Vance Havner Quotes - Page 3

What we love usually manages to get into our conversation. What is down in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of the speech.

There is no devil in the first two chapters of the Bible and no devil in the last two chapters. Thank God for a book that disposes of the devil!

The temple of truth has never suffered so much from woodpeckers on the outside as from termites within.

Our Lord sent His disciples out as sheep among wolves; now the wolves are being invited into the sheepfold.

Let it never be forgotten that, although we may do nothing about the Word we hear, the Word will do something to us. The same sun melts ice and hardens clay, and the Word of God humbles or hardens the human heart.

The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.

Some ministers preach from notes and some don't. They have argued about it for centuries. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Two Welsh preachers were on their way to a meeting. One noticed that the other carried written outlines. 'Ah,' he remonstrated, 'you cannot carry fire on paper.' 'True,' replied his companion, 'but you can use paper to start a fire!'

Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points of identification with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear medals but carry no scars.

One man with a genuine experience with God is worth more than a library full of arguments.

There was a time when ministers spoke forthrightly and named things. We don't name anything anymore. Finney had a sermon on How to Preach so as to Convert Nobody. He said 'Preach on sin but never mention any of the sins of your congregation - that will do it.'

God's deepest secrets often miss the wise and prudent and are revealed unto babes. We say, "Children, be like your parents." Jesus said, "Parents, be like your children."

No nation can last long when it stops praying and takes up playing.

There are many who say they want to be victorious Christians, but few are willing to endure the discipline necessary to make one a good solider of Jesus Christ. There is a prize to possess, but before we possess it there is a price to be paid, and few will pay it.

The world does not hate its own. It does hate our Lord. It hates His followers. Where do you belong in this lineup?

Jesus Christ demands more complete allegiance than any dictator who ever lived. The difference is, He has a right to it.

We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross.

We need a dedicated minority who, like the apostles of old, are willing to be called the scum of the earth and a spectacle to the world for the scandal of the cross.

The same church members who yell like Comanche Indians at a ball game on Saturday sit like wooden Indians in church on Sunday.

A picture of Christ was hung in the back of a pulpit. When the minister rose to speak one Sunday morning, a little boy asked his mother, 'Mother, who is that man who stands so we can't see Jesus?'

Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.

Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. Most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition

We are challenged these days, but not changed; convicted, but not converted. We hear, but do not; and thereby we deceive ourselves.

We are suffering from a believism that never has believed, and a receivism that never has received, and it leads to deceivism.

You can't preach it like it is if you don't believe it like it was.

Satan does some of his worst work on exhausted Christians when nerves are frayed and the mind is faint.