WisdomArea — Wisdom & Inspiration

"If you aren't hungry for God, you are full of yourself. That's why God cannot fill you with His Spirit. But if you will empty yourself, if you will die to self, you'll be a different person by the time you reach the last page of this book."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"...if you give all of yourself to God, you can ask and expect that God will give all of Himself to you because that's precisely what He wants to do. We have not because we ask not, and we ask not because we're not all in!"

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"The blessings of God will complicate your life, but unlike sin, they will complicate your life in the way it should be complicated."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"At its core, sinfulness is selfishness. It's enthroning yourself - your desires, your needs, your plans - above all else. You may still seek God, but you don't seek Him first. You seek Him second or third or seventh. You may sing "Jesus at the center of it all," but what you really want is for people to bow down to you as you bow down to Christ. It's a subtle form of selfishness that masquerades as spirituality, but it's not Christ-centric. It's me-centric. It's less about us serving His purposes and more about Him serving our purposes."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"It's not about success and failure. It's not about good days and bad days. It's not about wealth or poverty. It's not about health or sickness. It's not even about life or death. It's about glorifying God in whatever circumstance you find yourself in."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"That is the heavenly Father's deepest impulse toward us. You are the apple of His eye. And anyone who messes with you messes with Him. His protective instincts are most poignantly seen at the cross - the place where unconditional love and omnipotent power for the amalgam called amazing grace. That's where the Creator stepped between every fallen sinner and the fallen angel, Satan. That's where the Advocate took His stand against the Accuser of the brethren. The Sinless Son of God took the fall for us. The cross is God's way of saying, "You are worth dying for."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Jesus proclaimed the favor of God in His very first sermon. Then He sealed the deal with His death and resurrection. Favor is a function of surrender. If we don't hold out on God, God will not hold out on us."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"...there is nothing you possess that wasn't given to you by God. It's His prerogative to give. And it's His prerogative to take away. But there is one thing that can never be taken from you, and that is Jesus Christ. And if you have Jesus, then you have everything you will ever need for all of eternity. Everything - Jesus = Nothing Jesus + Nothing = Everything It's that simple."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Put your Isaac on the altar! Then, and only then, will you see what God can do. He cannot give back what you do not give up. But if you surrender yourself to Him, He will provide the ram in the thicket."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"...the true value of an offering isn't measured by how much we give. It's measured by how much we keep... By definition, a sacrifice must involve sacrifice..."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Pride is a by-product of insecurity. And the more insecure a person is, the more monuments they need to build. There is a fine line between 'Thy kingdom come' and 'my kingdom come.' If you cross the line, your relationship with God is self-serving. You aren't serving God. You are using God. You aren't building altars to God. You are building monuments to yourself."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Death is a mirror that gives us a glimpse of who we really are. Death is a rearview mirror that puts the past into perspective."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Why do we act as though our sin disqualifies us from the grace of God? That is the only thing that qualifies us! Anything else is a self-righteous attempt to earn God's grace. You cannot trust God's grace 99 percent. It's all or nothing. The problem, as I pointed out earlier, is that we want partial credit for our salvation. We want to be 1 percent of the equation. But if we try to save ourselves, we forfeit the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone, by grace through faith."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"We live in a culture that celebrates talent more than integrity, but we've got it backward. Talent depreciates over time. So do intellect and appearance. You will eventually lose your strength and lose your looks. You may even lose your mind. But you don't have to lose your integrity. Integrity is the only thing that doesn't depreciate over time. Nothing takes longer to build than a godly reputation. And nothing is destroyed more quickly by one stroke of sin. That's why it must be celebrated and protected above all else."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Sin always overpromises and underdelivers, while righteousness pays dividends for eternity... Nothing is more illogical than sin. It's the epitome of poor judgment. It's temporary insanity with eternal consequences. And we have no alibi, save the cross of Jesus Christ."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"If your deepest feelings are reserved for something other than Almighty God, then that something other is an emotional idol... if you get more excited about material things than the simple yet profound fact that your sin was nailed to the cross by the sinless Son of God, then you're bowing down to Tammuz."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Confession breaks the power of canceled sin. It also heals the broken heart."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"The distance between your head and your heart is only twelve inches, but it's the difference between information and transformation. It's not enough to invite Jesus into your mind. You have to open the door to your heart of hearts. No door can remain locked. Even the door to your hidden room. Nothing entangles the emotions like sin. And if you sin long enough, it feels like a Gordian knot that seems impossible to untangle. But Jesus Christ went to the cross to undo what you have done. He broke the curse of sin so you can break the cycle of sin."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"When we do what's right, regardless of circumstances or consequences, we set the table for God to turn the tables. All we need to do is stand up, step in, or step out."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

"Grace is loving people for who they are, where they are. It's loving people *before* they change, not just *after* they change. And that grace is the difference between holy and holier-than-thou. Holiness, in its purest form, is irresistible. That's why sinners couldn't be kept away from Jesus. Hypocrisy has the opposite effect. It's as repulsive to the irreligious as the Pharisees' religiosity was to Jesus."

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

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