Vance Havner Quotes

People get so used to the dark that they think it is growing brighter.

We must live in all kinds of days, both high days and low days, in simple dependence upon Christ as the branch on the vine. This is the supreme experience

I suspect that much of our praying to be used is selfish, and underneath it is the sneaking desire to make our mark and be recognized.

A picture of Christ was hung in the back of a pulpit. When the minister rose to speak one Sunday morning, a little boy asked his mother, 'Mother, who is that man who stands so we can't see Jesus?'

When Christ possesses the will He keeps it fixed. The trouble comes when we take matters out of His hand and try to handle them ourselves.

Satan does some of his worst work on exhausted Christians when nerves are frayed and the mind is faint.

Self, service, substance is the Divine order and nothing counts until we give ourselves.

The preacher who jests and jokes with his people all week will soon find that he cannot stand in his pulpit on Sunday with power to reprove, rebuke and exhort. He may be the life of the party but it will be the death of the prophet.

Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. Most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition

Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.

In other days people chose a church on the basis of their doctrinal convictions. Now, lacking doctrinal convictions, they choose for social reasons.

To the average professed Christian today, living so far below normal, New Testament Christianity would be a shock.

Another thing I liked about my Dad at church: he did his sleeping at home. He never used the church as an adult nursery.

If you are a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world.

Too much preaching nowadays pats the back and tickles the ear, but does not get under the skin. There is no conviction and therefore no conversion. I am thinking not only of the ministry of reproof and rebuke but also of the message of inspiration, of encouragement, of comfort. People go out of church at noon with the depths unstirred, the heart untouched, the conscience unpricked.

If the fire of hell is not literal, it is worse than actual fire, and if the gates of the Celestial City are not actual gold, they are far finer.

We are the salt of the earth, mind you, not the sugar. Our ministry is to truly cleanse and not just to change the taste.

When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus. I said, That's where I got my information about hell.

I wouldn't cross the street to hear Ingersoll preach on the mistakes of Moses, but I'd love to hear Moses preach on the mistakes of Ingersoll!

The devil's not fighting churches today, he's joining churches.

The first step towards the evangelizing of the world is the christianizing of the church.

There are no trivial assignments in the work of the Lord.

To build character of purpose and integrity is our high mark, and that cannot be done in a world where there are no adverse elements.

You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it. The Church suffers today from Christians who know volumes more than they practice.

We can often do more by doing less. God is not particularly interested in quantity production. That is an American standard, not a Bible standard.

Men love everything but righteousness and fear everything but God.

Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points of identification with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear medals but carry no scars.

What we live is what we believe. Everything else is just so much religious talk.

The early Christians condemned false doctrine in a way that sounds almost unchristian today.

It is one thing to say Jesus is all you want; until He is all you have and you discover He is all you ever needed.

A preacher who is too big for a little crowd would be too little for a big crowd.

We justify ourselves when we should judge ourselves. If we learned humility, it might spare us the humiliation.

Many people are in a rut and a rut is nothing but a grave-with both ends kicked out.

The world does not hate its own. It does hate our Lord. It hates His followers. Where do you belong in this lineup?

We are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts.

You can't preach it like it is if you don't believe it like it was.

Faith doesn't wait until it understands; in that case it wouldn't be faith.

No nation can last long when it stops praying and takes up playing.

It is not our business to make the message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.

It is debatable which is causing us more harm - hot-headed ignorance or cold-hearted intellectualism.

God's deepest secrets often miss the wise and prudent and are revealed unto babes. We say, "Children, be like your parents." Jesus said, "Parents, be like your children."

I would just as soon listen to a gangster lecture on honesty as watch Hollywood portray the Bible.

Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the asylum.

We are so prone to expect to become good Christians by some sudden experience that lifts us all at once to higher ground without the gradual climb. We forget that we are to "grow in grace" and that normal growth is not a matter of fits and starts.

The devil is not fighting religion. He´s too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.

God isn't a talent scout looking for someone who is "good enough" or "strong enough." He is looking for someone with a heart set on Him, and He will do the rest.

Christians, like snowflakes, are frail, but when they stick together they can stop traffic.

Popularity has slain more prophets of God than persecution ever did.