C. J. Mahaney quotes:

Over the years, I have studied church history as well as the contemporary church, and I noticed how rare it is for a God-glorifying transition of leadership to take place in a local church.

Endurance in ministry is rooted in the eternal perspective. The absence of an eternal perspective makes you vulnerable to losing heart.

The presence of any humility in my life is purely and completely an evidence of God's grace. From my perspective, I am not a humble man. I am a proud man pursuing humility by the grace of God.

It is true that I have been studying both humility and pride for many years for the purpose of weakening pride in my own life and cultivating humility by the grace of God.

Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish.

Pastoral ministry is a sacrificial call with unique challenges. We are called to take the Gospel to those with hard hearts and blind eyes.

Sunday is the best day of the week because we celebrate the risen Christ of the cross in the local church, the dearest place on earth.

Pastoral ministry is about an ongoing confrontation with the god of this world, with blindness, hardness of heart, remaining sin.

Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness.

I find myself so easily discouraged. It is pathetic how easily I can be discouraged - easily discouraged by resistance, easily discouraged by opposition, easily discouraged by hardness of heart, easily discouraged by blindness.

But the very act of pausing in a busy day to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature. I am not self sufficient.

Effective teaching involves explaining to our children what they're already observing in our lives by example.

Encourage others each and every day-nothing's more important than our words.

Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel. The gospel is the life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than a diamond. It's depths man will never exhaust.

Itâ??s not 'those who help themselves' whom God helps; itâ??s those who humble themselves.

Your greatest need is not a spouse. Your greatest need is to be delivered from the wrath of God - and that has already been accomplished for you through the death and resurrection of Christ. So why doubt that God will provide a much, much lesser need? Trust His sovereignty, trust His wisdom, trust His love.

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. Do you want a cross centered life? A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days.

All topics should be studied through the lens of the Gospel.

Only those who are aware of God's wrath are amazed by God's grace.

We never move on from the cross. We only get a more profound understanding of the cross.

Very small errors in our understanding of the Gospel can result in very big problems.

Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.

Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace.

If there's anything in life that we should be passionate about, it's the gospel. And I don't mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done FOR us, leading us to faith and worship, we have to see it as something done BY us, leading us to repentance. Only the man or woman who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross may claim his share in its grace.

We don't accidentally drift into holiness; rather we mature gradually and purposefully, one choice at a time.

Encourage others each and every day-nothing's more important than our words. Did you know that, on average, each of us speaks about twenty-five thousand words daily? My last book didn't have that many words. A lot of language is flowing out of our mouths every day and having an impact on those around us. But how much of that flow is fulfilling God's intended purpose for our speech? How much of it reflects pride, rather than a gospel-motivated humility?

Apart from the cross, condemnation is normal. Without Jesus, we all deserve to be condemned and punished for sin. But here's the good news: 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'.

All gifts from God are intended to direct our attention to God and create fresh affection for God.

Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel.

To grow in your passion for what Jesus has done, increase your understanding of what He has done.

We cannot free ourselves from pride and selfish ambition; a divine rescue is absolutely necessary.

In order for romance to deepen, you must touch the heart and mind of your wife before you touch her body.

The personal desolation Christ is experiencing on the cross is what you and I should be experiencing--but instead, Jesus is bearing it, and bearing it all alone. Why alone? He's alone so that we might never be alone.

The biblical purpose of every conversation you have, in every personal interaction, is that they person who hears you will receive grace.

If you crossed Matthew Henry's path, you would quickly realize that here was someone taking thankful notice of all God was doing for him, and doing so in an attractively joyful way that was infectious.

As we mature personally, as our families mature, and as our churches mature, we need the doctrine of sin more, not less; and we need to keep growing in rightly understanding and applying this doctrine. Be assured that this is no less true if you're a pastor or teacher or ministry worker. There's no pastoral privilege in relation to sin. There's no ministry exemption from the opposition of the flesh. There's only a heightened responsibility to oppose sin and to weaken the flesh, as an example to the flock.

Read, but not to remember everything. Read because that 1% that you remember has the potential to change your life.

Modesty is humility expressed in dress.

A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days.

Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.

No matter the severity of suffering we experience in this life, it will always be less that what we have deserved for our sins

The weakest believer and the strongest saint are alike equally justified. Justification admits no degrees. A man is either wholly justified or wholly condemned in the sight of God.

What joy the gospel gives me! I can approach the throne of God with confidence-not because I've done a good job at my spiritual duties, but because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

So make it your aim and lifelong habit, when you see someone who's serving, to be reminded of the sacrifice of the Savior, for apart from His sacrifice there is no serving.

To learn true humility, we need more than a redefinition of greatness; we need even more than Jesus' personal example of humble service. What we need is His death.

It was humanly impossible for the disciples to free themselves from their selfish pursuit of self-exaltation, just as it's impossible for us to free ourselves from the very same sins.

Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification.

Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of Godâ??s holiness and our sinfulness.