The Insanity of Obedience Quotes

“Your fear is the greatest tool you will ever give to Satan. Overcoming your fear is your greatest tool against Satan.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“Let us be clear; the will of God is not always the safest place to be, but it is the only place to be.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“Judging by what eventually happened to Jesus Himself, we come to understand that persecution and suffering and sacrifice are necessary parts of His ultimate strategy, even today.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“How can we pray that persecution will stop when the only way to stop persecution is by refusing to share Jesus and keeping people from coming to Jesus as their Lord and Savior? How can we pray for persecution to stop when Jesus has told us that it is an inevitable and unavoidable result of obedient witness?”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“One enlightened brother said every Body of Christ who have a heart for the Nations needs four types of people: (1) Those who go, (2) Those who send, (3) Those who raise support for those who go, and (4) Those who welcome the Nations in their midst to their homes.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“As challenging as some of Jesus’ specific instructions were, however, what He had said to this point was downright encouraging compared to what He said next. “I am sending you out,” He explained, “like sheep among wolves” (Matt. 10:16). Like sheep among wolves. With that simple, startling phrase, Jesus defined the identity of His followers: they are like sheep. At the same time, He clarified the identity of the people they would meet in the world: they are like wolves.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“Believers in persecution remind us of a possible lie inherent in Western Christian cultures. We sometimes thank God that we live in countries where we are “free to worship.” It is interesting that public prayers are rarely uttered thanking God that we are “free to witness”! Significantly, witnessing to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has little to do with political freedom. Believers are as free to share Jesus in Saudi Arabia as they are in St. Louis. Believers are as free to share Jesus in Somalia as they are in Kentucky. Being a witness for Jesus has little to do with political freedom. On the contrary, our willingness to witness has everything to do with obedience and courage. We can easily convince ourselves that being a positive witness for Jesus is a matter of political freedom. In truth, however, being a positive witness for Jesus is a simple matter of obedience and courage. Our witness may, in fact, result in persecution—but we always have the freedom to share even when there are negative (and perhaps devastating) consequences to that sharing.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“we tend to believe that Western forms of democracy and the concomitant civil rights will usher in the kingdom of God and create an environment where persecution will simply not happen anymore. We tend to believe that spiritual brokenness can be healed through political means. Wars have been fought—and continue to be fought—based on the belief that Western styles of government and the kingdom of God are, essentially, synonymous. This is a dangerous, nonbiblical assumption.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“Jesus has told us frankly that sharing the gospel is at the heart of His command to obedience. That”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places

“In the 1960s, the Chinese government wrote in a secret “white paper” concerning faith in China: “The church in China has grown too large and too deep; we cannot kill it. We have determined to give the church properties, buildings, seminaries, and denominational headquarters so as to make the church rich. Once we do that, we will be more successful in controlling the church.”
― Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places