“These moments of joy are fleeting. We cannot reach out and grab onto God. When we try to grab onto him, he remains always just beyond our fingertips. Only God can reach across the abyss and touch us . . . One might ask. “How do mystics pray?” The answer is clear: mystics pray by keeping watch. It is not the consolations that ultimately speak to us of God. No, it is not the consolations. Rather, it is paradoxically, the waiting. As we learn to wait, we become awake. In the very act of keeping vigil, we become awake to God’s presence.”

“Mystics find themselves delighted in being surprised again and again by the many loving manifestations of God . . . "Surprise" is one of the hallmarks of a true manifestation of the divine. This may be because God wants us to learn and relearn more deeply that his presence is a gift that cannot be earned or controlled. Or, it may simply be that God wants to surprise his beloved. ”

“The mystical life is a hidden life. It is a life hidden in God. It flourishes best when not exposed to public scrutiny . . . Its increasing inner fullness of the divine presence is largely concealed except when it blossoms forth in a radiant face and a joy-filled smile. ”

“When we stand before Christ and He evaluates our ministries, He will not be asking us how many people sat in the pews, watched our TV programs, gave in our telethons or filled out response cards. He is not going to evaluate us based on how many people fell under the power of God or how many healings we counted in each service. He will ask how many faithful disciples we made. I pray we make this our priority.”

“A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us — not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives.”

“God surpasses our dreams when we reach past our personal plans and agenda to grab the hand of Christ and walk the path he chose for us.  He is obligated to keep us dissatisfied until we come to him and his plan for complete satisfaction.”

“If he could have his way, Satan would distract us from our heritage. He would have us become involved in a million and one things in this life–probably none of which is very important in the long run–to keep us from concentrating on the things that are really important, particularly the reality that we are God’s children. He would like us to forget about home and family values. He’d like to keep us so busy with comparatively insignificant things that we don’t have time to make the effort to understand where we came from, whose children we are, and how glorious our ultimate homecoming can be!”