Note to Self Quotes

“You live recklessly when you do not take God's law seriously or respond to the gospel properly. Reckless living can look like laziness and apathy. When you simply aren't motivated and tell yourself that God has forgiven you in Jesus, so you're not going to fight temptation and sin - that is reckless living, and it's far more dangerous than you realize.”
― Joe Thorn, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

“Your calling is to be faithful to God where you are, and in doing this all work is sacred, spiritual, and worthy of your full attention and energy. When you get to work, you are not entering a secular environment as much as you are bringing the sacred into the world by following Christ wherever you are.”
― Joe Thorn, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

“But when you doubt that you have anything to offer, you question God's ability to use you beyond your own weakness. Your usefulness in the lives of others is not dependent on your own intellectual or creative abilities, though God will use your talents whatever they are. Your usefulness to God and his people is connected with your dependence on God and his Word and your love for his people.”
― Joe Thorn, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

“the gospel itself is the climax of all theology.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“You are never just living for the moment. You are living for eternity, and your life has the potential to prove fruitful not only for yourself, but also for many others.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Theology is not meant merely to be known, but to be made known.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“What is clear is that Scripture requires both head and heart, and you need to see it not just as a text but as the very words of God. This will encourage you to pay close attention to the very words he uses, but it will also compel you to feast on those words as light-shedding, wisdom-dispensing, and life-giving counsel from on high.

For all your longing for God to speak, to make his will plain and his plan clear, you should be daily immersed in God's Word. This is his voice, his will, and his plan made known to you. Consider these words, "Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes." God's face shines on you when you are learning - experientially - his Word.”
― Joe Thorn, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

“Tolerate nothing in your life that might diminish your hunger for God’s Word. And apply it with vigor and spiritual energy!”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“In fact, your complaining about the small stuff is more dangerous than complaining about the big, because life is made up of the small stuff. Tragedies punctuate periods of your life, but it is the smaller inconveniences that make up the bulk of your existence, and this is what most people will see you handle.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“God’s life-giving Word meant to be believed, received, and obeyed—not only dissected.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Do you want to be confident in God’s good purposes for your life? Then you must discover them in times of ease as well as times of difficulty. Do you want to become more like Christ? Then you must suffer, and suffer well.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Do you want to become more like Christ? Then you must suffer, and suffer well.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Do you want to be confident in God’s good purposes for your life? Then you must discover them in times of ease as well as times of difficulty. Do”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“I know you want relief, but often relief comes, not in the form of the removal of the affliction, but in the strengthening of your faith. And”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ROMANS 5:3–5”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Your progress in the faith, your sanctification, is not a result of will power or education but the consequence of Christ’s atoning work. That is your confidence and hope. You can die to sin because he has died for your sin. You can live unto righteousness because Jesus has risen from the dead and in him you are now truly alive!”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Your calling is to be faithful to God where you are, and in doing this all work is sacred, spiritual, and worthy of your full attention and energy.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Your work is one of the primary ways in which you will glorify God. For as you do it in faith, thankfulness, and godliness, you are serving God and reflecting his beauty to everyone around you.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. COLOSSIANS 3:23–24”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Link up with like-minded men and women who are serious about God, gospel, and mission, but fight the temptation to let the group be your passion rather than its reason for existence.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“What people need is humble, worshiping theologians who are more passionate for God and gospel than they are for personalities.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“To be careful in your theological development is to be ultimately persuaded of the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture, as well as of the worthiness of God.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Your views of God and self are not small ideas of little consequence.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Theology talks.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“When you refuse to forgive, it can only mean that you have not yet come to understand forgiveness, or you have been taking it for granted and have not yet sufficiently learned from it.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“While the law of God is something we intuitively, if partially, know because we are made in his image, in our sinful condition we repress that knowledge and fight against our consciences when they alert us to our own wrongdoing. We need his law more than we need a vague admonition to “love” and “worship.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Preaching to ourselves is, in a practical”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“Do not attempt to base your interpretation of God on your circumstances, but see your circumstances in light of who God has revealed himself to be.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“more than wanting, you become frustrated by not having. You become jealous, envious, and discontented with your life. It is true; you need what you lack, but what you lack is satisfaction in Jesus.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self

“I know that you say you would die for your wife, and I believe you. But if that is true, why won’t you let go of self-interests on her behalf? If you love her, and would lay down your life for her, why can’t you lay down the remote control in order to give her your attention? Do you serve her and seek her betterment? Do you seek her growth in grace? Consider this: your calling is not only to care and provide for her in a general sense, but to seek her spiritual beautification.”
― Joe Thorn, Note To Self