequent behaviors would be profoundly affected.

God is so inconceivably good. He's not looking for perfection. He already saw it in Christ. He's looking for affection. That's why every lasting change in every home will invariably be a change of heart.

But you can't just believe in Him to be free from your stronghold. You must believe Him. Believe He can do what He says He can do. Believe you can do what He says you can do. Believe He is who He says He is. And believe you are who He says you are.

We need more than a leader on our road to freedom. We need a Savior—One who keeps on saving. Although we need to be saved from eternal separation from God only once, Christ continues His saving work in us for the rest of our lives. If you're like me, you can think of more than a few potential disasters from which Christ has saved you since your initial experience of salvation.

If yesterday's wimp is going to become tomorrow's warrior, something has to happen today.

Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him like that. 2 Corinthians 5:16

God changed Saul's heart. A changed heart is the absolute requirement for kingdom service.

The vinedresser does a curious thing with the rotten fruit. He turns it back into the soil and there, underground, by some spectacular organic miracle of nature, it fertilizes a future harvest.

Quite tragically, some who have believed in Christ have believed little of Him since. But He who began a good work in us

If you're dealing with some ancient ruins, He was there when they crumbled. He knows every detail. He knows exactly how you've been affected, and His expertise is reconstruction. After all, Christ was a carpenter by trade. Nothing has ever been allowed to crumble in a Christian's life or heritage that God cannot reconstruct and use.

To say "It's no use" is to say the Potter is not qualified to do what He does best. Take your chances on God. Put your life in His hands. Newness doesn't come from faith in yourself. It comes from faith in Him.

How has Paul kept his wonder? He never forgot who he had been.