Even a Wolverine fan can acknowledge the quality leadership lessons that Urban Meyer (the coach of that football team to the south of us) provides in his book Above the Line.You can check out my book review by clicking here.
Below are a few quotes that caught my attention. My Patreon supporters have access to all of the quotes from this book.
“We teach our players, in response to any situation they face, to press pause and ask: What does this situation require of me? Pressing pause gives you time to think. It gets you off autopilot and helps you gain clarity about the outcome you are pursuing, the situation you are experiencing, and the Above the Line action you need to take to achieve the outcome.”
“Under pressure, we do not rise to the occasion. We rise or fall to the level of our training. When contact is made, it is too late to train and build skill.”
“Every team faces some kind of adversity. Mediocre teams are destroyed by it. Good teams survive it. Great teams get better because of it.”
“Resilience is one of life’s most important attributes. Because nobody wants hardship or adversity, but everybody gets it. It’s inevitable. No one escapes pain, fear, or difficulty. In fact, a productive and successful life involves some amount of necessary pain. When it happens, don’t run from it. Learn from it.”
“Performance cannot be declared. It must be led. Great results are initiated and sustained by great leadership. Not just leaders at the top, but leaders at every level.”
“Culture is what leads when no one is watching.”
My Patreon supporters have all of my notes from Above the Line, including the six “R” factors Urban Meyer unpacks in his formula E + R = O.
You are the most effective evangelist in the areas where you already operate everyday. You can tell the story of Jesus better to your family members, coworkers, and friends than an outside can. Keep shining brightly for Jesus!
“They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory
T.M. Moore tells us, “Conversations can build relationships; thus, Christians should be actively involved in seeking to start and maintain conversations with many people, especially those we encounter each week…. But the Christian conversationalist does not engage others merely for the sake of conversation, as though conversation were an end in itself.”
“Information never fights fear. Revelation does.” —Tim Dilena
“Saints find themselves at home in the next life, not in this one.” —J. Stephen Lang
“Do not imagine that there is any love to your souls in the heart of the preacher who preaches smooth things, and who flatters you with his ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. No, the highest, deepest, most heaven-inspired love is that which searches and tries the heart that there should be any deception there.” —Charles Spurgeon
Keep putting in the effort. If someone in your organization doesn’t see your work ethic and your leadership capacity, someone outside your organization will. Your hard work will be rewarded!
“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. … Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory
“O child of God, as thou wouldst fear to drink poison, as thou wouldst flee from a serpent, dread sin!” —Charles Spurgeon
“We pray in Jesus’ Name not just by ending our prayer with that default phrase, but by making sure our requests line up with what He teaches and what will glorify both Jesus and His Father. When we pray this way, we can know that Jesus will do what we have asked, and He will do it by His Spirit at work within us.” —T.M. Moore
Andrew Murray wrote The Inner Life, which has become a timeless classic. There is so much richness of thought and so much for Christians to ponder about their own walk with Jesus.
“Many people are so occupied with how much or how little they have to say in their prayers that the voice of One speaking is never heard, because it is not expected or waited for. … The greatest blessing in prayer will be our ceasing to pray and to let God speak. … Prayer and the Word are inseparably linked together: power in the use of either depends upon the presence of the other. … It is clear why this is so. Prayer and the Word have one common center—God. Prayer seeks God; the Word reveals God. In prayer, man asks God; in the Word, God answers man. In prayer, man rises to heaven to dwell with God; in the Word, God comes to dwell with man. In prayer, man gives himself to God; in the Word, God gives Himself to man.”
“Heaven is filled with the life and power and blessing that earth needs, and the prayer of earth is the power to bring that blessing down. … God is looking for people through whom He can bless the world. Say definitely: Here am I; I will give my life to this calling. Cultivate your faith in the simple truth: God hears prayer; God will do what I ask. Give yourself to others as completely as you give yourself to God. Open your eyes to sense the needs of a perishing world. Take up your position in Christ and in the power which His name and life and Spirit give you. And go on practicing definite prayer and intercession.”
“We can be so full of God’s holy presence that, when men see us or think of us, this name will come to mind—the man of God. … Let your life be devoted to one thing—to bring men to God, and God to men.”
“The Word of God is true because God Himself will make it true in us. We have much to learn about what hinders that power, much to overcome to be freed from these hindrances in order to receive that power. But all will be right if we study our Bibles with the determination to believe that God’s Word has omnipotent power in our hearts to accomplish every blessing of which it speaks.”
“Our one aim must be perfect harmony between conscience and conduct. Every conviction must be carried out into action. Christ’s commands were meant to be obeyed. If this is not done, the accumulation of scriptural knowledge only hardens us and makes us unable to learn from the Spirit.” [see 1 John 3:21-24]
“The two trees in the garden are God’s revelation of the same truth. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would have received and known all the good God had for him in living power as an experience. And he would have known evil only by being absolutely free from it. Eve was led astray by the desire for knowledge—‘…a tree to be desired to make one wise…’ (Genesis 3:6). In this way, man got a knowledge of good without possessing it. He had a knowledge of good only from the evil that was its opposite. And since that day, man has searched for truth more in knowledge than in life.”
“The true aim of education, study, and reading is not what is brought into us, but what is brought out of ourselves when we actually put into practice what we have learned. This is as true of the study of the Bible as of any other study.”
My Patreon supporters have access to another two dozen quotes from this book. Join them and get exclusive content not shared anywhere else and early access to content that will be shared publicly in the future.
The terms used in the New Testament for followers of Jesus aren’t typically the same terms we use today. As Christians, we need to ask ourselves, “Is my life showing the biblical definition of what it means to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior?”
“The trouble is that what we call ‘asking God’s forgiveness’ very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some ‘extenuating circumstances.’ We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses.” —C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory
“There is a place for anger. Without it, we would become passive against injustice. Anger helps us turn away from accepting blame that does not belong to us. It allows us to gain needed emotional distance from the one who hurt us. But anger requires safeguards. In this psalm, David had two: (1) He told his anger to God. … (2) He let God handle the execution of anger.” —Dr. George O. Wood, in A Psalm in my Heart
T.M. Moore speaks to the church in this post called Equipped For Good Works. A couple of comments that especially caught my attention: “A local church grows as it increases in the likeness of Jesus Christ” and “Churches grow as individual church members grow in zeal for good works, and do good to others at every opportunity, beginning within the household of faith.”
“I believe that the prophesies in the Revelation, and in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel are very much of this character, and that, while it is quite right to watch for and expect the coming of the Lord, we shall spend our time more profitably in preaching the doctrines of the gospel than in meditating upon the mysterious prophecies of the Word. They will be understood when they are fulfilled, but we do not think they will be fully understood before that time.” —Charles Spurgeon
The name of God is an important topic. Dr. Kaspars Ozolins writes, “What, then, is the actual name of Israel’s God? In biblical Hebrew it is represented by a sequence of four consonants, the famous tetragrammaton: YHWH. This name occurs a total of 6,828 times in the Old Testament.” Learn more about this name in this post.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the printing of the Tyndale Bible. This is an important event in Christian and world history. Check out this short overview of how this Bible came to be, and its impact that is still being felt today.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
How do most people finish this phrase: “With friends like these…”? You probably said, “…who needs any enemies!”
But isn’t that rather sad? If this cliche is so well-known, it must be because so many people have experienced false or fickle friends. Maybe a lot of people have experienced what Christian Bovee noted: “False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.”
I much prefer the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”
I think the apostle Peter would agree with Emerson.
Peter wrote his first general epistle to Christians who are interacting with worldlings. Peter calls Christians “aliens and strangers” because of citizenship is heavenly—we are simply sojourners on earth as we make our way to our home in Heaven. Along this journey, 1 Peter gives us invaluable wisdom on how to behave ourselves as citizens of Heaven.
Peter probably has this journey in mind when he addresses his second epistle: “To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours” (2 Peter 1:1).
“Precious” is defined here as highly esteemed. And when he says, “as ours” he is saying the saints in the Kingdom of God have equal honor with anyone who may have a title or a position of leadership in the Church. Paul would agree with Peter (see 1 Corinthians 3:5, 21-23; 12:27).
Peter emphasizes this point by using the phrase “dear friends” four times in this letter (2 Peter 3:1, 8, 14, 17). Let me give you another quote from Emerson: “God evidently does not intend us all to be rich, or powerful or great, but He does intend us all to be friends.”
Peter uses the Greek word agapetos—with the root word for servant-hearted love at the root. This makes me think about our precious faith that we defined as highly esteemed, because agapetos also means esteemed, highly valued, beloved.
Precious friends encourage us in our precious faith on our long journey as we travel toward Heaven.
(1) They encourage us to think wholesomely (3:1).
They pray for our minds, as Paul did for his friends at Philippi (Philippians 1:9-10), and they practice—or live out—what they preach (Philippians 4:8-9).
(2) They encourage us to have informed perseverance (vv. 8-11).
They help us look backward see how faithful God has been in past times and how trustworthy God is now, and then ask us, “What kind of man or woman ought you to be in this moment? How can you continue to persevere in holiness and godliness until the very end?”
(3) They encourage us to remain pure (vv. 11-14).
They prompt us to be looking forward in hopeful expectation, and they encourage us to make every effort to be pure. These things require the development of habits. Andrew Murray said the habits that keep us pure are formed over the long haul: “The entrance of divine truth into the mind and heart, the formation of habits and the training of character—these are not attained by sudden and isolated efforts, but by regular and unceasing repetition.”
Sometimes our precious friends have to speak a lovingly hard word to us (see Proverbs 27:6).
(4) They encourage us to remain on guard (v. 17)
They don’t want us to be disqualified in our race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), so they come to our rescue if we do stumble (James 5:19-20).
Let’s make this something new:
With friends like these I can live a victorious, God-honoring, Christ-glorifying life!
Let’s be those precious friends to others who share in the same precious faith.
Check out all of the message in this series from the book of 2 Peter by clicking here.
“Our prayers can go where we cannot. There are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray.” —Brother Andrew
The historicity of the Bible is well documented. Here is another archeological biography from The Bible Archeology Report, this one of Ben-Hadad III.
“I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them.” —Rowland Hill (1744-1833)
“Those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else. They come to know their desires as Wellington knew Napoleon, or as Sherlock Holmes knew Moriarty; as a rat-catcher knows rats or a plumber knows about leaky pipes. Virtue—even attempted virtue—brings light; indulgence brings fog.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
Marvin Olasky begins this informative article, “The war against abortion did not begin with the now-overturned 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.” He then gives us a comprehensive history of women of science who have stood on the front lines of the pro-life movement. Check out The Women Who Guarded the Womb.
J. Warner Wallace debunks that myth that Christianity is anti-science. Wallace actually makes that case the Christianity is the reason behind science’s remarkable growth.
“Expect great things from God: Attempt great things for God.” —William Carey
“God gave us a self, not so that we would have something to exult in, but something to exult with. He gave us a self, not to be the object of our joy, but the subject of joy. That is, not to be the focus of happiness in front of the mirror or the selfie, but the furnace of happiness in front of Jesus. He gave us a self, not as an instrument of self-worth but as an instrument of worship.” —John Piper
“In reference to this command [Leviticus 19:17], the rabbis teach that if we feel offended by someone, we must go to him, tell him how we feel, give him a chance to explain and possibly apologize, and then forget and forgive.” —Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider
“Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.” —Jonathan Edwards
“The struggle itself is not proof that something is wrong with your faith. Rather, it is evidence that something is alive in you that now opposes sin. Before Christ, there was no real fight. Now there is tension, resistance, even grief over sin.” —Dr. Mike Paalz, commenting on Romans 7:14-23
I spent a year with G.K. Chesterton, reading through excerpts of his writings each day for the whole year. It was educational, eye-opening, and quite enjoyable. Please check out my book review of A Year With G.K. Chesterton.
There’s no way I could pick my top Chesterton quotes, so here are just a handful from the top of the list. My Patreon supporters have dozens of more quotes. You can get access to those as well by clicking here.
“A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.”
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.”
“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
“People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.”
“Job was comfortless before the speech of Jehovah and is comforted after it. He has been told nothing, but he feels the terrible and tingling atmosphere of something which is too good to be told. The refusal of God to explain His design is itself a burning hint of His design. The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”
“Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.”
“The man of the true religious tradition understands two things: liberty and obedience. The first means knowing what you really want. The second means knowing what you really trust.”
“There are many ways to fall down, but there’s only one way to stand up straight.”
“This is, indeed, the supreme absurdity of the modern world, that it imagines that it can introduce anarchy into the intellect without introducing anarchy into the commonwealth. It imagines that it can make its thoughts go crooked and its motor-cars will still go straight.”
“Jesus promised His disciples three things: they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”
“Pornography is not a thing to be argued about with one’s intellect, but to be stamped on with one’s heel.”
“The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” —Timothy Keller
Abdu Murray addressed an audience about what it means to be human, and how modern culture has “began to under-spiritualize and over-psychologize what it meant to be human.” I found his history lesson and applications to be quite fascination.
T.M. Moore is presenting a series of posts about the use of our time. “The only time we ever have is the present moment, supplied as an act of free grace by the eternal God and His Word. He has a purpose for the time He gives us: to know Him, enjoy His Presence and blessings, do His work, express His glory, and spread His grace in every moment of our everyday Christian lives. … Time is precious. We can make better use of it than we do.”
“Remember that you can never be really whole till you are holy, for holiness is spiritual sanity; it is the curing of the mind and heart from the disease which sin brought upon them.” —Charles Spurgeon
“What we call ‘being in love’ is a glorious state, and, in several ways, good for us. It helps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty, and it subordinates (especially at first) our merely animal sexuality; in that sense, love is the great conqueror of lust.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
“A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.” —Winston Churchill
Even a Wolverine fan can acknowledge the quality leadership lessons that Urban Meyer (the coach of that football team to the south of us) provides in his book Above the Line. You can check out my book review by clicking here. 
