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101 " Ed Welch says that all counseling is a variation on a single theme: knowing and praying for the counselee. Of all the questions the counselor might ask, then, the central guiding question in the counselor's mind is, "How can I pray for you? "
― James MacDonald , Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God's Changeless Truth
102 " Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.”3 All you gotta do is let the life that flows through the vine, flow into the branch—you. You don’t have to do anything. You’ve just got to get out of the way and stop doing all the things that keep God from doing what He wants to do in your life. What Paul means by “walk by the Spirit” is essentially “live in dependence on God’s Spirit. "
― James MacDonald , Act Like Men: 40 Days to Biblical Manhood
103 " Prayer: Dear God, You are just and right in all You do, a God of perfection. I bow before You today as a man with many flaws. Please give me strength to pursue the fullest expression of Your design for me as a man. Give me wisdom to see the way my faults are burdens to others and give me courage to face and work on those imperfections. I am thankful for Your persistent pursuit of me despite my shortcomings and sin. Forgive me for being indifferent to my faults as I gratefully receive Your grace today. Thank You for renewing my passion to be a quality man. For the glory of Jesus’ name, amen. "
104 " I'll take a bath and then I'll return.” No, God is the bath. "
― James MacDonald , Downpour: He Will Come To You Like The Rain
105 " When an artist captures a mountain or an ocean on a canvas with color and we wonder where such talent could come from, he or she is declaring His glory. "
― James MacDonald , Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs For. What Every Church Can Be.
106 " John 8:44 says Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He captures and conquers men’s lives through his convincing lies, often nullifying good intentions with wrongful actions that seemed manly in the moment but in the end lacked the balancing power of clarity. "
107 " Men who are cut off, careful, and closed are also lonely and just as vulnerable in a different way as their wives alone in a dark alley after midnight. "
108 " We also notice that Paul was focused. He had a clear goal, and he would not veer to the right or to the left from it. We can’t help but wonder how many emails Paul would have skipped over, or how current he would have been with the news of the day, or even how vigorously he would be rooting for his favorite sports teams or athletes. Our ability to have information quickly is both a blessing and a curse. Our ability to function in a fast-paced society sometimes encourages us to focus on nothing of lasting value, just running from one temporal thing to the next. Just "
109 " Attentive reading of God’s Word will set you up for frequent Holy Spirit warnings as He uses Scripture to set off alarms of danger in your life. As you grow spiritually, you may discover direct “prompts” God’s Spirit gives, but they will always be in harmony with what God says in His Word. "
110 " The Christian life is the life of Jesus in me by the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not me striving to live like Jesus as a “thank-you” for saving me. Christianity is Christ taking up residence in me by the Holy Spirit and living His resurrection life through me. "
111 " As a follower of Jesus through faith in Him, the Holy Spirit is your only hope of ever consistently acting like a man. He is the courage to make right choices, the guide toward truth and away from error, the source of our comfort, and the provider of our strength. His primary tool is the Word of God. "
112 " When your soul is satisfied, you have everything even if you have nothing. And when your soul is not at peace, you have nothing no matter what you have attained or acquired. "
113 " Romans 7:18 where he confesses, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” In verse 24 he goes so far as to call himself a “wretched man.” If Paul made that confession in most churches today, the evangelegalists would run him out of the ministry. Paul is so disclosing of his own failings because he is a broken man trying to help other men find what he found in Jesus. Seeing Paul as arrogant because he tells his story is what the arrogant do, but men who have been laid low by Jesus Christ have an awesome story to relay and they don’t care if it gets a bit messy. "
114 " Be loving in conflict or be loving in frustration or let love command your every interaction because “love never fails. "
115 " Preferring the comforting messages of certain attributes of God, our lives have become a trifling with His holiness. We desperately need to regain this view of the highness and the holiness of God. His holiness is the ultimate clarity. "
116 " You don't get to a better place with God until you recognize that where you are is not as good. "
117 " For Satan’s purposes, making you a completely ineffective and isolated follower of Jesus is as much a success as keeping you lost in sin. Once "
118 " God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). "
― James MacDonald , Gripped by the Greatness of God
119 " Nothing worse than a man who makes excuses, blames others, and refuses responsibility for his own actions.” No doubt there were real experiences that underlined the worthlessness of excuse makers for these men. "
120 " In our homes, where we work, in our friendships, we come inevitably to a fork in the road where we must decide, “Will I forgive that?” If the answer is yes, we go forward together in love. If we choose “no, I will not forgive,” at that point we will tend to amplify the fault we observe to excuse our withdrawal into bitterness. Everyone loses—and the gospel most of all. "