"Sometimes you have to let go of the thing you love the most to gain the thing you need the most."
"Make an impact, not just an impression."
"Be Jesus with skin on."
(Below quotes and the linked note all come from McDowell's "More Than a Carpenter". I recommend it for anyone trying to test or build Christian faith.)
"Christianity is not a religion; it's not an ethical idea; it's not a psychological phenomenon. It's a person--Jesus Christ--who is in the business of changing lives."
"But in spite of the firmness of the facts and the authenticity of the experience, Christianity is not something you can shove down anyone's throat. You can't force Christ on anyone. You've got to live your life, and I've got to live mine. All of us are free to make our own decisions. All I can do is tell you what I've learned. After that, what you do is up to you." (...Something I wish to grow in being more able to do, in a mature and loving way.)
http://www.facebook.com/notes/twila-brighton/quotes-from-mcdowells-more-than-a-carpenter/125462930841989
Jeremiah 17:9 ~ "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
"In my defense of Christianity, I will just stick to the resurrection of Christ and the fact that something cannot come from nothing. The fact that something cannot come from nothing gets me to God. The resurrection of Christ gets me to the Christian God. A simple two step process that does not require a PhD to get there. The evidence for the historicity of the resurrection is accessible and, in my opinion, impossible to rationally dismiss. I have never met an atheist who believes in the resurrection of Christ. This is the central issue of Christianity. Convince them that Christ rose from the grave and their atheism will necessarily disappear. I promise." ~ Michael Patton of Parchment and Pen blog, someone I really admire for how he handles theology--not dogmatically, but rationally.