The Imperfect Disciple Quotes

“if there is a God of the universe (and there is), and this God of the universe loved you and wanted to be in relationship with you (and he does), wouldn’t it be stupid not to talk to him?”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Jesus wasn’t blowing smoke. His major contribution to the world was not a set of aphorisms. He was born in a turdy barn, grew up in a dirty world, got baptized in a muddy river. He put his hands on the oozing wounds of lepers, he let whores brush his hair and soldiers pull it out. He went to dinner with dirtbags, both religious and irreligious. His closest friends were a collection of crude fishermen and cultural traitors. He felt the spittle of the Pharisees on his face and the metal hooks of the jailer’s whip in the flesh of his back. He got sweaty and dirty and bloody—and he took all of the sin and mess of the world onto himself, onto the cross to which he was nailed naked.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“You introduce the truth of Romans 8 to every corner of the room, every dark place in your heart, as often as you can, as much as you can, as fiercely as you can.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“There is more security, in fact, with Christ in the middle of a stormy sea than without Christ in the warm stillness of our bathtub.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“The gospel is a family meal. It is meant to be enjoyed regularly and intentionally in the presence of others and for the benefit of others.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“If anything, we should be astounded they let us into the community. Given what we know of ourselves, given that we are the worst sinners we know, it is a staggeringly arrogant thing to begrudge any other repentant follower of Jesus a place at the dance. If the bar was low enough to allow our entry, what advantage is there to raising it?”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“In short, I am a riddle to myself; a heap of inconsistence. John Newton1 My”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Also notice this: the first list consists largely of actions, even if a few are more mental. The works of the flesh are more generally just that—works. This second list, though, the fruit of the Spirit, largely consists of what we might call qualities or conditions. If we can take anything away from a blunt comparison of the lists, it might be this: the solution to bad things we do isn’t good things to do but good things to be. Look, I know religious people who don’t have sex, don’t get drunk, don’t see R-rated movies, et cetera—but who are loveless, joyless, impatient, unkind, ungentle, et cetera. So there we have the primary problem with so many approaches to Christian discipleship—they are predicated primarily on doing different rather than becoming different. But because Paul calls these areas of growth the “fruit of the Spirit,” he’s showing us that these are things the Spirit produces. We aren’t passive. But we aren’t the prime mover. If we have repented of our sin and placed our faith in Jesus Christ—decisions also empowered by the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit is obliged to bear the fruit of these things in our life.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Don’t believe the lie that always struggling to obey God is a worse lot in life than disobeying him with peace. God did not make us to “feel good inside” (or outside) all the time this side of heaven; he made us to share in the sufferings of Christ, that we might also share in his resurrection. And the reality, for many, is that the resurrection kind of life in these areas of death isn’t always postponed until the life to come. But you won’t know that until you’re willing to go to the cross for as long as it takes to die.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“What is better? To be warring all our life in Romans 7, denying our urges and not feeling good inside, or doing what we feel is right simply because it feels good, or at least better?”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Ray Ortlund writes: Every one of us knows the shame of guilty self-awareness and the fear of exposure. But we don’t want to live in the isolation of that darkness. We long for freeing relationships with others, especially God. But without the gospel, we hide, conceal, falsify ourselves, in order to appear better than we are. Or, conversely, we may trot out our failings with assertive self-display, demanding acceptance—a more modern response. The gospel says, “Your shame is real, even more real than you know. But this is what God has done. He put it all onto Christ at the cross, where your Substitute was utterly shamed and exposed and condemned for you. Now your shame no longer defines you. What defines you, what reveals your future forever, is this word: ‘. . . adorned. . . .’ Not shamed. Adorned. Lovely. Attractive. And the moment is coming when he will look into your eyes with glad adoration, and you will look into his eyes with confident surrender. And nothing will ever, ever spoil it again.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Their back and forth certainly looks cold. In calling her a dog, Jesus is basically affirming the ages-old relationship between Israelites and Canaanites begun way back in Genesis 9. But the woman’s circumstances are deeper than that divide. Her sense of brokenness goes all the way down to Genesis 3. And she owns her shame. She admits her poverty. She knows she deserves nothing. Yet she pleads for favor: “Lord. Help. Me.” This is a prayer Jesus will answer. There are no strings attached, no caveats, no power plays, no manipulation, no guilt trips, no claiming of rights. Simply “Lord”—acknowledging that he is God and she is not—and “help me”—expressing her need by laying it at Christ’s feet. “Great is your faith,” Jesus says.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“He was born in a turdy barn, grew up in a dirty world, got baptized in a muddy river. He put his hands on the oozing wounds of lepers, he let whores brush his hair and soldiers pull it out. He went to dinner with dirtbags, both religious and irreligious. His closest friends were a collection of crude fishermen and cultural traitors. He felt the spittle of the Pharisees on his face and the metal hooks of the jailer’s whip in the flesh of his back. He got sweaty and dirty and bloody—and he took all of the sin and mess of the world onto himself, onto the cross to which he was nailed naked. In his work and in his words, Jesus is making promises to the beaten, the torn, the broken, the depressed, the desperate, the poor, the orphan, the abandoned, the cheated, the betrayed, the accused, the left-behind. He is, believe it or not, promising to fix it all.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“God is not only not giving you the silent treatment, he is practically yelling.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“YOU CANNOT GET POWER TO OBEY THE LAW FROM THE LAW ITSELF!!! POWER TO CHANGE CAN ONLY COME FROM THE GLORY OF CHRIST!!!”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“We are parched. We are starving. We are thirsty and hungry for the glory of Jesus.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“From simply hearing the words of the gospel, this man beheld the glory of Christ in a profound way. He didn’t just listen; he heard. He didn’t just see the preacher; he in some real way beheld the Lamb.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Maybe you think church would be great if it weren’t for the people. But if it weren’t for the people, you would not know the depths of the gospel the way Jesus wants you to. Maybe it’s time your wish dream gets shattered. You’re not all you’re cracked up to be either, you know.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Maybe your church excels at this, but it’s become pretty routine for a church to ensure low attendance by scheduling a prayer service. Pastors, the first thing you ought to do about your people’s reluctance to pray is pray. Pray for them. And with them. And by them and in front of them.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Self-help is like sticking your broken hand in the blender, thinking that’ll fix it.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“In fact, all day our souls are whispering to us that they need some tending, but we’re listening to the noise of social media or satellite television or pop religion, making sure the squeaky wheel gets drowned out.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“We’re summoning the wind, calling down the fire, pleading for rainfall. (I begin to wonder if I’m worshiping God or reciting some kind of medieval weather report.) I’m telling God what I want, what I need (what I loooong for, ooooohh). But what I really need is to rehearse what he’s already done for me, what he’s already done in Christ that has satisfied my desires, met my needs, and answered my longings. In the rush to emotional outburst, I miss affectionate remembering.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“What all this boils down to is this: we have, fundamentally, a worship problem, and so long as we are occupying our minds with little, worldly things and puny, worldly messages, we will shrink our capacity to behold the eternal glory of Jesus Christ, which is the antidote to all that ails us.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“When our vision is constantly occupied by small things, we are tempted to yawn more at the glory of God.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Too many foolish teachers in the church equate wounds with sins, and vice versa, and this needlessly frustrates people’s following of Jesus.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Every day when you encounter God—in your devotional time, in your time of worship, in your community groups or classes, or in any other moment in which you spend time with Jesus—you face the choice of simply looking at Jesus or actually trying to see him.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“so I hold on to the gospel. I pour some gospel into my soul. I am good to go another day. I might be crawling through that day or I might be balled up in my bed, unwilling to charge the Valley of Elah that is my life, but the smile of God is over me continually. Day and night his steadfast love sustains me.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Every other religion in the world has man in the gutter trying to figure out how to get to heaven; only Christianity has heaven coming down to the gutter.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“My availability to God’s call to sacrifice—Abraham’s availability to God’s call to sacrifice, your availability to God’s call to sacrifice—is predicated on understanding that God doesn’t need any more messiahs. He sent one. The job is finished. We are not needed. I am not needed. Ah, but I’m wanted. That’s liberating, isn’t it? To not be needed but wanted?”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

“Even after many of us are saved, we run ahead of the gospel into the field of the law, in our own power, trying to do great things for God or earn favor with him—all the while forgetting that the only thing the Bible calls power for obedience is the gospel and that it is actually grace that teaches us how to repent and obey.”
― Jared C. Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together