AHA Quotes

“There is a tendency for us to minimize the Word of the Lord. Maybe because of its familiarity. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” the saying goes. But it may be more accurate to say that “familiarity breeds indifference.” The more we hear some warnings, the less seriously we take them—like the tornado warnings in grade school we didn’t take seriously. The people of Nineveh heard God’s warning. God got their attention, and they were honest with themselves about themselves. One of the reasons we minimize our own sin and rebellion is that we don’t take God’s Word seriously. Maybe a strong pinch is needed to get us to sit up and pay attention.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“God often uses desperate moments to wake us up. Only when things start to fall apart do we finally open our eyes.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“The Bible says in Psalms to “Be still.” God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). I like this definition of stillness: silence on the outside and surrender on the inside.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“Just as a father hates cancer, because of what it does to his child, so God hates divorce, because of what it does to His children.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“If self could help, then we would all have been fixed a long time ago.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“Men, when will you put down the remote control, choose God, and stand up for your family? Put down the cell phone, pick up a sword, and fight for your marriage. Put down the PlayStation controller, put down the 9 iron, put down the iPad, and fight for something. It may even be time to put down this book. Maybe you’ve heard enough; stop reading, watching, talking, and playing—it’s time for action.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“We rationalize by telling ourselves, “As long as I’m having fun and not hurting anyone, it’s fine.” There”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“Minimization is acknowledging the reality of the situation and even owning responsibility for it but denying its seriousness. Instead”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“The warning label on my chainsaw says, “Do not attempt to stop chain with hands.” Our”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“You realize you weren’t actually following Jesus; you were just following a list of rules and rituals. You”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“you don’t have to hit rock bottom. You can wake up now. You can come to your senses today.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“Often we miss the alarms sounding in our lives because we’re not sensitive to them. The harp won’t do the job—it’s going to take”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“In Proverbs 20:30, the Bible basically says it sometimes takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. And sometimes it does.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“It may sound harsh to say, but the number-one contributor to spiritual growth is not sermons, books, or small groups; the number-one contributor to spiritual growth is difficult circumstances.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“I’ve discovered that what drives many travelers to the Distant Country is that they are running away from a god that doesn’t exist. For one reason or another, their perception of God doesn’t match up with reality. They are rejecting a god they created rather than the true God who created them.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“The truth is, he, too, was a prodigal son. He, too, had a heart that was far from his father. He, too, was lost, but he didn’t see it. Tim Keller put it this way, “The bad son was lost in his badness, but the good son was lost in his goodness.”38”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:29–32) Now don’t miss this: the older brother never left the father, never broke the rules, never went to a distant country, but he also never experienced AHA. You have to ask yourself which story is more tragic—the younger son who lost everything and ended up in a pigpen but experienced AHA, or the older son who lived at home with the father and followed all the rules but never experienced AHA.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“When the Bible gives descriptions, I immediately get an image in my mind of who I would cast for that role. I was thinking Joe Pesci would be a good Zacchaeus, right? Pesci’s this little guy known for having a high, annoying voice who dresses really well. Picture Zacchaeus in this crowd. He was shorter than most, so elbows were flying near his face as all these rubberneckers jockeyed for a view of Jesus. Zacchaeus finally gave up trying to compete with the crowd and climbed up a sycamore tree. He was perched in the tree when Jesus arrived. Here’s what we read in Luke 19:5–7: When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“Confronted with the Truth When Jonah confronted the people of Nineveh with the truth, how did they respond? With brutal honesty. Jonah 3:5 records: A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Sackcloth was an abrasive covering made of goat hair that was worn in public as a sign of repentance and grieving. Does that sound like something a respectable person would wear? Is that something you would do? Well here, even the people of privilege and power did this. Picture Donald Trump publicly fasting. Think of Kim Kardashian putting on sackcloth. This was a gesture of humility. Remember, this was a great city in Assyria with around 120 thousand people, and everyone—from the greatest to the least—fasted and put on sackcloth.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“The Pharisees listening to Jesus learned what we often forget: faithful followers of Christ aren’t on earth to assign blame; we’re here to free the trapped, bandage the wounded, help the hurting, and celebrate homecomings.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“The consequences of our choices can be a jarring alarm that wakes us up and causes us to come to our senses. When you are in the Distant Country, it’s only a matter of time before your decisions catch up to you. That desperate moment is the time to cry out to God.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

“In Luke 15, the Prodigal Son headed to what Jesus called a distant country. The Distant Country is any area of our lives where we are trying to live independently of the Father.”
― Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything