"Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author."
~André-Marie Ampère
“In such times of compromise and the blurring of clear distinctions, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act. It will shock people, and it will be controversial. Many people will not like you for it. The confused will almost always attack clarity. Many are more comfortable in the tyranny of the familiar fog because it does not require the courage it takes to face the truth. But these must not be allowed to dictate our course any longer. It is time for clarity and for courage.”
“Almost every heresy is the result of trying to carry to logical conclusions that which God has only revealed in part.”
“If we read the Scriptures with a truly humble heart, we will not do so in an attempt to justify our positions, but rather we will be seeking corrections for our positions.”
“What you become in your life on earth will be who you are forever, without the carnality of course. If anyone on earth realized how much their life on earth impacted their eternity they would be in pursuit of the fruit of the Spirit more than any earthly treasure or accomplishment.”
“Time is one of the most precious gifts that we can be given on this earth, and how we use our time, especially our “free” time, is usually a good indication of who we are really serving on this earth—the world, the Lord, or ourselves.”
“You do not need to understand to obey, but after you obey you will start to understand
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“Church leadership is now as disrespected as our political leadership because, in general, we have become so afraid of offending someone. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” We forsake following the Lord to the degree that we are controlled by the fear of man. Maybe this is why at the end of the Book of Revelation the first group that gets thrown into the lake of fire is the cowardly…So what can we do about what is happening? Start living courageously. We must refuse to be controlled by what anyone else thinks, but rather by what the One thinks who called us.”
“Those who follow the Spirit will inevitably be misunderstood and persecuted by those who are earthly-minded.”
“If we are following Him and abiding in Him, we will be in the right place doing the right thing regardless of whether our eschatology is correct or not.”
“If we spent more time trying to get the Lord to come to our meetings than we did trying to get people to come, we would have more people than we can handle.”
“We’re constantly measuring things by how many people come. We need to measure the success of anything we’re doing by how the Lord comes. By the Lord being in our midst. Did the Lord show up or not?”
“We can no longer merely believe that the things written in The Bible are true, but true faith in The Bible is faith to experience what is written for our present life.
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“If we do not abide in Him and His rest, we will go into bondage to the world and its ways.”
“The currency of the kingdom is faith, but it is a greater and different faith than what is often taught as faith. What has been taught is really built on having faith in our faith rather than in God. This is a subtle but deadly diversion, and a major reason why many pursuing faith suffer the shipwreck of their faith.”
“Lust and love are in opposition to each other. Lust is motivated by self-centeredness, and love is motivated by care for others. To the degree that lust is able to grip our lives, we will be in opposition to the Spirit of God, who is Love.”
“Our trials, with all the potential they bring for failure, are meant to bring us to a clinging dependency on the Lord. They are meant to instill a greater love for Him than for His blessings and a determination to know His way, not just His acts.”
“Every test is meant to draw us closer to the Lord. They are opportunities to grow in faith and walk in higher levels of obedience. They are also potential stumbling blocks.”
“To the degree that we abide in Him, Jesus will use us to intercede. For this reason, His Church is called to be a “house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17). Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren…who accuses them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10). To the degree that the enemy has access to our lives, he will use us to accuse and criticize the brethren.
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“You know the very first place the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Scripture, He’s moving. I’ve never found a scripture that said he stopped. I think as long as we are moving with the Holy Spirit there is going to be movement in our lives. We’re going to be growing, we are going to be going somewhere. That is why it is the river of life and not a pond or a lake. It’s moving, it’s going somewhere. If we stay in the river of life we are flowing, we are moving. God is going to move among us.
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“Most of the church world has been built more with modern advertising techniques than with the substance and power of the kingdom. Almost all people now, including Christians, have been conditioned to respond more to hype than truth. You can build the biggest churches and the biggest ministries with good marketing, but is the Lord in them? Can you find Him there?
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“The church drifted from its course for most of the church age. This began when God’s people started worshipping the temple of the Lord more than the Lord of the temple. Some started worshipping individual truths more than the Truth Himself. All of this led to a great shipwreck from which we are still recovering. Regardless of what kind of church we are a part of, we will suffer shipwreck if we start esteeming our group, our church, as more important than others who are different from us.”
“What does the Holy Spirit do? He acts as a divine personal agent in myriad ways. The Spirit searches all things (1 Cor 2:10), knows the mind of God (1 Cor 2:11), teaches the content of the gospel to believers (1 Cor 2:13), dwells among or within believers (Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Tim 1:14), accomplishes all things (1 Cor 12:11), gives life to those who believe (2 Cor 3:6), cries out from within our hearts (Gal 4:6), leads us in the ways of God (Rom 8:14; Gal 5:18), bears witness with our own spirits (Rom 8:16), has desires that are in opposition to the flesh (Gal 5:17), helps us in our weakness (Rom 8:26), intercedes on our behalf (Rom 8:26-27), strengthens believers (Eph 3:16) and is grieved by our sinfulness (Eph 4:30). Moreover, the fruit of the Spirit’s indwelling are the personal attributes of God (Gal 5:22-23).” ”
“The people in the world who do not know Christ deserve better than they’ve gotten from us in the past. We are to be living the life of the future, which means life of the Spirit in the presence of God. We are to be living that life in the present in our relationship with one another. They should be able to look at us and know what heaven is going to be like. Not in the perfected sense, but in the sense of the life of God working itself out in the life of his people. They need to know that they are not going to be condemned but they are going to be loved and forgiven. They are going to experience acceptance, and grace, and mercy. They need to be able to look at us and see what life is going to be like in Christ, because it’s already being effected in us in Christ.”
“One of the great troubles that we have in Christian theology is that it’s got to be logical whatever else. And that’s somewhat unfortunate, because the Scripture deals more in what I call the tensions of things being held that seem paradoxical than it does resolving all of those paradoxes….I’m not one of those who is overly concerned about resolving the paradox between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And the reason I’m not concerned about resolving that paradox is precisely because the New Testament doesn’t; it affirms both the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man simultaneously.”
“Through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, our Lord, a gracious and loving God has effected eschatological salvation for His New Covenant people, the church, who now, as they await Christ’s Coming, live the life of the future by the power of the Spirit.”
“The key to life in the Spirit for some is to spend much more quiet time in thanksgiving and praise for what God has done—and is doing, and promises to do—and less time on introspection, focused on your failure to match up to the law”
“Where the king is, the Kingdom is.
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“If you believe in the Gospel what you like, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
“I believe the church is at a leadership crossroads. As our culture becomes increasingly resistant to God’s ways, it is paramount that we lead with courageous conviction, standing firm on the solid foundation of God’s Word. We are not called to water down the gospel for the sake of political correctness. We are called to speak the truth in love so we can see people’s lives transformed by the power of God’s Word. Now more than ever, we need to come back to the full counsel of Scripture so we can lead boldly and embrace God’s best for our lives.”
“We often equate faithfulness with being steadfast, consistent, dependable, reliable, loyal, true, trustworthy, devoted, and truthful. But if we look at Jesus’s teaching, He equates faithfulness with something else—multiplication. Whatever God gives to us, He expects us to multiply and present back to Him.”
“We miss many of the great blessings God wants for us because we’ve substituted a marketable message for the accurate scriptural message. Let’s be honest, if this rich young man came to many of our cutting-edge churches today, he would have been “saved,” and before long he would be considered a prized member and perhaps asked to join the church board.”
“We don’t forgive because people deserve it, we forgive so we can see again”
“Forgiveness is a cold blooded act of the will that results in a miracle of the heart”
“Right now, in this day and age...the best discernment that you can ever use is to hang out with those who are followers of Jesus that are humble and broken; because Jesus dealt with people not in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of humble or proud.”
“This is what’s interesting about love; it can let you go. False love tends to cut or trap. But the love of God isn’t like false love. It’s true. It has the power to let you go and to hold you close. And because of that, it’s the only love that has the power to heal your heart.”
“Division is a scarecrow, it’s not even real. There is no division in the Body of Christ. He is not divided. Jesus is whole. The only division that happens is when people won’t let their ideas go for the sake of relationship.”
“Where will we turn when our world falls apart, and all of the treasures we’ve stored in our barns can’t buy the Kingdom of God? Who will we praise when we’ve praised all our lives men who build Kingdoms and men who build fame, but heaven does not know their names?…Take us way beyond religion; way beyond the minds of man”
““Religion, in fact, is one of the best covers for sin of almost every kind. Pride and anger and lust and greed are vermin that flourish under the floorboards of religion. Those of us who are identified with institutions or vocations in religion can’t be too vigilant. The devil does some of his best work behind stained glass.”
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“Most of the leadership talk in our culture instructs us how to use people so that we can get rich off of them or get powerful through them. But those principles don’t work if what we’re trying to get them in on is God, they work backwards in reverse. We need a convincing and believable story to show us how we can develop a sense of leadership that is not manipulative, does not use power, but brings people into the presence of God.”
““In the company of Jesus there are no experts there are only beginners and necessary followers, because in the company of Jesus nobody knows where they are going.””
““When we come across a person like Caiaphas it’s easy to be harshly critical of religion as such; of institutional religion. Religion is a way of getting ahead in the world, religion as form, and business, and show, and influence. The widespread interest in what is now called “spirituality” is in some ways a result of disillusionment and frustration with institutional religion. It avoids religion. All the trappings of liturgy, and finance, and fundraising campaigns, and buildings, and ecclesiastical bureaucracies, and counsels making hair-splitting decisions on theology, and repressive and controlling rules and regulations.”
“Show me where you spend your time, money and energy and I’ll tell you what you worship.
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“We’re in a declared war, but unless were clear about who the enemy is, we’ll waste our time fighting enemies that aren’t enemies at all. There’s only one enemy and no matter what people do, say or react people are never the enemy. The enemy is our only enemy.”
“It seems the more I think about not sinning, the more I sin, but the more I think about just loving Jesus, the less I seem to sin. Falling in love seems to be the key.
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“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
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“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’
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“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God
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“Joy is the serious business of heaven.
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“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.”
“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”
“You just don’t get points for making Jesus a sandwich He didn’t order”
“The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell”
““Looking back with fondness to the days of old as defined by our point of entry is all right as long as we don’t let that nostalgia keep us from the best days that are ahead. God moves from grace to grace, faith to faith and glory to glory (John 1:16; Romans 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18). God is on the move and we best be moving with him.””
“Unity is an agreement to walk together for the good of the whole, despite differing opinions on peripheral matters.”
“Humility is the ultimate standard of greatness in the Kingdom of God.”
“There are no super saints, only those that don’t quit.
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“Only one life will soon be past; only what is done for Christ will last.”
“Each day is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to Him.
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“Jesus in His ministry is the will of God in action.”
“We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.
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“At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done.
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“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
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“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen
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“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life”
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.
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“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
“The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us
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“When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life”
“God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion.
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“Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
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“A Christian is never in a state of completion but always in a process of becoming.
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“Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, hear the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, adhere to the truth, defend the truth to death; for truth will make you free from sin, the devil, the death of the soul, and finally from eternal death.
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“The less Holy Spirit we have, the more cake and coffee we need to keep the church going”
“God is more concerned with our character than with our achievements. Achievements have importance only in the realm of time. Character is eternal. It determines what we will be through eternity.
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““Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.
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“Let us thank God heartily as often as we pray that we have His Spirit in us to teach us to pray. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts.
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“When we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.
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“The Jews turned Christianity into a religion, the Greeks turned Christianity into a philosophy, the Romans turned Christianity into an institution, and Americans turned Christianity into a business enterprise.”
“GOD ALWAYS WAS THE HEALER. He is the healer still, and will ever remain the Healer. Healing is for YOU. Jesus healed, “all that came to Him.” He never turned any one away. He never said, “It is not God’s will to heal you,” or that it was better for the individual to remain sick, or that they were being perfected in character through the sickness. He healed them ALL. Thereby demonstrating FOREVER God’s unchangeable will concerning sickness.
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“There is nothing impossible with God. All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief.
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“If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used....The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.
Another kind of leader must arise from among us. He must be the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breaths with mortal breath.”
“Organizations conform to historic ideals. A statement has been made. A founder has been elevated. We are the such-and-such church. We are the Wesleyan church. We’re the… and on and on and on. It could be any founder at any period of time in the centuries past. The further we get removed from that founder, the more structured, the more traditionalist we become. To the point we write great volumes of books trying to strain out every nuance of thought that man had during his lifetime. Trying to figure out everything he meant by everything he said. In that process we become rather dead. In those traditions we begin taking on the traditions of men.
Keep in mind that most of the men who founded most of the great churches that are existing today would not be in those same churches today for the very reason they left their churches in their day. If you think Martin Luther would go to a Lutheran church today, you’re out of your gourd (to use a theological term). Because they were men after God, not after traditions. They were men hearing God and moving with God and doing what they could do to actualize God in their lives. And that’s what we need today.”
“The stronger we are, the more joy we will have. And the more joy we have, the stronger we will be. There are divine tensions such as being grieved for those who are falling to darkness while rejoicing as the Lord instructed us because our redemption is closer. It is the tension between these extremes that actually keep us on the path of life. We may sow with weeping, but we will reap with joy. This is maturity. As Peter wrote about “the untaught and unstable” (see II Peter 3:16) who were distorting not only Paul’s teachings but “the rest of the Scriptures,” the immature, unstable, or untaught will tend to see two extremes that are both true as contradictions rather than counterbalancing. This is why many unbelievers or Christians whom backslide before maturing claim that The Bible is full of contradictions. I’ve read The Bible at least forty times and do not know of a single contradiction in it. The harmony and synthesis of The Bible is so far beyond human ingenuity that it is unquestionably beyond human origin, but you must have a renewed mind to see it. When I was a young believer, there were many things I could not understand or see as fitting together that now seem brilliantly fitted together.”
“The second part [of the book of Galatians] is polemical. Paul’s establishes the foundational truths of the crucial doctrine of salvation, which is by the grace of God through faith in Christ. This is the cardinal truth of Christianity, and Paul makes the strongest case found in the New Testament in chapters three and four. The third part, chapters five and six, is an exhortation to the Galatians to stand fast in their freedom, warning them not to void their union with Christ by succumbing to false teachings that would bring them under the yoke of the law. Paul also exhorts them not to use their freedom to do deeds of the flesh, which would nullify their inheritance in the kingdom of God. In this, he is warning them against the extremes on either side of life’s path—legalism on one side and lawlessness on the other. Either of these could cost them their inheritance in Christ. The answer if to live by the Spirit that has been given to them, which is the power to live by love for God and love for one another. From the beginning of the New Covenant in the first century, navigating between these extremes is the challenge for every believer, church, and movement. The brief but concise Epistle to the Galatians is the most powerful discourse ever written to help us stay on the path of life between the extremes that would carry us away from Christ. For this reason, it is crucial to the New Testament and should be read regularly to help us stay on the path of life.”
“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular. To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
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“The only way to overcome the power of sinful desires is to grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
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“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
