God's Smuggler Quotes

“The bigger the darkness, the easier it is to spot your little light.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“You can get in anywhere if you go to serve.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“That's the excitement in obedience, finding out later what God had in mind.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Don't curse the darkness but light a candle.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Persecution is an enemy the Church has met and mastered many times. Indifference could prove to be a far more dangerous foe.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Don't complain to yourselves that you can't go to the mission field! Thank God for bringing the mission field to you!”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Why are we worried!" Rolf said suddenly. "This is God's work. He'll make a way for us.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Whenever, wherever, however You want me, I'll go. And I'll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and as I take my first step forward, will You consider this is a step toward complete obedience to You? I'll call it the step of yes.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“It was Sunday morning. I woke very early to a bright and cheery day, anxious to join my fellow Christians in this lovely garden of a land. The clerk in the hotel eyed me a little dubiously when I asked for a church. 'We don't have many of those, you know,' he said. 'Besides, you couldn't understand the language.'
'Didn't you know?' I said, 'Christians speak a kind of universal language.'
'Oh. What's that?'
'It's called "agape".'
'Agape? I never heard of it.'
'Too bad. It's the most beautiful language in the world.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“In the years of living this life of faith, I have never known God's care to fail.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Lord, if you show me the way, I will follow You.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“I think you're like one of your own lumps of clay, Andy. God has a plan for you, and He's trying to get you into the center of it, and you keep dodging and slithering away.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Hatred and greed are heavy loads. Your motive, on the other hand, is love. And instead of priding yourselves on your cunning, you recognize how weak you are...so weak that you must depend totally on the Spirit of God.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“I experienced one of the common miracles of the Christian life. Our spirits recognized each other.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“It is never safe to call a church a puppet—no matter how dead, no matter how subservient and temporizing it may appear on the surface. It is called by God’s name, it has God’s eye upon it, at any moment He may sweep the surface away with the purifying wind of His Spirit. ———”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“The enemy is fierce and he would like for you to think that he has on. Don't believe his lie.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“The Church is larger than any one nation or any one political scene.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“And so, for the first of many times, I said the Prayer of God’s Smuggler: ‘Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture that I want to take to Your children across this border. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“You can’t use strong-arm tactics against the Church without strengthening it. It’s always been that way. Under persecution a man looks at his faith to see if it’s worth fighting for, and this is a scrutiny Christianity can always withstand. The real danger comes with an indirect attack, where a person is lured away from the Church before he has a chance to become strong.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“What is it, Lord? What am I holding back? What am I using as an excuse for not serving You in whatever You want me to do?' And then, there by the canal, I finally had my answer. My 'yes' to God had always been a 'yes, but'. Yes, but I'm not educated. Yes, but I'm lame.
With the next breath, I did say 'Yes'. I said it in a brand-new way, without qualification. 'I'll go, Lord,' I said, 'no matter whether it's through the route of ordination, or through the WEC programme, or through working on at Ringers'.' Whenever, wherever, however You want me, I'll go. And I'll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and as I take my first step forward, will You consider that this is a step towards complete obedience to You? I'll call it the Step of Yes.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“First, earn the right to get their attention; then show them Jesus – perhaps not with words but always with action.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“If we can’t take Christ to them by preaching, we’ll take Christ to them by living.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“God really is a Father, as displeased with a cramped, niggardly attitude of lack as with its opposite.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“I'm just an ordinary person."

That, of course, was exactly the appeal of this story. How, indeed, had God been able to use a fellow, with a bad back, a limited education, no sponsorship and no funds, to do things that well-connected, well-endowed people said were impossible? For us and other ordinary people, that was what made Brother Andrew's adventures so intriguing.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Throughout this time I sensed that God was playing a game with me. Perhaps He was using these experiences to teach me the difference between a Want and Need. Toothpaste tasted good, new razor blades shaved quicker – but these were luxuries, not necessities. I was certain that should a real Need ever arise, God would supply it.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“But that was not the Royal Way; the King’s servants didn’t have to stoop.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“Persecution is an enemy the Church has met and mastered many times. Indifference could prove to be a far more dangerous foe. ———”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“The real purpose of this training,” Mr. Dinnen told me, “is to teach our students that they can trust God to do what He has said He would do. We don’t go from here into the traditional missionary fields, but into new territory. Our graduates are on their own. They cannot be effective if they are afraid or if they doubt that God really means what He says in His Word. So here we teach not so much ideas as trusting.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“What is it, Lord?” What am I holding back? What am I using as an excuse for not serving You in whatever You want me to do?” And then, there by the canal, I finally had my answer. My “yes” to God had always been a “yes, but.” Yes, but I’m not educated. Yes, but I’m lame. With the next breath, I did say “Yes.” I said it in a brand-new way, without qualification. “I’ll go, Lord,”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

“The hospital to which I had been assigned was run by Franciscan sisters. I soon fell in love with every one of them. From dawn until midnight they were busy in the wards, cleaning bedpans, swabbing wounds, writing letters for us, laughing, singing. I never once heard them complain. One day I asked the nun who came to bathe me how it was that she and the other sisters were always so cheerful.
'Why, Andrew, you ought to know the answer to that - a good Dutch boy like you. It's the love of Christ.' When she said it, her eyes sparkled, and I knew without question that for her this was the whole answer: she could have talked all afternoon and said no more.
'But you are teasing me, aren't you?' she said, tapping the well-worn little Bible where it still lay on the bedside table. 'You've got the answer right here.”
― Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler