Quotes from Larry Crabb

By cutting God off (what a staggering concept of freedom—mere humans can cut God off from their lives), you cut off the only source of true significance and security.

Sin has corrupted not only what we do, but also how we think, what goals we set, and how we feel about ourselves and others. Merely changing what we do will not change who we are. The cure for the selfishness and fear that control so much of what we do cannot be reduced to shallow solutions; we need to learn how our minds deceive us.

Nobody moves toward real Christlikeness without humility. Humility is not a bad self-image or a nonassertive personality. Humility is an eager willingness to see where you are wrong in order to experience the power of God that has already made you fit for His presence.

Everything you were designed to experience and enjoy is found in God. Knowing God is your life and your highest joy. You either believe that or you don't. Believe it and you will experience and enjoy life, real life, eventually. Guaranteed. Disbelieve it and, at best, you will experience counterfeit life and enjoy it only for a season.

Churches that never deal with the real fight that following My Son requires often grow large but mostly with small Christians.

Like the seminarian relying more on his knowledge of Hebrew than on the Spirit to hear God's voice in the text, we're more prone to carefully maneuvering our way through life than to abandoning ourselves to divine providence.

Working diligently to straighten up our actions without understanding either what it means to deeply repent or what it is that needs to be scrubbed away by repentance will make us more smug than penetrating. We'll pressure others to do right rather than draw them to want to do right. P195

The choice before us is rather stark: either live to be comfortable (both internally and externally, but especially internally), or live to know God. We can't have it both ways. One choice excludes the other. P91

Maturity involves two elements: 1) immediate obedience in specific situations and 2) long-range character growth.

The problem sincere Christians have with God often comes down to a wrong understanding of what this life is meant to provide.

We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good.We can, however, count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy, and we can depend on Him to give us enough of a taste of that joy and enough hope that the best is still ahead to keep us going in spite of how much pain continues to plague our hearts.

The goal of our sanctification is that we place Christ on display in the way we love others.