Quotes from Gary Thomas

Jesus never told us to erase our ambition. Jesus never said to shun all thought of rewards. He told us to turn from earthly ambition and to shun earthly rewards. He said in effect, "Put yourself last here on earth, and in heaven you'll be first." That's a trade, not a complete denial! That thirst for glory you feel in your heart is part of what makes you human. Jesus just wants us to focus it on heaven, looking for our rewards there.

Perhaps you reject Plato's soul-mate line of thinking but have developed a "Christian alternative," something along the lines of finding the one person whom God created "just for you.

If you have an extra shirt to give to a toxic person, be kind. If you can give to a difficult individual without taking time away from a reliable individual, go for it. But if your investment of time and money keeps you from fulfilling your ministry and fighting your own battles, including investing in other reliable people, it's time to reevaluate. It's time to say no—even to your children.

When you entered this relationship of marriage, you committed to keep moving toward your spouse. Any step back, any pause, any retreat, is an act of fraud. Learn to move toward the person God has given to you for the purpose of teaching you how to love.

Someone else's action can't dictate our response. God sent his Son into a world that hated him. If God had waited for the world to be worthy to receive him, his Son would never have come.

Yes, they think that. They regard the intention of loyalty to a partnership for mutual help, for the preservation of chastity, and for the transmission of life, as something lower than a storm of emotion.

The best thing you can do to witness to a toxic person is stay focused on your task, refuse to be distracted or play their games, pray instead of gossip, and then get the work done. Find the reliable people God has called you to invest in. Accomplish the task that you know to be urgent.

it's clear that God didn't create women to be passive victims waiting to be saved by men.

It is a sophisticated spiritual challenge to not compare your spouse's weakness with another spouse's strength.

How often do we Christians "take the Lord's name in vain" during our worship? It matters to God if we lie, even if we're singing, and even if everybody around us is singing the same thing. Music can make us feign a commitment that just isn't there, causing us to become callous, insincere believers.

Getting married won't make you happy or an adult; getting married simply makes you … married.

None of us can live up to the law; all of us will break it. Marriage teaches us — indeed, it practically forces us — to learn to live by extending grace and forgiveness to people who have sinned against us. If I can learn to forgive and accept my imperfect spouse, I'll be well equipped to offer forgiveness outside my marriage. Forgiveness, I'm convinced, is so unnatural an act that it takes practice to perfect it.