Jeremy > Jeremy's Quotes

“To embrace the ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to enjoy our status as creatures: image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

“We do not need more frightening punishments and more withering scoldings. We need the all-sufficiency of Jesus applied in rich measure to our deepest points of personal need.”
― Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Supernatural Living for Natural People

“it is a constant of history that nations which start wars find it very hard to stop them.”
― Max Hastings, Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945

“You’re not all that God has called you to be, as a follower of Jesus, if you’re missions-minded but not engaged in God’s mission here and now.”
― John Piper, Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged

“for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

“I don’t want to ever get used to feeling disconnected from the gospel.”
― Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith

“We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours.”
― Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism

“May we come to the point where we’d sooner avoid oxygen and water than the means of grace.”
― Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith

“There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“It is possible for ministry leaders to desire greatness in ways no different from anyone, anywhere in our culture. Attaching Jesus’s name to these desires doesn’t change the fact that they look just like the cravings of the world.”
― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

“the Christian as a Christian has a power that is to be conceived of in cross-shaped terms, and the church, as the body of believers, is also to see its power and its role in a spiritual manner.”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom

“If God’s words determine reality, then of all the things a pastor does, speaking the words of God to the congregation is the most important.”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom

“The law says, ‘do this,’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘believe in this,’ and everything is already done.”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom

“the person whose life is falling apart and who is thus tempted to despair needs to know Christ, and knowing Christ requires knowing who he is and what he has done. In”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom

“Word and sacrament define the task of the pastoral office in simple, beautiful, and powerful terms.”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom

“The last days, though centuries long and anxiety-filled, are a precious time for gospel witness in the Spirit’s power.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“Instead of being transfixed by a particular cause and holding church leaders hostage to a supposed best practice, Christians should examine how Scripture speaks to issues, instructs us to relate to our leaders, and allows for a diversity of approaches in mission, while charitably pursuing a Christ-centered ethic together.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“We live in a society that thinks faster is better. We prize the efficient pastor, not the contemplative pastor.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“If you see the people you meet as precious souls, you’ll probably wind up treating them well.”
― David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

“I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”
― Claire Keegan

“We don’t owe anyone our sadness, but the sharing of it is what friends do. It makes the sadness less.”
― Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad Is Untrue

“It is not easy to make a friend let alone lose one.”
― Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse