D. A. Carson Quotes - Page 2

Either worrying drives out prayer, or prayer drives out worrying.

We do not drift into spiritual life or disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray.

It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father's will-and it was his love for sinners like me.

We overcome the accuser of our brothers and sisters, we overcome our consciences, we overcome our bad tempers, we overcome our defeats, we overcome our lusts, we overcome our fears, we overcome our pettiness on the basis of the blood of the Lamb.

A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

Draw nigh to God, so that you may dread the grave as little as your bed. Draw nigh to God, that you may live a happy and useful life. Drawing nigh to God is the most concentrated energy of the soul. Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God, not a technique for acquiring blessings.

The more clearly we see sins horror, the more we shall treasure the cross.

The more we get to know God, the more we want to know him better.

To worship God 'in spirit and in truth' is first and foremost a way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (Hebrews 8:13). Christian worship is new covenant worship; it is gospel-inspired worship; it is Christ-centered worship; it is cross-focused worship.

We are dealing with God's thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly.

God's love in John 3:16 is not amazing because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad.

Wrath, unlike love, is not one of the intrinsic perfections of God. Rather, it is a function of God's holiness against sin. Where there is no sin, there is no wrath-but there will always be love in God. Where God in His holiness confronts His image-bearers in their rebellion, there must be wrath, or God is not the jealous God He claims to be, and His holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing God's holiness.

The Bible does not tell us that life in this world will be fair. Evil and sin are not Victorian gentlemen; they do not play fair.

The place where God has supremely destroyed all human arrogance and pretension is the cross.

Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship, worship rather than worship God.

The person who prays more in public than in private reveals that he is less interested in God's approval than in human praise. Not piety but a reputation for piety is his concern.

The person who loves his life will lose it: it could not be otherwise, for to love one's life is a fundamental denial of God's sovereignty, of God's rights, and a brazen elevation of self to the apogee of one's perception, and therefore an idolatrous focus on self, which is the heart of all sin

There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.

If the text is God's Word, it is appropriate that we respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, a questing obedience.

A prayerless person is a disaster waiting to happen.

Effectiveness in teaching the Bible is purchased at the price of much study, some of it lonely, all of it tiring.

God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never mitigates human responsibility.

Prayer is God's appointed means for appropriating the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus.

A weak understanding of what the Bible says about sin is tied to a weak understanding of what the Bible says is achieved by the cross.

Love the church because Jesus loves it.