Allen > Allen's Quotes

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

“I'm still discovering, right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing, we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.”
― John Wesley

“Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God; such alone will shake the gates of hell.”
― John Wesley

“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.”
― John Wesley, Letters of John Wesley

“The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.”
― Charles C. Ryrie

“God's holiness is not an unloving holiness, and God's love is not an unholy love. It is only by keeping these two primary moral qualities of the divine being closely related that we may rightly behold the character of God. (p. 98)”
― Thomas C. Oden, The Living God: Systemic Theology: Volume One

“There is no broader way to apostasy than to reject God’s sovereignty in all things concerning the revelation of himself and our obedience...”
― John Owen

“To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.”
― John Owen

“The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.”
― Samuel Davies

“He can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a pool and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water. Yes he can make this habitation of dragons this heart which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself”
― John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

“On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.”
― John Owen, The Glory of Christ

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
― John Wesley

“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing!”
― John Wesley

“Catch on fire and others will love to come watch you burn.”
― John Wesley

“Patriotism is the wholesome, constructive love of one’s land and people. Nationalism is the unhealthy love of one’s government, accompanied by the aggressive desire to put down others – which becomes in deracinated modern men a substitute for religious faith. Patriotism is an appropriate, indeed necessary, sentiment for people who wish to preserve their freedom; nationalism is not.”
― Clyde N. Wilson

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“To be effective the preacher's message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God's present voice to a particular people.”
― A W Tozer

“The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

“He cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his mother.”
― St. Augustine of Hippo

“A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Short devotions are the bane of deep piety. Calmness, grasp, strength, are never the companions of hurry.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Preaching never edifies a prayerless soul.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“In me there is darkness,
But with You there is light;
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help;
I am restless, but with You there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with You there is patience;
I do not understand Your ways,
But You know the way for me.”

“Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor
And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
When all men fail me;
You remember and seek me;
It is Your will that I should know You
And turn to You.
Lord, I hear Your call and follow;
Help me.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

“We can afford to follow Him to failure. Faith dares to fail. The resurrection and the judgment will demonstrate before all worlds who won and who lost. We can wait.”
― A.W. Tozer, Born After Midnight

“The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man.”
― Leonard Ravenhill