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The only true and lasting inspiration for life is genuine love for God, and submitted gratitude that I get to be a part of the redemptive quest.
John Ortberg -
The most important criterion is this: hire someone whose character and humility and attitude you would like to have reproduced in your church and in yourself.
John Ortberg
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I am struck by how quickly I am prone to judgmentalism.
John Ortberg -
To have my mind racing and my heart beating fast over glorious possibilities is very close to the summit of life experience for me.
John Ortberg -
No one wants pain. Not even long-time, mature Christians who want to grow. We will always find ways to avoid pain. Pain itself is a bad thing.
John Ortberg -
The day people around me stop questioning my character is the day my character begins to grow vulnerable.
John Ortberg -
Sin is, somehow, at the root of all human misery. Sin is what keeps us from God and from life. It is in the face of every battered woman, the cry of every neglected child, the despair of every addict, the death of every victim of every war.
John Ortberg -
Authority can be faked. That's why impersonating a police officer is a crime. Sometimes the outward appearances of authority can be deceiving.
John Ortberg
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Jesus is why women have traveled continents, spent decades learning a strange language so they could translate the Gospel, planting churches, caring for the sick, educating the illiterate, and marching for the oppressed.
John Ortberg -
God has entrusted us with his most precious treasure - people. He asks us to shepherd and mold them into strong disciples, with brave faith and good character.
John Ortberg -
For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.
John Ortberg -
I am a political junkie. During a presidential campaign, I will often buy a couple of newspapers a day just to keep up.
John Ortberg -
In the context of worship, amusement is a waste of time and a waste of life, and therefore a form of sin.
John Ortberg -
'Amusement' is appealing because we don't have to think; it spares us the fear and anxiety that might otherwise prey on our thoughts.
John Ortberg
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God has decided, for his own good reasons, that people are not transformed outside of community.
John Ortberg -
Congregations shaped by the Scriptures generally have preachers who are shaped by the Scriptures.
John Ortberg -
Better to be a loving person without knowing how you got there, than an expert no one can stand to be around.
John Ortberg -
I have given up the idea that there is an opposition-free church out there. But I have gained something else - an appreciation for the gift of opposition. When it comes, I learn something about my motives. When it comes, I get to test my courage.
John Ortberg -
When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human.
John Ortberg -
Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like it or not, by accident or on purpose, so there is an 'inner you.' You have a spirit.
John Ortberg
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There are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God's counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator.
John Ortberg -
The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because... he was a single man.
John Ortberg -
I don't have a problem with delegation. I love to delegate. I am either lazy enough, or busy enough, or trusting enough, or congenial enough, that the notion leaving tasks in someone else's lap doesn't just sound wise to me, it sounds attractive.
John Ortberg -
When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate.
John Ortberg