You’re Quoting Who?!
People love quotes.
Usually the best ones are from dead guys.
Or girls.
I love them as well.
They are easy to tweet.
Easy to remember.
Here is one I found today that is going to have some life in my head…
What you see and hear has a lot to do with where you’re standing. – C.S. Lewis
What are some of your favorite quotes?
Inspire us…
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
There are three quotes of late stuck in my mind:
“The red states think the blue states are the trouble, and the blue states think the red states are the trouble, and Jesus says, ‘You’re all in trouble, and I love you.’” – Tim Keller
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
-C. S. Lewis
“I don’t preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu
Wow. That will preach.
He’s not dead, and it’s not profound, but it rings through my ahead a lot when I’m in a stressful time.
“Things have a way of working out.” – my dad.
(Sort of his own take on Rom. 8:28, I guess.)
Love it. what’s your dads name
LOL – Elwyn “Butch” Algier
Go Butch!
Yesterday, around the time I made this comment, my dad was having a colonoscopy. Today I learned that they found a mass, biopsy results are expected next week. Surgery is imminent, regardless of the results. More than ever I’m trying to hold on to this bit of insight he so often spoke into my heart. Well, that, and the grace of God.
If you think of it, please pray.
Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.
-A.W. Tozer
The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and repulses. There can be nothing more terrible or wonderful than to be stricken with love for Christ so deeply that the whole being goes out in a pained adoration of His person, an adoration that disturbs and disconcerts while it purges and satisfies and relaxes the deep inner heart.
-A.W. Tozer
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
– E.E. Cummings
The one that makes me smile on “those” days:
“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” – Phyllis Diller
and one I try to live by:
“We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.” – Charles Swindoll
I think I might paint that Phyllis Diller quote on my kitchen wall. Then I won’t have to clean for another 3 years
“Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Tim Kizziar
I quite like that one!
“Let me answer that question with another question: Shut up!” Oscar Leroy (the old man from Corner Gas)
“Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”. – Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim At Tinker Creek
um. wow. Thanks for that one.
That’s one of my favorite books of all time. simultaneously disturbing and inspiring
“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”
–Fyodor Dostoyevski
“It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.”
From Billy Graham – via my book, Love is an Orientation
I repeat this everyday, every time I speak or teach and this is a big part of the theological missiology with my organization that works to build bridges between the Church and the gay community. This quote has shaped the full understanding of what I call My Kingdom Job Description.
Much love brother.
I ran across this one over the weekend while looking for good Christmas quotes for our Christams cards.
We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill
“A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.” – David Stevens (famed Atheist)
It’s not so much the quote as the person that is quoted saying this that makes this one of my very favorites.
“I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me.” -Don Miller
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” – C.S Lewis
I love that quote from Donald; so ridiculous, yet true.
“Grace Triumphs Judgement”
“God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him” – John Piper
“It is our choices, that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – JK Rowling
“The elevator to success is out of order, you’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time” – Joe Girard
Have these on my home page when I open the internet.
“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.” – Albert Einstein
“Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.” – Albert Einstein
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” – Albert Einstein
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” – Dr. Seuss
“Without pain the ink cannot flow.” – Charles Swindoll
“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.”
-Eugene Peterson
“We must let go of the life we planned in order to accept the life that is waiting for us” – E.M. Forester
“Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials” – unknown
“God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them” – St. Augustine of Hippo
Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of the mouth, is to shut it again on somethng solid. -GK Chesterton
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Jesus
Then lots more on my twitter feed–from Neil Postman, Charles Spurgeon, Tim Lambesis, Ravi Zacharias, Tim Keller, etc:
http://twitter.com/danielsonline
And a few more on the blog as well.
Thanks for posting everyone… some good reminders in here.
It’s not particularly “spiritual” but it’s one that’s always stuck with me…
“If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” — Neil Peart
“It is not your intentions, but your direction that will determine your destination” – Andy Stanley
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” – Albert Einstein
And finally, “Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most” – Mark Twain
“All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” -Tolkien
From one of my med students:
“Every emergency deserves a musical montage.”
Love it
“Every sin you commit is like a nail in Jesus’ hand.” My friend Whitney
God thinks you’re worth loving and you don’t get a vote.
-Mark Lowry
“Love the sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the sinner, hate your own sin! I don’t have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job. How about you hate your sin, I’ll hate my sin and let’s just love each other!”
- Mark Lowry
The last one is my favorite.
Actually, my favorite is a quote from the Bible, one I try to remember when my middle-school comes home with new friend drama: Luke 12:25 “Which of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?”
To continue with the CS Lewis quote.
the problem of evil is a much greater problem for those who don’t believe in God then for those who do. (paraphrase)
I don’t know who to give credit to for this one but it has always stuck with me
“the pain of discipline is much less then the pain of regret.”
“Whatsoever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or take off the relish of spiritual things…Whatsoever increases the authority of your body over your mind, that thing, to you…is sin.”
Susanna Wesley, to her son John
One of my favorite definitions of sin, from one of my favorite homeschooling moms
“I love anonymity and I love being noticed.” Derek Webb on Caedmon’s Call’s Back Home album.
This quote is me. I tend to be invisible no matter where I go, and usually don’t mind, I love to be by myself. But sometimes I want people to notice me. Just a “Hey, I like your outfit” or whatever. I have a favorite necklace that I made, and I’ve always said the first person who said they liked it, I’d give it to. It’s been a year so far.
Seven days without prayer makes one weak.
–anonymous
I’m gonna go a different direction here…
“And my nine is easy to load, I gotta thank God…” – L.L. Cool J
“If my rhyme was a drug I’d sell it by the Gram” – Vanilla Ice
“I got a nose like a pickle and I still get paid” Humpty
Every man needs a battle to fight an adventure to live and a beauty to rescue- John Eldridge
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”- Sir Winston Churchill
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” – Thomas Jefferson via our Declaration of Independence
Just because…..
this time is given to me by God that I may live in it. it is not given to make something out of it.
…thomas merton
whatever you are, be a good one.
…abraham lincoln
“the tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” – w.m. lewis
“Sow a thought, reap an action;
Sow an action, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny.”
-Samuel Smiles
“i had a suicidal fish once… no wait, i read a book about a suicidal fish once…”
-cally
Oh yeah, and
“You shall not pass!” Gandalf
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this” Han Solo
“Get busy living or get busy dying” Shawshank
“God chose to speak through Balaam’s ass and he has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God so chooses to speak through you, you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself. And, if upon meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway, because God chose to speak through Balaam’s ass and he has speaking through asses ever since.”-Rich Mullins from a college professor
“I think if we were given the Scriptures, it was not so that we could prove that we were right about everything. If we were given the Scriptures, it was to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.”-Rich Mullins
I use the “God is right and the rest of us are just guessing.” all the time.
I just love this quote.
‘We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.’ Oswald Chambers.
“Use what talents you possess – the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.” – Henry Van Dyke
“I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God – it changes me.”
— C.S. Lewis
“Every person’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.” – Hans Christian Andersen
“A true friend stabs you in the front.” – Oscar Wilde
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
I love that one…
I just got this tonight:
“Preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.” – Count Zinzendorf
One that has become like a beacon to me lately is the one from Bob Pierce: “Let my heart break with the things that break the heart of God.”
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliot
Here is some random assortments of quotes:
“Only one life till soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” – in a John Piper book, not sure who it was
“I like half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” – Bilbo Baggins, from the Fellowship of the Ring
“Guys, where are we?” – Charlie on Lost, season 1
“We as Christians forget sometimes that if we needed a Savior before we had one, we still need one even after we found one.” – my pastor, Tim Degroot
Not sure why I like the second quote as much as I do.
Also, I starting to post one or two quotes a day at my twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/jmbunch
My Pastor just dropped one on us this weekend that has really inspired/challenged me
“Just people will inconvenience themselves for the sake of their community.” ~ Bruce Waltke
Hears one I love from Curtis Hutson; I am so saved that I could swing over hell on a cornstalk and sing Blessed Assurance!
THAT is awesome!!
Great quotes! Here are some that have stuck with me:
“…we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so unable to find the words and perhaps the courage to speak with unlocked hearts, that we do not know at all that it is the same with others.”
-sheldon vanauken
“There are three types of people: The ones who make things happen. The ones who watch things happen. And those who ask ‘what happened?’ Who do you want to be?”
-my dad (said this all the time when I was growing up)
It is not possible to be “incidentally a Christian”. The fact of Christianity is it must be overwhelmingly first or nothing. This suggests a reason for the dislike of Christians by nominal or non-Christians: their lives contain no overwhelming firsts but many balances.
-A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
“Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” – St. Francis of Assis
“Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.” – GK Chesterton
Some people have life verses from the bible, well this one’s not from the bible but it’s still my Life Verse.
“The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.” — T. S. Eliot
“Age is only about the chassis that holds the soul.” -my 92 year old granddad who still walks 2-3 miles a day.
I’m a big fan of this one from comedian Mitch Hedberg:
“A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.”
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.” ~Erma Bombeck
Next to any scripture passage that quote is something I live by.
I LOVE quotes! I am a quote freak! Here are some I say all the time;
Get in the Pit and try to love Someone- Kid Rock
Be Flexible, don’t lose your mind-Steven Tavani
In nothing is the working of the dark lord more clearly seen then in the scisms that divide those who still oppose him. JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. (Paraphrased cuz I cant find the quote. I always think about this when Christians start tearing each other apart or get offended over stupid stuff)
“Jesus does not have a scum filter He has a scum magnete” Skye Jathani, The Divine Commodity
“sign of the amateur is over glorification of & preoccupation with mystery. The pro shuts up. Doesn’t talk about it. She does her work”
“The more scared we are of a work or calling,the more sure we can be that we have to do it”
“the counterfeit innovator is wildly confident. The real one is scared to death.” ALL from the book The War or Art by Steven Pressfield. Did you ever get this book? It’s so good!!
Not sure if someone has said this already: “Wisdom has no age restrictions” – If not, I’ll claim it as mine
“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you’re beyond the need of God’s grace.”
“Discipline generates great yesterdays.” That’s the brunt of it, you can tag on: “if you discipline yourself today, tomorrow you can look back and say ‘yeah yesterday was great’”!
this actually came out while I was teaching a life lesson’s class to a group of college students…don’t usually toot my own horn but wanted to pass it a long.
I respond although I will be changed. –
E. Rosenstock-Huess
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Rom 8:28 NIV
“You won’t get credit for bowing when standing isn’t an option.” C.S. Lewis
“Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could be comfortable, but rather so we would be committed.” Perry Noble
And currently one of my all time favorites:
“If worshipping God ever gets old, if it ever ceases to amaze you, you should check yourself.” Tim Ross
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
It was on a t-shirt I bought at a second-hand store. I didn’t really understand what it meant until I was much older.
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” ~ Thoreau
“The world would be boring place without the color blue.” ~my eldest daughter
“i just can’t find the time to write my mind the way i want it to read.” jeff tweedy, wilco
“belief is a beautiful armor / but makes for the heaviest sword / like punching under water / you never can hit who you’re trying for” john mayer
“Every time you choose safety, you give up sovereignty.” Peter Block
Drinking bear is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that’s a tough call. That’s rebellion.
- Alice Cooper
We are happiest when we are pursuing other’s happiness.
-my director at camp
These are good! Here are a few:
“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek HIM first to find her.” ~Author Uncertain
“Life, like war, is a series of mistakes,…he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes: organize victory out of mistakes.” ~F.W. Robertson
“Love isn’t love unless it’s doing something” ~Leeland
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Character is easier kept than recovered” ~unknown
How ’bout one of my LEAST favorite quotes:
“Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”
1) This was NOT coined by St. Francis or Mother Theresa or Ghandi, although I’ve heard each of them credited with it.
2) While the overarching idea has some merit, I think people often quote this while swinging way too far on the opposite end of the pendulum and failing to literally preach the Gospel like Jesus told us to.
Your actions certainly matter, and are sometimes more helpful than words, but words are always necessary to communicate the Gospel.
As our pastor has said, saying that is like saying “Give your phone number. If necessary, use digits.”
Zack,
I hear what you’re saying bro. I myself have used this quote and STILL like it and STILL agree with it for the most part. In my opinion, whoever said it, and for now I’m leaving it marked by the Assisi dude, it should say “when” necessary, not “if” like you stated.
Here’s another line I like that helps me see this better: “Christ doesnt give us a revelation so we can preach it, rather so that we can live it. When you live it you can preach it.”
Preach the gospel and revelations He gives us by living out. Then there will be that necessary time to use words He gives us to go further. I’m assuming Jesus lived it for 30 years before He felt it necessary to use The Words!!
I quote alot of people. Perry Noble, Clayton King, Mark Twain, and Tara Lee Cobble to name a few. But my favorite is an old Russian proverb. “He who would tell the truth should have one foot in the stirrups.” Pretty deep when you think about it.
“Live everyday like it’s your last – one day you’ll be right.” – Francis Albert Sinatra
“The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.” – John Eldredge
“I’ve noticed that people that are for abortion have already been born” – Ronald Reagan
(via @terracecrawford) yesterday
Here are four of my faves:
“He who has a why to live for can bear any how”
-Neitzsche
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you”
-Robert Fulghum
“Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society”
-Aristotle
I heard this line in a song once and it is one of my favorites, though I am not sure who sang the song:
“It is better to be hated for who you are then to be loved for who you’re not”
Not sure who said it first, but I’ve always chuckled at, “If its not worth doing, its not worth doing well.”
“you’ve got to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice” – bono
“If God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn’t be big enough to be worshipped.” -Evelyn Underhill
“Our hearts are restless, Oh LORD, until they rest in You.” -Augustine
Ooh, Here’s another one that I just read today from Lysa Terkeurst:
“God isn’t in the business of creating change to impress people; He is in the business of impressing on people their need to be changed.”
One of my most recent ones:
“I’ve noticed that everybody who is for abortion have already been born.” – Ronald Reagan
–Terrace Crawford
http://www.terracecrawford.com
http://www.twitter.com/terracecrawford
“We need to stop telling God how big our storms are and start telling our storms how BIG our GOD is.” Ellie Lofaro
“when did it become the church’s responsibility to police morals.”
paraphrasing joel houston from the i heart film we’re all in this together.
another of my favorites is, ““wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” – benjamin franklin.
i typically attribute this to beer though.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. – Michelangelo
(imagine a glow stick) Sometimes God has to break us and put us in the dark in order to show His glory through us – Steven Furtick