Quotes by Pastors - Page 23

Jesus Christ is not just 'my personal Savior'. He is Lord.
John F. MacArthur Jr.
Any religious person who says he does not really need human friends because God is his Friend is calling God a liar because He's the One Who says we also need human friends.
Mark Driscoll
Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.
Francis Chan
...there is still a need for those of us nestled deep within the Christian bubble to look beyond the status quo and critically assess the degree to which we are really living biblically.
Francis Chan
Giving up everything must mean giving over everything to kingdom purposes, surrendering everything to further the one central cause, loosening our grip on everything. For some of us, this may mean ridding ourselves of most of our possessions. But for all of us it should mean dedicating everything we retain to further the kingdom. (For true disciples, however, it cannot mean hoarding or using kingdom assets self-indulgently.)
Randy Alcorn
The cross where Jesus died became also the cross where His apostle died. The loss, the rejection, the shame, belong both to Christ and to all who in very truth are His. the cross that saves them also slays them, and anything short of this is a pseudo-faith and not true faith at all.
A.W. Tozer
I was used to being the smartest guy in the room, and then God dropped me in a place that was well beyond me. It was painfully awesome.
Matt Chandler
Religious leaders who continue mechanically to expound the Scriptures without regard to the current religious situation are no better than the scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day who faithfully parroted the Law without the remotest notion of what was going on around them spiritually,” wrote Tozer. “They fed the same diet to all and seemed wholly unaware that there was such a thing as meat in due season.
A.W. Tozer
I want every one of our members to grow into maturity more quickly than they seem to, but the Lord has taught me to shepherd people, call them to repentance and let Matthew 18:12­–14 play out.
Matt Chandler
My understanding from the Word of God is that I am supposed to preach for the maturation of the believer with a view that lost people are there.
Matt Chandler
Yanked out of the present, Adam discovered the richness of the past in people's stories.
Randy Alcorn
Many of your relationship problems are not really relationship problems. They're personal problems that spill over into relationships.
Rick Warren
It's much easier to talk about following Jesus when you are making general statements rather than specific commitments.
Kyle Idleman
The big idea here is not, have you sinned, but are you changing?
Mark Driscoll
The genealogy of blessing always traces back to God-ordained risk.
Mark Batterson
An animal will conquer others. A Spirit-filled man conquers himself – self-discipline, self-control.
Mark Driscoll
When God interrupts your life, He is calling you to follow Him in a new way. By breaking into your settled pattern, He is moving you to a new place where you can make fresh discoveries of His grace. Embracing God’s call is never easy, but this is where the pursuit of a God-centered life begins, and where the shame of a self-centered life is exposed.
Colin S. Smith
When I was 25, I believed I could change the world. At 41, I have come to the realization that I cannot change my wife, my church, or my kids, to say nothing of the world. Try as I might, I have not been able to manufacture outcomes the way I thought I could, either in my own life or other people’s.
Tullian Tchividjian
Christian discipleship is a decision to walk in his ways, steadily and firmly, and then finding that the way integrates all our interests, passions, and gifts, our human needs and eternal aspirations. It is the way of life we were created for.
Eugene H. Peterson
Many pastors would rather preach God's Word and keep their distance than invest in a personal one-on-one counseling ministry. Most pastors counsel because they have to, not because they want to.
James MacDonald
Word-centered people who enter counseling will be more likely follow the guidance set out in Scripture. Because they know more of the depth of their sin, they are more willing to allow other church members to help them stay on that right path.
James MacDonald
Counseling is ultimately not about the counselee or the counselor, but about the Divine Counselor.
James MacDonald
We are less interested in the number of disciples and more interested in the quality of discipleship.
James MacDonald
Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half as persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way
James MacDonald
The author relates by way of illustration that the human heart contains both a throne and a cross. If we occupy the one, Jesus occupies the other.
A.W. Tozer
You can't teach a person to love something. But you can get him to feel the heat of your love for something.
James MacDonald
At the end of life, each of us must answer the question, Whose story captured my soul?
James MacDonald
If all you are doing is spending time with the struggling members of your church and you are not building proactively into your church's culture, and you are being shortsighted and limiting the effectiveness of your ministry.
James MacDonald
In healthy churches, the pastors life, not just his words, sets the tone for the church.
James MacDonald
We must evaluate every person, place, product, perspective, position, or pleasure we have looked to in place of the promises of God, and turn away from those things accordingly.
James MacDonald
Any counseling that does not pursue spiritual formation through an intimate relationship with Jesus by faith as one of its chief goals is not worthy to be called BIBLICAL counseling.
James MacDonald
When it comes to biblical counseling, friendship is central to the counseling relationship because it is a key aspect of the Gospel. Paul's words display it; Jesus' actions approve it. In Jesus Christ, friendship has its ultimate – that is, it's paradigmatic – display. He sacrificially gave Himself for the good of those he befriended – people who were awkward and troubled types, people who did not offer Him anything particularly desirable in return.
James MacDonald
So often, it's others around us who can see where God wants to grow us even before we see it ourselves.
James MacDonald
Small groups are the place to push past Bible knowledge and on to life application so that we can see people's lives transform more and more into the image of Christ.
James MacDonald
If our counseling is truly Christ-centered, then the topic of forgiveness will inevitably come up in the journey toward growth and change.
James MacDonald
If spiritual formation is the purpose of the church, then personal transformation should intentionally be the purpose of the small group ministry. Bible study is great. Fellowship is wonderful. Evangelism is essential. But changing and growing to be more like Christ should be the purpose of the small group ministry.
James MacDonald
True love is generative. It is the only kind that makes more of itself as it goes along.
Timothy J. Keller
If a church is good at making disciples it will be good at making leaders because in the end, a good spiritual formation plan will lead to an accelerated spiritual multiplication.
Gary Rohrmayer
The only way your child will grow out of their dependency into self-sufficient adults is for you to essentially abandon your own independence for 20 years or so.
Timothy J. Keller
The God of the universe--the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor--loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.
Francis Chan
On Christ's attitude toward His disciples: "If I gave away My big all to get to you, can you give away your little all to follow Me?
Timothy J. Keller
Now, what happens if you eliminate anything from the Bible that offends your sensibility and crosses your will? If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you? You won't! You'll have ...A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction. Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.
Timothy J. Keller
It is possible to feel angered by the compromises all around us, while remaining apathetic to the compromises inside us.
Stephen Davey
A cross centered life is made up of Christ centered days.
C.J. Mahaney
Are you following Christ's ambitions for your life or expecting Him to help you reach yours?
Stephen Davey
No heart is as whole as a broken heart, and no faith is as solid as a wounded faith." Elie Wiesel
John Ortberg
The pastor owns the opportunity to issue of the flock that it is OK not to be OK.
Matt Chandler
Moses challenged parents both to teach the faith diligently and to maximize normal encounters or ongoing discussion.
Matt Chandler
Unlike mere action, prayer is not subject to immediate evaluation or verification. If we are addicted to "results" we will quickly lose interest in prayer.
Eugene H. Peterson
Real life applications get tricky when we think about them.
Kevin DeYoung
Battling busyness is a community response.
Kevin DeYoung
To obey the commands of Scripture can finally become a delight when we see that the reasons almost always center around God's love and provision for us in Christ.
Matt Chandler
We must help men and women see the epic in the ordinary details of life.
Matt Chandler
As we grow into maturity in Christ our distinctiveness is accentuated, not blunted. General directions, useful as they are, don't take into account the details that face us as holiness takes root in the particular social and personal place we are planted.
Eugene H. Peterson
Preaching reveals God in action here and now -- for ME.
Eugene H. Peterson
There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to.
Eugene H. Peterson
We need alert listeners to give dignity to those stretches in our lives when we are not aware of participating in anything we think might be embraced by the kingdom of God.
Eugene H. Peterson
We do not become less needy, less dependent when we pray; we become more needy, more dependent, which is to say, more human.
Eugene H. Peterson
It is in my internal and external struggles, when it feels like someone is river-dancing on my last nerve, that the fruit of the Spirit is developed.
Matt Chandler
Private worship excites us for public worship.
Matt Chandler