Pastor Jeff's Favorite Quotes
Archive of Quotes Listed by Topic
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Accidents
"I'm not saying saying there won't be an Accident now, mind you.  They're funny things, Accidents.  You never have them till you're having them." 
-- Eeyore, The House at Pooh Corner --
Adventure
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller --
"Every man dies, but not every man lives."
-- William Wallace --

"A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- John Shedd --

(Source: Tommy Barnett, Adventure Yourself, 1, 19)

"Always have your bags packed; you never know where life's journey is going to take you."
-- Old Appalachian Saying --
"How many people are radically and permanently, repelled from The Way by Christians who are unfeeling, stiff, unapproachable, boringly lifeless, obsessive, and dissatisfied? Yet such Christians are everywhere, and what they are missing is the wholesome liveliness springing from a balanced vitality with the freedom of God's loving rule." 
-- Dallas Willard The Spirit of the Disciplines, 80 --
"The word 'Christian' means different things to different people. To one person it means a stiff, upright, inflexible way of life, colorless and unbending. To another it means a risky, surprised-filled adventure, lived tiptoe at the edge of expectation...If we get our information from the biblical material, there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life." -- Eugene Peterson --
"Bearing the imprint of Christ as we do and knowing the security that he alone can give, I am surprised that Christians aren't the greatest adventurers on the face of the earth." 
-- Tim Hansel --
"From the cradle we understand our need for adventure, even though it is easily lost as we grow older...I am surprised though, that Christians who claim the wild message of Jesus Christ aren't out on the edge of adventure more often. I have seen all too frequently young and old alike withdraw beneath the shields of niceness, apathy, and boredom in order to avoid the high cost of loving and serving Christ. The pew has gotten too comfortable, and we are suffering immensely from a paucity of real adventure." 
--Tim Hansel--
"Faith is the heroic effort of your life. You fling yourself in reckless confidence on God. God has ventured all in Jesus Christ to save us. Now he wants us to venture our all in a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering....Again and again, you will get up to what Jesus Christ wants, and every time, you turn back when it comes to that point until you abandon resolutely....Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold by common sense--and leap into what He says....Christ demands of the man who trust Him the same reckless spirit....that is daring enough to step out of the crowd and bank his faith on the character of God." 
-- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest --
"The great tragedy in life is that most people spend their entire lives indefinitely preparing to live." -- Paul Tournier --
"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there." --Will Rogers--
"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting" --Karl Wallenda--
"You can't steal second base and keep one foot on first." --Anon.--
Adversity
"Adversity shoves you down to your core values and beliefs, to the things that matter most.  Back on bedrock, you find the reasons and strength to carry on and carry through." 
-- Pat Riley, The Winner Within, 82. --
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."  -- Seneca --
"Adversity is the best book on my bookshelf." -- Martin Luther --
"Sweet are the uses of adversity" -- William Shakespeare --
"The things which hurt, instruct." -- Benjamin Franklin --
"Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records." -- William Ward --
Advertising
"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." -- Stephen Leacock --
Agenda
"Try to give your agenda to God.  Keep saying, 'Your will be done, not mine.' Give every part of your heart and your time to God and let God tell you what to do, where to go, when and how to respond.  God does not want you to destroy yourself.  Exhaustion, burnout, and depression are not signs that you are doing God's will.  God is gentle and loving.  God desires to give you a deep sense of safety in God's love.  Once you have allowed yourself to experience that love fully, you will be better able to discern who you are being sent to in God's name."  -- Henry Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love, 106 -- 
Aging
"You're never too old to do goofy stuff." -- Ward Cleaver, Leave it to Beaver --
"The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age." 
-- Lucille Ball --
Anger
"Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything." -- Billy Graham --
"Anyone who angers you conquers you." -- Sister Kenny --
"Unholy tempers are always unhappy tempers."  -- John Wesley --
"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.  The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself.  The skeleton at the feast is you."

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, 2

Anointing
"I am perfectly confident that the man who does not spend hours alone with God will never know the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  The world must be left outside until God alone fills the vision...God has promised to answer prayer.  It is not that He is unwilling, for the fact is, He is more willing to give than we are to receive.  But the trouble is, we are not ready..."
--Oswald J. Smith Enduement, 56-58--
Answers
"In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering."
-- Howard Hendricks --
Anxiety
"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."
-- George Mueller --
"No man ever sank under the burden of the day.  It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear." 
-- George MacDonald -- 
Apostasy
"Apostasy begins in the closet. No man ever backslid from the life and power of Christianity who continued constant and fervent in private prayer. he who prays without ceasing is likely to rejoice evermore." -- Adam Clarke --
Attitude
"The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it."
-- Chuck Swindoll --
Authenticity
"O how serious is this matter of authenticity in the Christian life!  A decision for Christ is not nearly so crucial as a life for Christ.  Only reality counts with God." 
-- John Piper, A Godward Life, 257 --
"What the world longs for from the Christian religion is the witness of men and women daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burned in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how unreal they are.  Jesus, Son of the living God, anoint us with the fire this day.  Let your Word not shine in our hearts, but let it burn. Let there be no division, compromise, or holding back.  Separate the mystics from the romantics and goad us to that daredevil leap into the abyss of your love."
--  Brennan Manning (Souveneirs of Solitude) --
Autobiography
"I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead."
-- Sam Goldwyn --
Awe
"The complaint that church is boring is never made by people in awe."
-- R. C. Sproul The Holiness of God, 176.
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