John Owen again expressed this attitude of total reliance on Christ when he paraphrased Galatians 2:20: "The spiritual life which I have is not my own. I did not induce it, and I cannot maintain it. It is only and solely the work of Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me. My whole life is His alone.

If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.

None of it was important now. The wind blew it out of his head.

In Jones's experience, the decision to turn one's life around in a different direction rarely arrived with fireworks and marching bands. Often, the decision came with tears and regret. Then, almost impossibly, the power of forgiveness would fill an unseen void, allowing a new day's optimism and sense of purpose to take hold and point that life in a new direction.

What would you think if I told you that, yes, your bad choices and decisions have had a part in your ending up under this pier, but beyond that, under this pier is exactly where you should be in order for a future to occur that you can't even imagine at this point?

Until a person takes responsibility for where he is, there is no basis for moving on. The bad news is that the past was in your hands, but the good news is that the future, my friend, is also in your hands.

It's time to stop letting your history control your destiny.

One idea will change everything. One idea will change the world.... And one idea can move you from where you are to where you want to be.

But if our mornings are faced with courage and wisdom, the past need not be lived again.

Where there's no progress, there's no growth. If there's no growth, there's no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life.

If the source were simply a few behavioral habits, you would have conquered them already.

To get from where we don't want to be to where we do want to be requires two things: time and a change of direction.