Because if you cling excessively to the past, you will miss the newness being enacted before your very eyes.

One thing I do know is that when I hold on tightly to the old things, God cannot fill my hands with the new.

The question for each of us is one of housekeeping. Are there attitudes or actions we have allowed to take root in our life that are keeping us from the pursuit of holiness?

It takes a long time to ruin a life. It all starts with the stories we live by.

is true. We change not by mustering up willpower but by changing the way we think, which will also involve changing our actions and our social environment. We change indirectly. We do what we can.

You don't get to a better place with God until you recognize that where you are is not as good.

God's love is not a pampering love. God's love is a perfecting love. God does not get up every day trying to figure how He can plant a bigger smile on your face. God is in the process of growing us and changing us. His love is a transforming love.

Who we are is not a question we can ask without seeking to understand the context in which we live. Biblical counselors seek to understand the influences that shape the responses of the human heart.

For life change to happen, we must commit to full cooperation with God's desire to transform us.

If spiritual formation is the purpose of the church, then personal transformation should intentionally be the purpose of the small group ministry. Bible study is great. Fellowship is wonderful. Evangelism is essential. But changing and growing to be more like Christ should be the purpose of the small group ministry.

If God is not changing you, you have to honestly ask, "Have I ever really converted?" To put it another way, "If your faith isn't changing you, it hasn't saved you." The people who really have the new birth—the people who really have that conversion experience—are changing.

One does not cross over from Manichaeism to Christianity, or from Lamarckianism to Darwinism, by a mere adjustment of views. True conversions consist in the choice of a new audience, that is, of a new world. All that was once familiar is now seen in startlingly new ways.