Chris > Chris's Quotes

“Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34–35). The church is the gospel made visible.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“This book attempts to provide such careful instruction so that we might understand and recover faithfulness to God's Word on something that is not essential for salvation but that is both important and necessary for obedience—what the local church is to be and to do.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“As in every other topic, our regular practice as Christians should be to seek God's will in his Word, either by explicit command or by reasoning from principles in the Word. We want to see that the answer is in the Bible.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“By direct command, example, implication, or principles, God's Word tells us everything we need to know about every aspect of following him in life—from dating to marriage, from working to grieving, from evangelizing to eating. What should churches do? The answer is in the Bible.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“In many ways a church is simply a group of people who are living lives of love (John 13:34–35) because they all agree on how they have been loved in Christ.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“In Scripture, God tells us how we should approach him in public worship. We read the Bible, sing the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, and see the Bible (in baptism and the Lord's Supper).”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“People can creatively devise how to approach a mute God, but they must listen to a speaking God.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“Too often Christians today have only two gears on their theological bike: essential and unimportant.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“We will sell all that we have to find Him because He left all that He had to find us.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“The problem is not our riches, but a mindset that lets the bottom line define what is good and what isn’t. In such a value system, beauty cannot compete. In such a value system, we cannot see the worth of something that is slow and unpredictable and unquantifiable. And if we let the desire for money keep us from sacrificing for beauty in this life, that same mindset most certainly has the potential to keep us from experiencing it in the next.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“One of the difficulties of pursuing whatever is lovely is that the people around us are very lovely beings, and we don’t always know how to relate to their loveliness in discerning ways.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“there is also the real risk that we would dismiss and ignore the loveliness of another person. Because we don’t trust ourselves to respond to them appropriately, we hold them at arm’s length, effectively resisting and denying their loveliness.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“A woman or man can be an object of our admiration. We can feel drawn to them. We can recognize and identify their wit or beauty or desirability and still relate to them in ways that are holy and good. The word “lovely” in Philippians 4 is based on the Greek root for the love between brothers and sisters: phileō. And this is exactly how we must engage the loveliness that rests on each other. We must engage each other as brothers and sisters who are seeking each other’s good.13 We must let each other’s beauty draw us heavenward.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“when we truly see the loveliness of our brothers and sisters, our hearts will respond as it does to any other form of loveliness: in celebration of their Creator—a Creator so wise, so imaginative, so kind as to create each one of us. And when we celebrate their Creator, we will guard the loveliness He has made. We will sacrifice for it, even if it means sacrificing our own desire for it. This is something of what we mean when we talk about not objectifying other people. Their beauty is not ours to possess; it is not ours to consume. It is ours to protect.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“he cared about her. Not in the selfish, adulterous way he did years ago, but with the empathy and dignity she deserved.”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“it’s unsolicited only because I’m not smart enough to ask for it.”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“Can I be your son, too, and not just my dad’s?” “You already are, Jack. You already are.”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence,”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“Poor doesn’t just mean finances. It means helpless, powerless, and even hopeless.”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“whatever you’re afraid of controls you.”
― Paula Wiseman, Indemnity

“If she loses your approval, then nobody else matters. That’s the way it is with daddies and daughters.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“She’s hurt because you didn’t give her the benefit of the doubt.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“She didn’t want to feel comforted and welcomed. She wanted confirmation of the cold, hard rejection in God’s heart.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“Glen said this was a continuation from last week. Also innocent.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“she didn’t understand God anymore. She always believed He didn’t act randomly or capriciously. That just wasn’t His character. So how could Brad’s death possibly work for any good and God’s glory? No one could answer that one. Besides, God is the sovereign Lord. He can do what He wants and she had to accept it. Isn’t that what Job concluded?”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“It wasn’t that simple. She had to resolve how a good, loving, heavenly Father could snatch her son away.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“How could she trust that He was good, that He loved her, that He was working everything to His glory? She couldn’t.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“That’s a cop-out! He doesn’t work that way, and you know it.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent

“You know, your pain, your feelings are more important to you than anything else in your life right now. That makes ’em your god.”
― Paula Wiseman, Precedent