Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life.

So from the context of 1 Thessalonians 5 I say that the key to “rejoice always” is to “pray without ceasing.” Lean on God all the time for the miracle of joy in your life. Never give up looking to him for help. Come to him repeatedly during the day and often. Make your default mental state a Godward longing for all that you need, especially for spiritual desires.

If we could live a thousand years, and experience a thousand relationships in the thousand times and places and cultures, perhaps we wouldn’t need books in order to (eventually) become wise. But our lives are short, and God has been merciful to give us many places, many times, many cultures, and many experiences distilled into books. Find the ones that strengthen your faith and make you want to live all-out for God.

The spirit of Jesus, when he set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem, runs through the generations of all his most inspiring followers.

Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.

If gratitude for the gospel is not rooted in the glory of God beneath the gift of God, it is disguised idolatry.

God’s glory consists much in the fact that He is happy beyond all our imagination.

Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free.

We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.