Writing is not just jotting down ideas. Often we say: "I don't know what to write. I have no thoughts worth writing down." But much good writing emerges from the process of writing itself. As we simply sit down in front of a sheet of paper and start to express in words what is on our minds or in our hearts, new ideas emerge, ideas that can surprise us and lead us to inner places we hardly knew were there. One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.

Henri Nouwen

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.

Billy Sunday

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington

Some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells, but I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of hell.

John Wesley

The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Fanny Crosby

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anxiety and fear are what we know best in this fantastic century of ours. Wars and rumors of wars. From civilization itself to what seemed the most unalterable values of the past, everything is threatened or in ruins. We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot hear it.

But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well, but as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God. In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor, Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen.

Frederick Buechner (HatTip 2 Seth Barnes)

Christ's death on the cross included a sacrifice for all our sins, past, present, and future. Every sin that you will ever commit has already been paid for. All of our sins were future when Christ died two thousand years ago. There is no sin that you will ever commit that has not already been included in Christ's death.

Erwin W. Lutzer

When you write, you give your readers a chance to look into the inner workings of your mind and heart. The act of putting thoughts on a page forces you to evaluate your ideas more objectively than when you merely think about them. For that reason, creative writing is the sweetest agony known to man.

Howard G. Hendricks in Color Outside the Lines

Contrary to much of our current thinking about the importance of powerful youth ministries to the lifelong spiritual development of future adults, research proves otherwise: a teenager who attends a church's worship service on a regular basis and does not attend youth group is more likely to continue to attend church worship services as an adult than a teen who is active in youth group but doesn't attend worship services with other age groups.

Mark Oestreicher

To truly care for people requires not caring too much about their approval or disapproval. Otherwise the temptation to give their preferences too much emotional weight is almost inevitable. To effectively lead people - without being damaged in the process - requires regular withdrawal from the very people I’m trying to lead.

John Ortberg

God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of his love for us, urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he lakes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness. In doing so he is able to take away all these vices and create virtues within us. Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the Dark Night.

Saint John of the Cross

This simple question -"who's going to be crying at our funeral?"- cuts out time wasters with the accuracy of a laser beam. Why should you and I give ourselves to people who don't love us, at the expense of those who do? Prioritizing this way keeps us focused on our biblical priorities'.

Patrick M. Morley fom The Man in the Mirror

When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

Brennan Manning

Where some may react to a work of art as being "pretty," postmoderns often respond to art as being "true." I know a young lady who came to an understanding of the story of Christ completely through art. After graduating from art school, she traveled to Europe to see the great cathedrals. She was more disposed to Buddhism than Christianity. But the art in European churches made the gospel real to her. She chose to follow Christ based on the compelling story of Christ painted on church walls.

Chris Seay in Stories of Emergence

Most of the people who have really counted in my life were not famous. Few ever heard of them, except those who knew and loved them. I knew an old minister once whose hair was white and whose face shone. I have written my name on thousands and thousands of baseballs in my life; he wrote his name on just a few simple hearts. How I envy him! He was not trying to please himself and win the plaudits of the world. So fame never came to him.I am listed as a famous home-run hitter. Yet, beside that humble, obscure minister, who was so good and wise, I never got to first base!

Babe Ruth

We live in a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milkbone underwear.

Norm Peterson from Cheers

Well, Dwight Evans parked a couple homers. The Sox won and by days end poor Ben had become one of God's most pathetic creatures, a Red Sox fan.

Al Watterman in Fever Pitch

Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?

Obi Wan Kenobi