Vance Havner
If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.Collection: Home
You haven't lost anything when you know were it is. Death can hide but not divide.Collection: Death
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.Collection: Christian
Don't ever come to church without coming as though it were the first time, as though it could be the best time, and as though it could be the last time.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Christian
Satan is not fighting churches; he is joining them. He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Strong
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. We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the faith and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch, and popular preachers have developed “ear-tickling” into a fine art.Collection: Christian
People used to blush when they were ashamed. Now they are ashamed if they blush. Modesty has disappeared and a brazen generation with no fear of God before its eyes mocks at sin. We are so fond of being called tolerant and broadminded that we wink at sin when we ought to weep.Collection: Christian
Paul was not ignorant of Satan's devices, but we are not so wise. Among his most successful devices today are these: exalting tolerance above truth; emphasizing the head more than the heart; making size more important than sort; stressing the positive to the neglect of the negative; putting happiness above holiness; majoring on this world instead of the next.Collection: Christian
Christians, like snowflakes, are frail, but when they stick together they can stop traffic.Collection: Christian
God is on the lookout today for a man who will be quiet enough to get a message from Him, brave enough to preach it, and honest enough to live it.Collection: Men
The tragedy of today is that the situation is desperate but the saints are not.Collection: Christian
At the rate America is decaying morally, we shall have to change our national symbol from an eagle to a vulture.Collection: Christian
I remember when the Titanic sank in 1912, it was the ship that was supposed to be unsinkable. The only thing it ever did was sink. When it took off from England, all kinds of passengers were aboard - millionaires, celebrities, people of moderate means, and poor folks down in the steerage. But a few hours later when they put the list in the Cunard office in New York, it carried only two categories - lost and saved. Grim tragedy had leveled all distinctions.Collection: Christian
God judges what we tolerate as well as what we practice. Too often we put up with things we ought to put out.Collection: Christian
The middle of the road is a poor place to walk. It is a poor place to drive. It is a poor place to live.Collection: Christian
Salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way.Collection: Real
We are fighting the greatest battle of all time with the most untrained army on earth. If strict discipline is necessary in art and athletics, how can we expect to be advanced Christians and stay in kindergarten?Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Christian
If you see a Bible that is falling apart, it probably belongs to someone who isn't!Collection: Christian
When the Lord's white sheep become dirty gray, all black sheep feel more comfortable.Collection: Christian
A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. His problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.Collection: Children
We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.Collection: Christian
Many people have the right aim in life, they just never get around to pulling the trigger. The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps -- we must step up the stairs.Collection: People
What we live is what we believe. Everything else is just so much religious talk.Collection: Religious
If I had only one sermon to preach it would be on the Lordship of Christ. When we get right on that point we are right all down the line. God honors the exaltation of His Son.Collection: Son
Revival precedes evangelism. The church must first repent. This is the blind spot in our eye today.Collection: Christian
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!Collection: Mistake
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.Collection: Kings
People get so used to the dark that they think it's growing brighter. It's possible to fraternize with unbelievers until false doctrine becomes less and less objectionable.Collection: Christian
The devil's not fighting churches today, he's joining churches.Collection: Fighting
Our Lord holds the keys to the doors of Christian service. You don't have to chase 'key men' around if you know the Keeper of the keys!Collection: Christian
We need to take down our "Do not disturb" signs... snap out of our stupor and come out of our coma and awake from our apathy.Collection: Christian
Every Christian is a priest, not offering a sacrifice for sins - since that has been done once and for all - but offering his person, praise and possessions.Collection: Christian
Faith has no value of its own, it has value only as it connects us with Him. It is a trick of Satan to get us occupied with examining our faith instead of resting in the Faithful One.Collection: Faithful
It is only the life that is lost for Him that is found in Him.Collection: Christian
A true preacher is best measured not by how many bouquets have been pinned on him but by how many brickbats have been pitched at him. Prophets have been on the receiving end of mud more than medals.Collection: Christian
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 experienceCollection: Christian
Make Jesus Christ your theme! I have seen preachers espouse causes and champion movements, and when the cause died and the movement collapsed, the preacher vanished too. But the man who glories in Christ never grows stale.Collection: Jesus
Do not so contemplate eternity that you waste today.Collection: Today
Most of the notable turn out to be the not-able. God's greatest truths still belong to babes.Collection: Christian
If we don't come apart; we will come apart.Collection: Laziness
Humility is not thinking meanly of oneself, but rather it means not thinking of oneself at all.Collection: Mean
The detour is always rougher than the main roadCollection: Christian
Beware of being a religious poseur, trying to live up to a dramatized version of yourself.Collection: Religious
Most people would not want to live where there are no churches but many people live as though there were no churches.Collection: Christian
The devil is in constant conspiracy against a preacher who really prays, for it has been said that what a minister is in his prayer closet is what he is, no more, no less.Collection: Christian
Too many are not willing to give the Gospel a fair trial. They are too ignorant to speak wisely but not wise enough to speak ignorantly. A man is not a sinner because he is a skeptic; he is a skeptic because he is a sinner.Collection: Wise
If the church would only be the church- if Christians would only be Christians- nothing could halt our onward march.Collection: Christian