Prayer gets us in on what God is doing.

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Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.

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When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn't go off and leave us- he enters into our trouble and saves us.

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This kingdom of God life is not a matter of waking up each morning with a list of chores or an agenda to be tended to, left on our bedside table by the Holy Spirit for us while we slept. We wake up already immersed in a large story of creation and covenant, of Israel and Jesus, the story of Jesus and the stories that Jesus told. We let ourselves be formed by these formative stories, and especially as we listen to the stories that Jesus tells, get a feel for the way he does it, the way he talks, the way he treats people, the Jesus way.

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All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.

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Real faith is refined in the fires and storms of pain.

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No life of faith can be lived privately. There must be overflow into the lives of others.

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That's the whole spiritual life. It's learning how to die. And as you learn how to die, you start losing all your illusions, and you start being capable now of true intimacy and love.

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Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.

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One way to define spiritual life is getting so tired and fed up with yourself you go on to something better, which is following Jesus.

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