Because of total depravity, you and I were desperate for God's grace before we were saved. Because of total depravity, you and I remain desperate for God's grace even after we're saved.
— Tullian Tchividjian
For years and years, Christians have been singing about their wandering hearts. Our hearts need to be recalibrated and realigned and reoriented by God.
In 'Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels,' I retell the story of Jonah and show how Jonah was just as much in need of God's grace as the sailors and the Ninevites.
We may not ever fully understand why God allows the suffering that devastates our lives. We may not ever find the right answers to how we'll dig ourselves out.
The Why's of suffering keep us shrouded in a seemingly bottomless void of abstraction where God is reduced to a finite ethical agent, a limited psychological personality, whose purposes measure on the same scale as ours.
In the Old Testament, we are continually told that our good works are not enough, that God has made a provision. This provision is pointed to at every place in the Old Testament.
Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical.
My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.
The Bible is plain that God requires moral perfection. It tells us unambiguously that God is holy and therefore cannot tolerate any hint of unholiness.
When everyone in the world spoke the same language, God came down in judgment, breaking the world apart. But at just the right time, he came down again, this time to reconcile that sinful world to himself.
If I was to base my opinion on Twitter, I'd be like, 'Oh my God, I must be the most hated woman in Britain.' But I go around the street, and despite all the abusive messages, not one person comes up to me and says anything other than nice things and ask for a picture.
— Tulisa
I'm just glad that I get to talk about the superstar, my mentor - Marcus Mariota. That's who I try to be like. He's been a big inspiration to me and my family. I couldn't thank God more for him being bestowed into my life.
— Tua Tagovailoa
One of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: do your work well and then be ready to depart when God shall call.
— Tryon Edwards
It is the want to know the end that makes us believe in God, or witchcraft, believe, at least, in something.
— Truman Capote
A demon, in a way, is a test of your faith. Because if you're doing God's work, there's no reason for any demon to do anything to you.
— Troy Polamalu
God did not create gays and lesbians so He could have something to hate!
— Troy Perry
I find myself thinking: Oh God, now what? I always have to have a new plan, otherwise I get very, very bored.
— Trisha Goddard
Thankfully, God's restraining grace keeps even the worst of us from being utterly depraved. The worst people who have ever lived could've been worse.
Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace.
Christianity affirms that Jesus severed the link between suffering and deserving once for all on Calvary. God put the ledgers away and settled the accounts.
The law is God's first word; the gospel is God's final word.
There's nothing like suffering to remind us how not in control we actually are, how little power we ultimately have, and how much we ultimately need God.
I was afraid that if I surrendered my life over to God, God would tell me not to do those things that I desperately wanted to do.
Justification and sanctification are both God's work, and while they can and must be distinguished, the Bible won't let us separate them. Both are gifts of our union with Christ, and within this double-blessing, justification is the root of sanctification and sanctification is the fruit of justification.
Rest assured: Before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we need; before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we have.
Contrary to popular assumptions, the Bible is not a record of the blessed good, but rather the blessed bad. That's not a typo. The Bible is a record of the blessed bad. The Bible is not a witness to the best people making it up to God; it's a witness to God making it down to the worst people.
An identity based in the one-way love of God does not take into account public opinion or, thankfully, even personal opinion.
Pregnant Beyonce was kind of crazy to see. She's like a god.
— Tucker Halpern
I use my sport and my talent as a tool to spread God's word. Whatever I get out of it, all glory goes to Him.
Facts are God's arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.
You have the women sitting on the left and the men sitting on the right. Everything is to keep your mind focused on God... To me the most beautiful thing anyone on earth can experience, other than maybe marriage and child-bearing, would be the Orthodox Liturgy.
I think that's a struggle of every Christian, to be able to get to that point where they're in constant prayer with God - so that everything they do, in thought, in speech, in work, is praising God and worshipping God.
I stay away from the arts... writing songs, being creative - those are downloads from God. You can't do data analytics on art.
— Troy Carter
China is a travesty of a place, and you should thank God every day that you weren't born there.
— Trish Regan
To be Biblically balanced is to let our theology and preaching be proportioned by the Bible's radically disproportionate focus on God's saving love for sinners seen and accomplished in the crucified and risen Christ.
Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God's grace reaches farther.
For the life of the believer, one thing is beautifully and abundantly true: God's chief concern in your suffering is to be with you and be Himself for you. And in the end, what we discover is that this really is enough.
Indeed, there is nothing like suffering to remind us how much we need God. What good news that His purpose and plan for our lives moves in a different direction from ours!
God wants to free us from ourselves, and there's nothing like suffering to show us that we need something bigger than our abilities and our strength and our explanations.
When God saved me, He gave me a thirst to learn and to read and to study. I thrived in college. I got a bachelor's degree in philosophy and then went to Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.
When we imply that our works are for God and not our neighbor, we perpetuate the idea that God's love for us is dependent on what we do instead of on what Christ has done.
Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin for His righteousness.
God loves us too much to leave us in the hell of unhappiness that comes from trying to do his job. Into the slavish misery of our ladder-defined lives, God condescends.
The gospel announces that God doesn't relate to us based on our feats for Jesus, but Jesus' feats for us.
I just try to use my platform to praise God.
All glory goes to God. I can't describe what He's done for me and my family.
When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended for self-flagellation solely.
My joy in my life comes from my strength in my life and in my experience with God. That cannot be separated from football. It is all the same to me. It is one. I am one with it.
I try to be passionate about every aspect of my life, how I love my wife, how I serve my wife, how I serve God. In the same way, I try to be passionate about football. I try to serve my coaches with passion. I try to serve my teammates with passion. I try to serve God, through football, with passion.
Obviously I love playing the game of basketball. That's what God blessed me to do.
— Tristan Thompson
