Vance Havner Quotes - Page 6

Christmas is based on an exchange of gifts, the gift of God to man - His unspeakable gift of His Son, and the gift of man to God - when we present our bodies a living sacrifice.

Today I am one day nearer Home than ever before.

You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it. The Church suffers today from Christians who know volumes more than they practice.

The early Christians condemned false doctrine in a way that sounds almost unchristian today.

A revival is the church falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again.

Nobody in pulpit or pew needs a revival more than a bitter-spirited fundamentalist with his dispensations right and his disposition wrong.

It is not that God is stingy and must be coaxed, for He "giveth liberally and upbraideth not." It is that we ourselves are so shallow and sinful that we need to tarry before Him until our restless natures can be stilled and the clamor of outside voices be deadened so that we can hear His voice. Such a state is not easily reached, and the men God uses have paid a price in wrestlings and prevailing prayer. But it is such men who rise from their knees confident of His power and go forth to speak with authority.

The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.

The church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament normal it would seem to people to be abnormal.

We are so prone to expect to become good Christians by some sudden experience that lifts us all at once to higher ground without the gradual climb. We forget that we are to "grow in grace" and that normal growth is not a matter of fits and starts.

We honor God by asking for great things when they are a part of His promise. We dishonor Him and cheat ourselves when we ask for molehills where He has offered mountains.

There are no trivial assignments in the work of the Lord.

The devil's not fighting churches today, he's joining churches.

Revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints going back to normal.

Do not so contemplate eternity that you waste today.

Every Christian is a priest, not offering a sacrifice for sins - since that has been done once and for all - but offering his person, praise and possessions.

People get so used to the dark that they think it's growing brighter. It's possible to fraternize with unbelievers until false doctrine becomes less and less objectionable.

No amount of facts in his head can compensate for the lack of fire on his lips.

An old minister explained the smudges on his sermon outlines by saying they were caused by sweat and tears. And without those two marks, a sermon is not a sermon.

Faith has no value of its own, it has value only as it connects us with Him. It is a trick of Satan to get us occupied with examining our faith instead of resting in the Faithful One.

Revival precedes evangelism. The church must first repent. This is the blind spot in our eye today.

Most of the notable turn out to be the not-able. God's greatest truths still belong to babes.

We must live in all kinds of days, both high days and low days, in simple dependence upon Christ as the branch on the vine. This is the supreme experience

It is debatable which is causing us more harm - hot-headed ignorance or cold-hearted intellectualism.

I know that some are always studying the meaning of the fourth toe of the right foot of some beast in prophecy and have never used either foot to go and bring men to Christ. I do not know who the 666 is in Revelation but I know the world is sick, sick, sick and the best way to speed the Lord's return is to win more souls for Him.