People regularly get healed as a result of his message. In one meeting last week, about a 100 people indicated that they were healed where they stood. How did this happen? Bill Johnson simply revealed a good Father, had a few words of knowledge about various afflictions, then activated the priest-hood of all believers. I personally prayed for a man with no cartilage in his knee and within a minute he was running up and down the stairs. He was pain free for the first time in 30 years! Does this surprise you? Preaching the gospel with signs and wonders following is supposed to be the normal, everyday, routine, run-of-the-mill life for a believer. Jesus said so in Mark 16:17-18. As Bill says, we just want to get what He paid for.

Last year I listed some of Bill Johnson’s best quotes on the goodness of God along with some choice sound-bites from the 2010 Manifest Presence Conference. For those of you outside New Zealand, Bill Johnson has been speaking at Manifest Presence each year for the past six years or so. At this year’s conference, which has just finished, he preached four times. Below is a selection of my favorite Billisms from this year’s conference. I’ll put some additional quotes on E2R’s Facebook page as well as Twitter. Enjoy!

1. “Jesus was the desire of the nations. His body – us – should be the desire of the nations because He’s irresistible.”

2. “In the Old Testament, anything unclean has power over what is clean. A leper yelling ‘Unclean!’ doesn’t reveal God’s heart but the severity of sin. In the New Testament it’s the other way around. A believing spouse sanctifies the entire house, mercy triumphs over judgment, and loves covers a multitude of sins.”

3. “Jesus released peace to the storm. How do we know He had peace? He was sleeping. You have authority over any storm you can sleep in.”

4. “Automatically thinking ‘everything that happens is God’s will’ is a lazy way to live. We live in a war. Jesus wasn’t fighting the Father’s will when He raised the dead.”

5. “If God didn’t cause Katrina, who did? My response is, ‘Well, who did He leave in charge? To whom did He give all authority?’ I refuse to blame God. How many life-threatening storms did Jesus bless? I will not stand as an accuser before God holding up the sins of a city against them. I want no likeness to the accuser of the brethren.”

6. “I am often asked, ‘Where is that in the Bible?’ Psalm 115. ‘God does what He pleases.’ The Bible reveals His nature but does not contain Him or set boundaries for Him.”

7. “It’s a great time to be alive. It’s probably a great time to be dead too – I don’t know.”

8. “Don’t be impressed by darkness. Jesus didn’t do the opposite of whatever the devil did. He did what He saw the Father doing… The moment I have a lesser sense of Him and a greater sense of the problem, I will live in reaction to the problem.”

9. “You cannot hold God hostage (to your questions). He doesn’t owe you an answer. If you want the peace that passes understanding, you’re going to have to give up your right to understanding. It’s called trust.”

10. “Learn to value the Spirit in every believer. Children don’t get a junior Holy Ghost.”

11. “The church is often known for what we hate. We hate you. Come to Jesus. You can be like us. It’s ridiculous.”

12. “We have witches comes to our meetings. It’s quite entertaining. Everybody’s welcome. Not everybody gets to preach.”

Did you enjoy that? Okay, here’s a bonus quote. This one really cracked me up:

“I’m not a good faster. My friends have visions of God, I have visions of hamburgers. The only time I watch the Food Channel is when I’m fasting. It’s pitiful. We did a 40 day fast. I bought 29 cookbooks. I don’t cook, but the pictures! I bought a deep-fryer and we don’t eat deep-fried food!”

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Related posts:
- Malcolm Smith on the love of God
- Wommackisms: Top 20 Andrew Wommack quotes
- The Christchurch Earthquake: Four questions Christians can answer

“God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise… because people who are foolish… trust in God the most… God often uses country hicks to preach the Gospel for that very reason. I guarantee you, when you’re a hick from Texas like me, then you know it’s got to be God on your behalf or you haven’t got a chance. And there’s freedom in that!” (The True Nature of God, pp.98-9)

This time a year ago I had never heard Wommack preach. I’ve now heard him speak several times and I’ve read many of his books. He’s become one of my favorite Bible teachers. Although I was startled by his manner at first, I’ve come to appreciate his colloquialisms and his down-home wisdom. If you’ve grown up on a diet of religious mumbo-jumbo, then you may find his plainspokenness quite refreshing. To give you a taste, here are 20 of my favorite Wommackisms:

1.    “If you’d just center your thoughts and affections upon the Lord, you’d be better of accidentally than you’ve ever been on purpose!” (A Better Way to Pray, p.84)

2.    “Many Christians believe that the only difference between the Old Testament and the New is one blank page in the Bible.” (A Better Way to Pray, p.46)

3.    “God’s anointing is not based on your performance, but if you don’t open the Word, you’re stupid, because that’s where the words of life are.” (The True Nature of God, p.99)

4.    “When I minister healing to someone, I’ll pray for them two, three, four, or more times. I don’t care! I’m willing to pray for them until I rub all the hair off of their head!” (A Better Way to Pray, p.125)

5.    “Many believers haven’t seen the devil or a demon in years. He doesn’t have to come around. You’re doing a perfect job ruining your own life. He taught you how to think and act, and you’ve run with it from there – with good intentions. You’re trying to live for God, but it’s you doing it in human strength rather than God living through you.” (Grace – The Power of the Gospel, p.127)

6.    “Contrary to popular belief, faith does not move God. He’s not the one who’s stuck!” (A Better Way to Pray, p.44)

7.    “Some people are waiting until the Holy Spirit just makes them throw their hands up in the air because they’ve never done it before. ‘Well, I just don’t feel led.’ You old carnal thing!” (Grace – The Power of the Gospel, p.138)

8.    “What a sorry attitude! If I were God, the spirit of slap would come all over me!” (A Better Way to Pray, p.63)

9.    “It’s a wonder you’re not a pile of ashes! The only reason God’s not ticked off at you is because Jesus did such an effective job.” (A Better Way to Pray, p.59)

10.    “You have this new spirit on the inside of you and the only thing holding you back is your ‘stinkin’ thinkin’.” (Grace – The Power of the Gospel, p.161)

11.    “God is El Shaddai, not El Cheapo. The Lord will take care of us better than we take care of ourselves.” (Article: Financial Stewardship)

12.    “When it comes to being born again, your soul wasn’t the part of you that completely changed! If you were stupid before you were saved, you’re still stupid after being saved.” (Spirit, Soul, and Body, p.6)

13.    “When my wife and I first started out in ministry, we were so poor we couldn’t even pay attention!” (You’ve Already Got It, p.16)

14.    “One of the things I’ve learned is that many Christians never let the Bible get in the way of what they believe.” (Article: Hebrews Highlights)

15.    “In Genesis, why didn’t the devil choose a tiger?… Why didn’t he have a wooly mammoth just stick its foot on top of her head and demand, ‘Eat the fruit or I’ll crush your skull?’” (You’ve Already Got It, p.115)

16.    “The devil isn’t a true lion; he just walks around roaring like one trying to intimidate the Body of Christ. But the truth is, he’s had his teeth pulled, and all he can do now is gum you.” (You’ve Already Got It, p.120)

17.    “If you never bump into the devil, it’s because you’re going in the same direction.” (Article: How to Be Happy)

18.    “It’s wrong, wrong, wrong!” (You’ve Already Got It, p.150, when discussing spiritual mapping and missions trips where people have been instructed not to preach the gospel)

19.    “Most Christians say, ‘Well, I’m only human, you know. I’m just a man.’ That’s stinkin’ thinkin’! I was only human, but then I became born again. There’s part of me now that’s wall-to-wall Holy Ghost.” (You’ve Already Got It, p.167)

20.    “That’ll put a shout in a fence post!” (You’ve Already Got It, p.28)

I know there are a few of Wommack fans out there reading this because I regularly get emails from people enrolled in Charis Bible College. Tell me, what’s your favorite Wommackism?
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Related posts:
- “You’ve Already Got It” by Andrew Wommack
- “God Wants You Well” by Andrew Wommack
- “Grace – The Power of the Gospel” by Andrew Wommack

If you’ve been following this blog, you will know that I am a big fan of Joseph Prince’s message. He preaches radical grace, which is the only kind of grace there is. Yet I can understand how the message of grace appears scandalous to those who still think their salvation or holiness depends on their own performance. Since the time of Paul self-righteous people have been mistaking grace for a license to sin (see Rm 6:15). Even sincere believers have been seduced into thinking the grace of God needs fleshly additives (see Galatians). But even so, I would have thought that Chinese Christians, of all people, would have been receptive to Joseph Prince’s message. Afterall, many of them grew up on the teachings of Watchman Nee.

Is it a stretch to say that Watchman Nee (1903 – 1972) was the most influential Chinese Christian of the 20th century? I confess I am not familiar with many Chinese preachers and authors, but I lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and I cannot recall anyone ever saying a bad word about Watchman Nee. He is generally acknowledged as gifted and articulate preacher of the gospel. It is well known that he spent the last 20 years of his life imprisoned for his faith.

Watchman Nee’s most famous book is probably The Normal Christian Life. If you haven’t read it, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s a best-seller (over 1m copies sold). It is also one of the best expositions of the gospel of grace that you’ll ever read. From chapter 1 (The Blood of Christ) to chapter 9 (The Meaning and Value of Roman’s Seven), Nee preaches pure grace based on the finished work of the cross. He says things like this:

“Let me tell you, You have died! You are done with! You are ruled out! The self you loathe is on the Cross in Christ. And ‘he that is dead is freed from sin’ (Rom 6:7). This is the Gospel for Christians. Our crucifixion can never be made effective by will or by effort, but only by accepting what the Lord Jesus did on the Cross.” (p.52)

In Nee’s understanding, the choice is simple: you can try or you can trust. If you try to make yourself acceptable, you are walking in the flesh but the Christian life is lived by faith alone. In The Normal Christian Life Nee says a lot about walking in the Spirit, dealing with soul-power, and the nature of Christian ministry. But all of that is based on nine solid chapters outlining the good news of God’s grace. To give you a flavor of Watchman Nee’s message of radical grace, here are 12 of his best quotes from The Normal Christian Life.

Top 12 Watchman Nee Quotes

1.    “Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which he places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means he no longer requires that from me, but himself provides it.” (pp.155-6)

2.    “So we can say, reverently, that God never gave us the Law to keep: he gave us the Law to break! He well knew that we could not keep it.” (p.158)

3.    “The Law requires much, but offers no help in the carrying out of its requirements. The Lord Jesus requires just as much, yea even more (Matt. 5:21-48), but what he requires from us he himself carries out in us. The law makes demands and leaves us helpless to fulfill them; Christ makes demands, but he himself fulfills in us the very demands he makes.” (p.161)

4.    “What does it mean in everyday life to be delivered from the Law? At risk of a little overstatement I reply: It means that henceforth I am going to do nothing whatever for God; I am never again going to try to please Him. ‘What a doctrine!’ you exclaim. ‘What awful heresy! You cannot possibly mean that!’ But remember, if I try to please God ‘in the flesh,’ then immediately I place myself under the Law.” (p.164)

5.    “God’s requirements have not altered, but we are not the ones to meet them. Praise God, he is the Lawgiver on the Throne, and he is the Lawkeeper in my heart. He who gave the Law, himself keeps it.” (p.166)

6.    “Though the Law in itself is all right, it will be all wrong if it is applied to the wrong person. The ‘wretched man’ of Romans 7 tried to meet the claims of God’s law himself, and that was the cause of his trouble. The repeated use of the word ‘I’ in this chapter gives the clue to the failure.” (p.169)

7.    “We think of the Christian life as a ‘changed life’ but it is not that. What God offers us is an ‘exchanged life,’ a ‘substituted life,’ and Christ is our Substitute within.” (p.180)

8.    “From start to finish, he is the One who does it all.” (p.172)

9.    “It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it be a hundred and one different things, God has always one sufficient answer, His Son Jesus Christ, and he is the answer to every need.” (p.182-3)

10.    “Many Christians endeavor to drive themselves by will-power, and then think the Christian life a most exhausting and bitter one.” (p.189)

11.    “God must bring us to a point – I cannot tell you how it will be, but he will do it – where, through a deep and dark experience, our natural power is touched and fundamentally weakened, so that we no longer dare trust ourselves… At length there comes a time when we no longer ‘like’ to do Christian work – indeed we almost dread to do things in the Lord’s Name. But then at last it is that he can begin to use us.” (p.261)

12.    “We have spoken of trying and trusting, and the difference between the two. Believe me, it is the difference between heaven and hell.” (p.183)

Finally, to all my Chinese readers and those living in Asia, Happy Lunar New Year!
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Related posts:

If that’s hard to imagine, think of how the father greeted the prodigal son. Luke uses the same word in Acts 10 as he does when telling the story of the prodigal’s return:

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” (Lk 15:20)

The father in the story fell on the prodigal in the same way that the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard – in a passionate embrace. Jesus told us the story of the prodigal to give us a vivid insight into how God the Father relates to us. His love is not cold and distant, but passionate and close. In his excellent book The Lost Secret of the New Covenant, Malcolm Smith describes it in terms of a bear hug:

“When we say that God loves us, we must never think of that in terms of a cold statement of doctrine; we must understand that the Holy Spirit is God in the act of loving us, embracing and enfolding His arms about us. The Holy Spirit is God running to us, flinging His arms around us, and passionately loving us.” (p.195)

The most important thing you need to know about God, is that He is love (1 Jn 4:16). Love is not just an emotion that He experiences from time; He is love and His love is not like ours. The normal human expression of love, eros, is a reaction to loveliness. It is love inspired by the beauty of another. But this type of love is found nowhere in the New Testament and it is not how God loves. He loves with spontaneous agape love. This love originates within God’s heart and no one can know it without knowing Him (1 Jn 4:19).

It is entirely consistent with God’s loving nature to give bear hugs to unlovely, unworthy people! It is essential that you grasp this. If you cannot conceive of God wrapping you up in His mighty arms of love, then you will never be able to grasp His goodness, His grace, and His lovingkindness toward you.

In The Lost Secret of the New Covenant, Malcolm Smith says some wonderful things about the love of God. Here are 15 of my favorite love quotes from that book:

Top Malcolm Smith quotes on the love of God

1.    “He set His love upon us before we were born, and therefore with no reference to our behavior or works whether they were good or evil.” (p.62)

2.    “Agape is not wakened or created by the beauty of its object, but arises spontaneously from the heart of God. It is therefore a love that cannot be earned or deserved… His love for us originates in who He is, not in our being loveable.” (p.59)

3.    “‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’ (Jer 31:3)… An everlasting love is an unconditional love.” (p.62)

4.    “The declarations and promises of God’s forgiveness in the Old Testament sprang from the heart of the God who is everlasting, unconditional love. He did not begin to be a loving and forgiving God after Jesus died.” (p.183)

5.    “His covenant love is greater than the covenant. It explains when the human breaks covenant that His heart of lovingkindness still reaches after them and will not let them go.” (p.45)

6.    “You were conceived into the love of God in the womb. You were birthed into the arms of His love. You are the object of His love here and now, simply because you exist.” (p.64)

7.    “He loves you not only because you are here, but also you are here because He loved you into existence.” (p.24)

8.    “The decision to create us in the light of what we would do is God’s telling us that He would rather die than live without us.” (p.184)

9.    “Preaching the Gospel, we are announcing the news of the revelation of who God is and how He feels about us. We stand on the street corners of the world shouting the news that God is not the way we thought He was – He loves us!… This is the greatest news in the world.” (p.57)

10.    “The Gospel declares the incredible news that our relationship to God is not based on ‘if’ and ‘then’ but rather on ‘because’ and ‘therefore’.” (p.60)

11.    “He makes covenant not to create lovingkindness, but in order that we might see that His heart is lovingkindness from eternity.” (p.43)

12.    “All of our whining that He could not love us does not stop Him from loving us!” (p.72)

13.    “It is a shock to many who would settle for a life of serving God that, above all else, He fervently desires our friendship. He desires us infinitely more than we desire Him.” (p.279)

14.    “The love of God… is the magnetic north of truth by which we fix our position as we stumble lost in the wilderness of the world… To know that His love for us depends on Him and not on us is the beginning of the way out of our futile, meaningless lives and religious despair.” (p.62)

15.    “While we are in a frenzy of doing for Him, we are in grave danger of missing the whole point of the Gospel – which is being with Him… He has many servants but few friends!” (p.284)

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Related posts:
- Bill Johnson on the goodness of God
- Son, servant, or friend of God?
- By which gospel are you saved? The gospel of grace!

Spurgeon preached to as many as 10,000 people at a time, and did so without the aid of a microphone. He battled with depression, never gave altar calls, and sold his published sermons for a penny. He pastored the world’s first megachurch, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. He helped Hudson Taylor develop the color-coded Wordless Book which was used for evangelism in China and is now found in Sunday Schools everywhere.

Being a prolific writer and communicator, Spurgeon ranks right up there with CS Lewis as one of the most quoted Christians in the English language. You can hardly go a week on Facebook or a year in church without running into a Spurgeon quote. But I wonder if there is one “king quote” that Spurgeon would choose above others. If the prodigious output of his entire life could be reduced to one mere sound bite, what would it be? I have two possible candidates for a defining quote. The first comes from the opening of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, on 18 March 1861, when Spurgeon said:

“I would propose that the subject of the ministry in this house… shall be the person of JESUS CHRIST. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist; I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist; but if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.’”

And the other quote comes from near the end of his ministry:

“I sometimes wonder that you do not get tired of my preaching, because I do nothing but hammer away on this one nail. With me it is, year after year, ‘None but Jesus!’ Oh, you great saints, if you have outgrown the need of a sinner’s trust in the Lord Jesus, you have outgrown your sins, but you have also outgrown your grace, and your saintship has ruined you!”

None but Jesus!

If the root of dead religion is an independent spirit, then the foundation of a grace-based life is utter dependence on Christ. We start our Christian walk dependent on Christ and then mature to become ever more dependent on Him. As Spurgeon says, to outgrow your “sinner’s trust” in the Lord is to outgrow grace and be ruined.

Another Prince of preachers has famously said that the best way to determine whether grace preaching is doctrinally sound is that “it always reveals more and more of Jesus.”  You cannot preach grace without preaching Jesus and you cannot preach Jesus without preaching grace. By that measure Spurgeon must’ve been one of the greatest grace preachers around, for even after years of preaching, it was still “none but Jesus!”

Spurgeon is known for a lot of things. But judging by some of the quotes I’ve come across, it seems that his message of grace has not been widely heard. So to give you a taste, here are some of Spurgeon’s very best quotes on the subject of grace:

Top 20 Spurgeon Quotes on Grace

1. “When God accepts a sinner, He is, in fact, only accepting Christ. He looks into the sinner’s eyes, and He sees His own dear Son’s image there, and He takes him in.”

2. “No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it ‘a licentious doctrine’ did not know anything about it. Poor ignorant things, they little knew that their own vile stuff was the most licentious doctrine under heaven. If they knew the grace of God in truth, they would soon see that there is no preservative from lying like a knowledge that we are elect of God from the foundation of the world. There is nothing like a belief in my eternal perseverance, and the immutability of my Father’s affection, which can keep me near to Him from a motive of simple gratitude.”

3. “Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me.”

4. “You will find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences: Salvation is all of the grace of God. Damnation is all of the will of man.”

5. “God never punishes his children in the sense of avenging justice. He chastens as a father does his child, but he never punishes his redeemed as a judge does a criminal. It is unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since Christ has been punished in their place. How shall the Lord punish twice for one offense?”

6. “If we be married to Christ, and He be jealous of us, depend upon it this jealous husband will let none touch His spouse.”

7. “Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.”

Spurgeon - in colour!

8. “If grace does not make us differ from other men, it is not the grace which God gives His elect.”

9. “We believe, that the work of regeneration, conversion, sanctification and faith, is not an act of man’s free will and power, but of the mighty, efficacious and irresistible grace of God.”

10. “The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”

11. “If heaven were by merit, it would never be heaven to me, for if I were in it I should say, ‘I am sure I am here by mistake; I am sure this is not my place; I have no claim to it.’ But if it be of grace and not of works, then we may walk into heaven with boldness.”

12. “We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all.”

13. “From the Word of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation is all of grace, from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish; but he that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him.”

14. “I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, ‘You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.’ My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.”

15. “I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.”

16. “If the faith whereby I have laid hold on Christ to be my Savior be altogether wrought in me by the Holy Ghost through grace, then I defy the devil to take away that which he never gave me or to crush that which Jehovah Himself created in me. I defy my free will to fling what it never brought to me. What God has given, created, introduced, and established in the heart, He will maintain there.”

17. “Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.”

18. “In spiritual things, when God has raised a desire, He always gratifies it; hence the longing is prophetic of the blessing. In no case is the desire of the living thing excited to produce distress, but in order that it may seek and find satisfaction.”

19. “Free grace can go into the gutter, and bring up a jewel!”

20. “If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me forever.”

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Related posts:
- Top 12 Derek Prince quotes
- Top 20 Joseph Prince quotes
- God is good, but how good is He?

My first memory of anything to do with Tolkien was in the school library where an otherwise shy class mate was presenting his book report on The Hobbit. We could hardly make any sense out of his excited babbling. Apparently the book had something to do with dwarves and dragons and mountains of treasure, but it was hard to tell. Some time later I would find delight for myself in reading The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Leaf by Niggle.

Tolkien wrote fantasy, which is basically fairy tales for grown-ups. Yet his work offers so much more than a few hours of escapist pleasure. Tolkien believed that by reading about other worlds, we could make sense of our own world and our place in it. I have found great joy in reading Tolkien for he writes about themes that I value – redemption, faith, courage under fire, friends standing together through great trials, and the triumph of good over evil. For instance, I can’t help but see the story of Jesus all through The Lord of the Rings. He’s in Aragon coming once to Gondor as a secret servant, but returning as an all-conquering king. He’s in Gandalf sacrificing his life for his friends, then coming back better and more glorious than before.

Let me give you two more reasons for appreciating JRR Tolkien.

Tolkien models what it means to be the head and not the tail in the world of literature. He is not known to us as a Christian-writer, but a great writer who also happened to be a Christian. What’s the difference? The first writes books that are sold to Christians in Christian bookstores, while the second writes books that shine in dark places. God gave Tolkien a creative gift that blessed the whole world, not just those who go to church. (As an aside, in 2009 Tolkien was ranked the world’s fifth richest dead celebrity by Forbes. He’s just behind Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.)

The other reason for appreciating Tolkien is CS Lewis. If the Catholic Tolkien had not been friends with the atheist Lewis, the latter might not have met Christ. Now that would’ve been a tragedy of Narnian proportions!

To commemorate Tolkien’s life and work, I have picked 12 of my favorite quotes. Most of these come from The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. Reading Tolkien is a highly subjective experience, so permit to jot down a few of my impressions after each quote.

Top 12 JRR Tolkien Quotes

1.    “The burned hand teaches best.”

This pithy bit of wisdom is spoken Gandalf after Pippin touches the Palantir in The Two Towers. No matter what trouble the hobbits got themselves into, you could guarantee that Gandalf would have something quotable to say about it. Most of it would sound like it came straight out of the book of Proverbs.

2.    “Fair speech may hide a foul heart.”

You can’t fool Samwise Gamgee!

3.    “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”

This is an ancient prophecy translated by Bilbo in The Fellowship of the Rings. I am taken with the image of the crownless being made king. The climax of Tolkien’s fictional world, as with ours, is of a servant-king being clothed in glory and recognized by all.

4.    “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

Those of you who live near dragons really need to write that down.

5.    “War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

How good is this?! In the end, Faramir proved to be not only more philosophical, but also a better warrior than his head-strong brother Boromir.

6.    “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

I have a confession to make. There have been public occasions when I have been tempted to use Bilbo’s cheeky quote just to see how people react.

7.    “I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself.”

This is Aragon the intercessor, but it brings to mind the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 59:16 (“He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him”) and Isaiah 63:5 (“I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me”).

8.    “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

This is Gimli in The Two Towers. It could just as easily be Paul after Demas deserted him (2 Tim 4:10).

9.    “It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.”

This is Elrond, but it reminded me of something Bill Johnson said last week: “If I live in reaction to the powers of darkness, then the devil has a role in my agenda. And he is not worthy… I can’t afford to let what the devil has done affect me. I don’t want his fingerprints on my thinking. He is not worthy of setting my agenda.”

I’ll bet I’m the first person to compare Bill Johnson to an old elf!

10.     “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

I remember reading this part of the story as a kid and feeling ashamed. Like Frodo, I thought the fellowship would be better off with Gollum dead. But Gandalf is all mercy and wisdom. We’re not to be in the judgment business. That’s God’s domain. I wonder how many New Testament Christians prayed for the death of Saul of Tarsus. Gandalf gave Gollum a second chance and it made all the difference, even though Gollum was ultimately lost.

11.    “Above all shadows rides the sun.”

Preach it Sam! This quote comes from one of the darkest parts of the story (the Stairs of Cirith Ungol in The Two Towers). But there is nothing dark in the heart of this hope-filled hobbit. We may be walking in darkness, but God who said “Let light shine out of darkness” has made His light shine in our hearts. Frodo, ever conscious of his evil burden, gave in to despair. But Sam never gave up. If you could pick one hobbit to come on a journey with you, you’d want faithful and loyal Sam.

12.    “End? No, it doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one which we must all take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass… And then you see it… White shores, and beyond, a far green country, under a swift sunrise.”

This is my all-time favorite LOTR quote. The gates of Gondor are about to fall and Pippin fears that the end has come. Gandalf responds with this revelation of the Undying Lands or heaven. Ian McKellen nailed this line in Peter Jackson’s movie. (Click here if you can’t remember the scene.) Gandalf is not prophesying but remembering what heaven is like. When Pippin hears his words he is filled with hope and the fear of death is gone.

Related posts:
- Top 12 CS Lewis quotes
- Top 12 Søren Kirkegaard quotes
- Grace and propitiation in the Chronicles of Narnia

“The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” (Luke 16:16)

What did Jesus reveal that the law and the prophets could not reveal? He revealed the Father. The good news of the kingdom satisfies the universal ache for a good Father. Do you know that our heavenly Father is a good God? Have no doubt about this. God is not good some days and bad others. He is good “all the way through.”

Jesus said that the good news of God’s kingdom is being preached and everyone is forcing his way into it. In my experience with outreach and evangelism, everyone has not been forcing their way into it. Perhaps that’s because we’ve been preaching the wrong message. The right message gets the right response. And what is the right message? Well here’s a hint. It’s good news. It’s not good and bad news. It’s pure, undiluted good news!

The good news? God is good!

The good news is that God is unfathomably good in word and deed. He has already shown his goodness and grace to us through Jesus Christ. God loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you and your son. You don’t have to strive or perform to earn his good approval – you just have to receive it. Isn’t that good?

When the world sees the goodness of God on display in his church – his favor, his blessings, his healing – they will sit up and take notice. They’re not going to learn how good he is merely because we tell them. But they will learn when they see it:

“God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations… God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.” (Ps 67:1-2,7)

Some of the prophets foretold that in the last days, we would get a revelation of God’s goodness.

“They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.” (Hos 3:5)

I don’t know about you but this is certainly true of me. I’ve walked with God for four decades, but it has only been in the last few years that I’ve begun to realize that he is off-the-scale good. Of course I always knew he was good, but I’m just learning that his goodness has no shadow, no defect, no qualification. He is the very definition of good (Mk 10:18).

If you’ve been following this blog, you will know that God’s goodness is probably my favorite subject. Jesus wouldn’t be Jesus, except that God is good. The gospel wouldn’t be good news, except that God is good. We would not be forgiven, redeemed, justified, healed, blessed, or anything, except that God is good. All of these gifts are only good, because the One who gives them is good.

Perhaps you have hoped, like David did, that you might see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Well just open your eyes! Unlike David, you live under a new and everlasting covenant based on God’s promise that he will never stop doing good to us (Jer 32:40)!

I wonder if the human mind can really grasp just how good God is. Well, if anyone can, Bill Johnson probably can, so here are 12 of his best quotes on the goodness of God.

Top 12 Bill Johnson quotes on the goodness of God

1.    “God is good all the way through. He is as good as he is holy.”

2.    “The cornerstone of all theology is the goodness of God.”

3.    “The greatest vacuum on the planet is the goodness of God in the heart of man.”

4.    “I finally discovered something – it’s all about Jesus.”

5.    “The law and the prophets could not reveal the Father, but Jesus revealed the Father. Why is this important? Because this is an orphaned planet.”

6.    “In the old, sin contaminates. In the new, righteousness contaminates. It’s a different day.”

7.    “We don’t pray to a deaf God. It’s impossible to pray and have nothing happen.”

8.    “God has an answer for everything.”

9.    “His goodness doesn’t come with small print… There’s no shadow about him.”

10.    (On Hosea 3:5) “What would it be like to have a nation tremble in absolute terror, not because of judgment, but because of underserved kindness?”

11.    (On Psalm 67) “To not pursue the blessing of the Lord, is one of the most selfish acts of the church.”

12.    “There are no tricks to the trade. He’s good.”
___
Related posts:
- Does God give bad gifts?
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I know some of you will be reading this because you want some kind of conference review. I’m not going to give you one because I don’t want to diminish with my clumsy words what was a truly profound encounter with God and his man. All I can say is that Bill Johnson really loves Jesus and he feels deeply the Father’s compassion for an orphaned planet. I will tell you that many people were healed and all of us were touched by God’s goodness. If you want to know more about what happened at the last meeting of MP10, buy the DVD.

However, to give you a taste of Bill Johnson’s preaching during the week, I’ve selected 20 of my favorite quotes. The hard part was limiting my list to just 20. Bill Johnson is very quotable! He says things that are both new and obviously true once you hear them. Someone at the conference put it like this: “Bill is an orator who puts into words things that were already in our hearts.” That is a great gift, this ability to articulate revelation that we had only before felt in our spirits.

To be honest, I couldn’t limit myself to just 20 quotes. So today I’m going to give you a sampler of what Bill said on three R themes – renewed minds, representing God, and reformation – and in a day or two I will post his thoughts on the goodness of God (these were really good!). Enjoy!

On the renewed mind

1.    “What is the will of God? On earth as it is in heaven. If it doesn’t exist there, it’s not supposed to exist here. If it does exist there, it’s supposed to exist here.”

2.    “Oftentimes what you see cancels out what you perceive.”

3.    “The mind is either at war with God or it is being renewed. There is no middle ground.”

4.    “Practical atheism is when you act the same way as an atheist does even when you believe in God.”

5.    “I will never blame a loss on God. I will never base a theology on what didn’t happen… Whether they raise the dead or they stay dead, the pay’s the same. I have to manage my heart. I feed my soul on what God has said. Then I take my losses into the secret places of the Lord and I stay there until I give it to him.”

6.    “Faith is not opposed to the mind. It’s superior to the mind which is why the renewed mind enhances faith.”

7.    “An area of life that does not have hope is under a lie.”

8.    “We don’t believe because we understand. We understand because we believe.”

On representing God

9.    “I can’t promise that every person I pray for is going to be healed. I’m not at that place yet. But I can ensure that they’re going to be loved.”

10.    “We have to redefine the sovereignty of God… There’s a difference between being in charge and being in control. God is in charge, but to think he’s in charge of everything is sad because that means he sponsored Hitler… God is not willing that any should perish, yet people are perishing. That means not everything is his will.”

11.    “Do you know why we pray for the sick? Because we want Jesus to get what he paid for. We’re just passing along a check that somebody else wrote.”

12.    “The principles are what I turn to when I can’t sense the presence. But it’s to be the exception not the rule… We are designed to live from the presence.”

13.    “He’s in you and he wants out! He’s in us like a river. He’s not in us like a lake.”

14.    “When Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t demonstrating what God can do, but what God can do through a man.”

15.     “Jesus is returning for a bride whose body is in equal proportion to her head.”

On reformation

16.    “Transformed people transform cities.”

17.    “Heaven invades earth when there is agreement here to what exists there. Honestly, that’s how it happens.”

18.    “Someone wrote a book against us and gave us a great compliment. They said, ‘Bethel is just another Disneyland.’ That’s awesome! Disneyland’s the ‘happiest place on earth’.”

19.    (Regarding the millennium) “It’s theologically irresponsible to put off the promises of God into a time when we have no responsibility.”

20.    “John said the works of Jesus would fill the planet if they were all recorded. That’s the Holy Spirit unquenched for three and a half years in one man.”

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In the Charisma article, Prince recounts a life-changing experience he had back in 2000. He was visiting Canada when he turned on the TV and saw a minister preaching hellfire and brimstone. He asked God, “Why do you allow ministers like that on television?” He heard the Lord reply, “It is because ministers like you don’t want to be on television.” Seven years later and Joseph Prince Ministries started beaming onto our TV screens.

If you haven’t heard him preach, you’re missing out. Joseph Prince is an amazing preacher of the gospel of grace. Listen to him and you will come away with a fresh revelation of the goodness of God, the majesty of Jesus, and the perfectly complete work of the cross. I have heard him preach (on TV) numerous times. Perhaps this just reflects where I’m at with my walk with God, but my usual reaction is one of appreciation, both for his gift and the One who gave it.

I posted some of my favorite Joseph Prince quotes here a few months ago, but below are 20 of his all-time best exclusively on the subject of grace. None of these have appeared on E2R before. I’ve taken these 20 pearls of wisdom from three sources; Prince’s two books Destined to Reign (DTR) and Unmerited Favor (UF), plus the Charisma article mentioned earlier. Enjoy!

Joseph Prince: Top 20 Grace Quotes

1.    “Grace is not a theology. It is not a subject matter. It is not a doctrine. It is a person, and his name is Jesus.” (DTR, p.24)

2.    “The central tenet of the new covenant … is the complete forgiveness of sins!” (UF, p.171)

3.    “God’s forgiveness is not given in installments.” (UF, p.194)

4.    “Old Testament prophets call your sin to remembrance, while New Testament preachers call your righteousness to remembrance. Old Testament preachers tell you what’s wrong with you, while New Testament preachers tell you what is right with you because of what Jesus has done, in spite of what is wrong with you.” (DTR, p.220)

5.    “What man calls ‘balance,’ God calls ‘mixture’.” (UF, p.103)

6.    “The moment you accepted Jesus, God have you an eternal ‘A+’ for your right standing with Him.” (UF, p.313)

7.    “For the believer, God’s throne is not a throne of judgment. It is a throne of grace, a throne of unmerited favor.” (UF, p.298)

8.    “It is the gift of no condemnation that gives people the power to sin no more. Unfortunately, many have flipped the order. They say, ‘Go and sin no more, then we will not condemn you.’ There is no power in that. Experiencing the grace of our Lord Jesus gives people the power to stop sinning.” (Charisma)

9.    “The Bible says that sin shall not have dominion over you when you are not under law but under grace. So if you are living in sin, you are definitely not under grace.” (DTR, p.167)

10.    “Grace brings about a restraint that is supernatural.” (UF, p.147)

11.    “When you fall in love with Jesus, you will fall out of love with sin.” (Charisma)

12.    “Let me teach you how to discern if the grace teaching that you are hearing is doctrinally sound. When you hear the new covenant of grace preached, it is always Christ-exalting. It always reveals more and more of Jesus… There is no grace without Jesus.” (DTR, p.32)

13.    “It’s actually very easy to identify the difference between the old and new covenant teachings. Just ask yourself if the teaching is putting the emphasis on what you have to do or what Jesus has done. Does it make you introspective, always looking to yourself and how you fared or failed? Or does it turn your eyes away from yourself to look upon Jesus?” (UF, p.148-9)

14.    “Our part in the new covenant of grace is to simply believe!… We are to believe in Jesus!… In the new covenant, there is nothing for us to do but to believe!” (UF, pp.167,169)

15.    “In the end times people will not be anti-God, but they will be anti-Christ… That is why, in these last days, we need more preaching about Jesus, His finished work and the new covenant of His unmerited favor.” (UF, p.170)

16.    “The gospel is simple, and it takes theologians to complicate it.” (UF, p.13)

17.    “God sent His Son to die for you while you were still a sinner. Obviously, He does not love you only when you are perfect in your behavior and thoughts. His love for you is unconditional.” (UF, p.138)

18.    “God will not punish the believer again, not because He has gone soft on sin, but because all our sins have already been punished in the body of Jesus.” (UF, p.151)

19.    “Once you receive Christ, you are standing on favor ground. You are no longer on condemnation ground… In His eyes we are all His favorites.” (UF, p.315)

20.    “People sometimes ask me, ‘Pastor Prince, if you don’t teach the Ten Commandments to your church, what is going to govern them?’ My friend, the Lord Himself will govern them!” (UF, p.37)

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I began leading Island City Church in 1999. One book that really helped me in that first year was Derek Prince’s classic The Spirit-Filled Believer’s Handbook. It’s a good introduction to the basics of Christian living and it helped me find answers to many questions.

Recently I posted some links to Prince’s outstanding series on The Divine Exchange. This sermon is one of the best expositions you will find on the perfect and complete work of the cross. I encourage you to take a look.

As you will see from what follows, Derek Prince preached the gospel of God’s grace. He once said, “If you don’t get excited about the gospel, you’ve never really grasped what it’s telling you.” The gospel is 100% good news. If you have been left unmoved by the gospel, then you probably don’t understand what Jesus did. The Divine Exchange outlines some of the wonderful things that Jesus accomplished on the cross.

To inspire you to read Prince’s sermon, I have pasted 12 sound bites below. These will give you a taste of what to expect.

1. “‘God the Father made him, Jesus the Son, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.’ That is staggering! If you think it’s staggering that he took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, this is infinitely more staggering. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might become righteousness with his righteousness. What’s the exchange? Not a problem. You don’t have to be a theologian. In fact if you were a theologian you’d probably have problems. Now forgive me, Lord. I just get so impatient with people who make the Bible complicated. My whole aim in life is to make it simple. I may not succeed but at least that’s what I’m trying to do.”

2. “Going to Pakistan was a revealing experience for me because it’s 98 percent Moslem country. And we got as many as 16,000 people out to meetings without much advertising. Why? Because we prayed for the sick. And they got healed… The blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame walked. Believe me, you don’t have a problem getting a crowd if you have that. There are plenty of other fine ways to attract people but the number one central method of the New Testament is miracles.”

3. “The critics of Jesus in his day never questioned that he could heal the sick. They did deny his claim to forgive sins. The church today, the evangelical church takes it for granted that people’s sins can be forgiven but stumbles over the fact that people can be healed. Which is harder? To forgive sins or to heal sickness? Which is the greater miracle? That our sins can be forgiven. There’s no miracle that transcends that.”

4. “Christians sometimes say to me, ‘Brother Prince, how can I know if it’s God’s will to heal me?’ And I usually answer something like this, ‘You’re asking the wrong question. It’s not how can I know if it’s God’s will to heal me, it’s how can I appropriate the healing which God has already provided for me.’ You find that healing is never in the future tense when it refers to the atonement. Seven hundred years before it happened Isaiah said healing was obtained for us. And fifty years or so afterwards Peter said by whose wounds you were healed. It’s very emphatic. A simple past tense. It happened on the cross. It’s a fact of history. Whether we believe it or not, it’s true. What we believe will affect us.”

5. “I’m convinced out of scripture that poverty is a curse. If it’s not a curse, why do you work so hard to get rid of it? If poverty is a blessing, why not pursue it?”

6. “A lot of people think Jesus was poor during his earthly ministry. I don’t. He didn’t have a lot of cash but he was never in need. Anybody who can feed 5,000 people in the wilderness is not exactly poor. And when he needed money for the taxes, he didn’t go to the bank, he went to the lake and got it out of a fish. I mean, what’s the difference whether you get it out of a fish or the bank! My little statement about Jesus in his earthly ministry is this: He didn’t carry a lot of cash, but he always used his Father’s credit card.”

7. “I always picture myself walking out of a typical English church which is at least 200 years old, it’s new. It’s rather cold and I’ve been in this Anglican service where we have been saying the most glorious things about God. I mean, the Anglican liturgy is just glorious. And then the people walk out of church and there isn’t any evidence whatever that they’re excited about anything. I always used to think to myself, ‘Now, if that lady in front of me dropped her lace handkerchief and I ran after her and gave her her handkerchief back she’d get much more excited about her handkerchief than about all the things she’d been saying in church.’ Why? Because they’ve never been real to her. That’s not a criticism of the Anglican Church. It’s true of multitudes of churches. People have never grasped this glorious reality. Now, if you grasp it you’re going to have to be happy—even if you don’t want to be happy you’re going to have to be happy. And let me point out to all of you dear Christians, it is no sin for a Christian to be happy.”

8. “The problem with most religious people is they try to earn grace but you can’t earn it. And as long as you’re trying to earn it by works, you don’t receive it. At some point you just have to stop trying to earn it and just receive it.”

9. “Jesus died of a broken heart. What broke his heart? Rejection. Rejection by whom? By the Father. The most agonizing of all rejection. He cried out in his agony, ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ and no answer came from heaven. The first time in the history of the universe that Jesus prayed and got no answer. It says immediately after that he gave one further loud cry and yielded up his spirit.”

10. “We need to understand God doesn’t just tolerate us, his favor is upon us. He is passionately committed to us. We never have any reason to doubt our access to him.”

11. “Now in order to understand the implication of that you have to be just aware of the procedure for the sin offering in the Old Covenant under the Levitical law… Incidentally, the more important the man, the bigger the offering. This always amuses me because if the high priest sinned he had to bring a bullock. And you know they didn’t keep the cattle next door to the tabernacle. So if the high priest sinned he had to go all the way out to where the cattle were kept and lead his bullock all the way up to the altar. And everybody must have thought, ‘Well, I wonder what Aaron did!’”

12. “Jesus is the channel of all grace. Only through Jesus is God’s grace made available. The cross is the basis of the offer of grace and we receive it by faith, not by works. Nobody can explain the grace of God. It’s unexplainable. Why did God permit Jesus to go through the terrible agonies of the cross on behalf of people like you and me? And the Bible never gives any explanation. So I would say don’t try to look for one. Just be willing to receive by faith the measureless grace of God. The unexplainable grace of God.”

Why is it that preachers surnamed Prince have such a good handle on the grace of God? (Check out what Joseph says about it here.) If you liked reading Derek’s quotes and want more, check out the free book, The Divine Exchange here.

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A few years ago I read a book called Bono on Bono and it provided a rare glimpse into the man’s heart. The story so far goes like this. Three Christian boys started a band called U2. Because they played rock and roll they got kicked out of the church community they loved. Organized religion rejected them but they did not reject God. Bono once said, “Great music is written by people who are either running toward or away from God.” You can decide from the quotes below which direction Bono is running.

I’m a big fan, not merely because of what he does, but because what he says and how he says it. Bono is the greatest poet of my generation. It wasn’t hard to find some classic quotes. He’s Irish after all, and he loves to talk. He once said “I`m the Fidel Castro of speechifying.”

He’s also pretty darn funny. Look at what he said after one visit to the White House:

“I’d like to think that I`ve always left the White House with more than I arrived. Not only budget commitments – cutlery, silverware, candelabras, one or two Bush family photos… OK, one Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington – it was in the bathroom, nobody could see. I’ll give it back.”

One more thing you should know. Back in the early 1990s when U2 did Zooropa, I missed the point about it being self-parody. I thought U2 had suddenly, and unexpectedly, become full of themselves. Only later did I get the joke. Although he’s the most famous rock star on the planet, Bono doesn’t take himself too seriously.

“Look, I`m sick of Bono and I AM Bono.”

So now you know that he’s outspoken, funny, and self-deprecating. With that introduction, here are my all-time top 20 Bono quotes:

1. “I’m not in a position to be seen as a spokesman for a generation. I mean, how can you be a spokesman of a generation if you’ve nothing to say, other than ‘Help!’”

2. “As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It’s so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don’t use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I’m the worst example of it, so just kinda keep my mouth shut.”

3. “Celebrity is currency, so I wanted to use mine effectively.”

4. “Rock ‘n’ roll is ridiculous. It’s absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we’re wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.”

5. “It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.”

6. “My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.”

7. “Religion can be the enemy of God. It`s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship.”

8. “We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.”

9. “And this wise man asked me to stop. He said, Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing – because it’s already blessed.”

10. “At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action.”

11. “Every era has its defining struggle and the fate of Africa is one of ours. It’s not the only one, but in the history books it’s easily going to make the top five, what we did or what we did not do. It’s a proving ground, as I said earlier, for the idea of equality. But whether it’s this or something else, I hope you’ll pick a fight and get in it.”

12. “There are potentially another 10 Afghanistans in Africa, and it is cheaper by a factor of 100 to prevent the fires from happening than to put them out.”

13. “Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.”

14. “Even then I prayed more outside of the church than inside. It gets back to the songs I was listening to; to me, they were prayers. ‘How many roads must a man walk down?’ That wasn’t a rhetorical question to me. It was addressed to God. It’s a question I wanted to know the answer to, and I’m wondering, who do I ask that to? I’m not gonna ask a schoolteacher. When John Lennon sings, ‘Oh, my love/For the first time in my life/My eyes are wide open’ – these songs have an intimacy for me that’s not just between people, I realize now, not just sexual intimacy. A spiritual intimacy.”

15. “I believe in the kingdom come. Then all the colors will bleed into one.”

16. “It’s not enough to rage against the lie. You’ve got to replace it with the truth.”

17. “My heroes are all alive. I never have worshipped at that altar of burnt-out youth.”

18. “Yes, I sometimes fail, but at least I’m willing to experiment.”

19. “You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that as you sow, so you will reap” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”

20. “But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep s—. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace.”

Existential writing is often full of angst, but what I love about it is that it’s honest angst! Angst and dread are entirely appropriate responses to a life apart from God. It’s the raw honesty of Kirkegaard that turned me into a fan in my 20s. I loved his damning critiques both of godless society and the institutional church of his day. His parable of the duck church is an all-time classic.

Kirkegaard certainly wasn’t a radical just for the sake of it. There is evidence that he lived with constant pain. (He died young at 42.) He also believed he lived under a curse on account of his father committing what they thought was an unforgivable sin. He battled with depression, yet his work is peppered with flashes of great hope and brilliant insight.

I have not gone with any particular theme in selecting my top 12 Kirkegaard quotes below. Some of them convey the despair of life without meaning; others point to a hope that exists beyond the world of men. The quotes are quite random and are merely intended to give you a tiny insight into the mind of a great, if troubled, Christian thinker.

Happy birthday Søren!

1. “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

2. “I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me. But I went away — yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth’s orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself.”

3. “Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle”

4. “I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”

5. “God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”

6. “Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”

7. “My standpoint is armed neutrality.”

8. “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

9. “Without risk, faith is an impossibility.”

10. “A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.”

11. “The truth is a trap: you cannot get it without it getting you; you cannot get the truth by capturing it, only by its capturing you.”

12. “What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me, and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honour.”

Note: Søren Kierkegaard wrote in Danish and much of what he wrote has been badly translated into glib, catchy English quotes. A good source of translations is Wikiquote.

With the unashamed intent of cashing in on this trend, I would like to offer here some pearls of wisdom from one of my favorite leaders, the affable Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin, the company that offers “limitless paper in a paperless world.”

If you have not seen the US show The Office, I should warn you that Michael Scott is one of the worst managers you’ll ever come across. But you don’t need competence to be a leader these days. What you need is attitude, vision, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, charisma and a lot of other things. I know this because I got hold of a book revealing important leadership secrets.

Michael Scott has all these characteristics in spades. He has a positive attitude, he’s utterly committed to the success of his organization, he’s passionate, visionary, enthusiastic, and on top of all that, he genuinely cares for his staff. He treats his employees as family.

So by most modern measures, Michael Scott is a role model for leaders everywhere. We can all learn a lot from him. Here are my top 15 Michael Scott quotes:

1. You need to play to win. But… you also need to win… to play.

2. Abraham Lincoln once said that “If you’re a racist, I will attack you with the North,” and these are the principles I carry with me in the workplace.

3. Ed Truck, yuck, Ed Truck was the manager before me. Horrible. He hated fun. It was like, oh Ed Truck is walking toward us, stop having fun. Start pretending to do work. What a jerk… I swore to myself that if I ever got to walk around the room as manager people would laugh when they saw me coming, and would applaud as I walked away.

4. When I was Ryan’s age, I worked in a fast food restaurant to save up money for school. And then I lost it in a pyramid scheme. But I learned more about business right then and there than business school would ever teach me.

5. I’m an early bird and a night owl. So I’m wise and I have worms.

6. An employee will go home and ask his neighbor, “Hey, did you get an award?” “No man. I mean I slave all day and no one notices.” Next thing you know, he smells something funny from his neighbor’s house. Neighbor hanged himself due to lack of recognition.

7. Inventory is boring. In the islands they don’t make you do stuff like take inventory. Why do think so many businesses moved to the Caymans?

8. Do I want to be feared or loved? That’s a good question. I want both. I people to be afraid of how much they love me!

9. Yes, I was the first one out. And yes, I’ve heard “women and children first.” But, we do not employ children. We are not a sweatshop, thankfully. And women are equal in the workplace by law. So if I let them out first, I have a lawsuit on my hands.

10. Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and say, “Hey man, I love you this many dollars-worth.”

11. Today is spring cleaning day here at Dunder Mifflin, and yes I know it’s January, I’m not an idiot, but if you do your spring cleaning in January guess what you don’t have to do in the spring… anything. They say a cluttered desk means a cluttered mind, well I say an empty desk means an…

12. There are 5 stages to grief which are…[reading from computer] Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. And right now, out there, they are all denying the fact that they’re sad and that’s hard and it’s making them all angry. And it is my job to get them all the way through to Acceptance and if not Acceptance then Depression… If I can get them depressed, then I’ll have done my job.

13. I was shocked when he told me he was transferring to Samford. It’s like with firemen, you don’t leave your brothers behind. Even if you find out that there is a better fire in Connecticut.

14. I don’t understand. We have a day honoring Martin Luther King, but he didn’t even work here.

15. You spend your whole life trying to get people to like you and then you run over one person with your car – not even one of the popular ones – and everybody gets on your case. Doesn’t make any sense.

___
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For the past 20 years it has probably been the Reverend Timothy Lovejoy of the First Church of Springfield. This is both funny and depressing. Funny, because The Simpsons is good satire (or used to be); depressing because for many Reverend Lovejoy is the face of modern Christianity – or at least the face of the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism!

I’m not going to get into any debates about whether art mirrors or molds society. But the influence of The Simpsons is so pervasive (up to 35m viewers for 20 years running) that it is probably fair to say that when many people think of church they think of Lovejoy quoting the law (“Keep holy the Sabbath day”) or proverbs (“a gentle answer turneth away wrath”) or other Biblical-sounding phrases that seem to have no relevance to modern life. Like this one:

“…and so when Eliphaz came down from Mount Hebron bearing figs, he offered them to Mohem, who you will remember is the father of Sheckhom. And to Hazar on the occasion of their matrimony, much in the same….”

Lovejoy is famously long-winded. He is cynical and apathetic. And yet Springfielders keep going back to his church Sunday after boring Sunday. Such is the hold of religion in a world unacquainted with the grace of an awesome God.

Still, he makes me laugh so here are 12 of my favorite Lovejoy quotes:

1. “Thanks to you, I’ve rediscovered a form of shame that’s gone unused for seven hundred years.”

2. “Once something has been approved by the Government, it’s no longer immoral.”

3. “Oh just about everything is a sin. Have you ever sat down and read this thing? Technically we’re not allowed to go to the bathroom.”

4. “Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and or roll.”

5. “I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens, he came in peace and then died, only to come back to life, and his name was E.T., the extra terrestrial. I loved that little guy.”

6. [in the jail cell with Hans Moleman] “Alright Hans, time to go.” [Hans complains that his last meal was eaten] “Well, if that’s the worst thing that happens to you today, consider yourself lucky.” [Hans asks him if executions can be done from a local jail] “From this point on, no talking.”

7. “Everyone is saying Gabbo this and Gabbo that, but no one is saying worship this and Jericho that.”

8. [about the last rites] “…that’s Catholic Marge. You might as well ask me to do a voodoo dance.”

9. “And once again tithing is 10% off the top. That’s gross income, not net. Please people, don’t force us to audit. Now I’m going to pass this around a second time. Brother Ned, you’ll do the honors.”

10. “Not the church! Jesus lives there!”

11. “Dearly beloved, I will now read the special vows which Homer has prepared for this occasion. Do you Marge take Homer in richness and poorness, poorness is underlined, in impotence and im-potence, in quiet solitude or blasting across the alkali flats in a jet powered monkey navigated…and it goes on like this…”

12. [Ned asks “is God punishing me.”] “Ooooh short answer yes with an if, long answer no with a but…”

For more quotes check out the Reverend Lovejoy File.

Anyway, a few months ago my wife and I were playing this game and we came across Joseph Prince, a Singaporean preacher of grace. What a breath of fresh air is this man! Don’t be deterred by his accent or style, if that’s not your thing, and miss the substance of what he preaches. He is a giant in the world of TV preachers and we watch him every night. Here in New Zealand he’s on Shine TV weeknights at 6:30pm. In Asia I believe you can find him on God TV on the weekends. He also has a YouTube channel here. Be warned, whatever you watch will have a lot of promotional material on it. But again, don’t let that distract you from the substance of this man’s message.

If you’ve never heard him preach, you’re missing out. At the end of each 22 minute segment we are usually so inspired we want to leap up and start celebrating Jesus. Mr Prince is an excellent communicator. He makes deep water revelations simple and easy to grasp. To give you some idea of this, I have picked 20 of my favorite quotes from his outstanding book Destined to Reign.

1. “The law justified no one and condemned the best of us, but grace saves even the worst of us.” (p.124)

2. “God does not leave you wondering whether you are saved or not. He tells you outright that you are His and that nothing can ever separate you from the love of Christ. Not even sin because His blood is greater than your sin!” (p.95)

3. “The way some people portray God today creates the false impression that His mercy lasts for a moment, but his anger lasts forever!” (p.211)

4. “Even though the law is holy, just and good, it has no power to make you holy, just and good.” (p.16)

5. “Sometimes, when I hear the way some preachers preach, I really wonder, has the cross changed anything? The system of being blessed when you do good and being cursed when you fail was already in place before Jesus came. Why are they still teaching that we are under that system today?… Don’t negate the cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus changed everything.” (p.295)

6. “Knowing that you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life.” (p.100)

7. “I have been accused of being an antinomian (someone who is against the law of Moses). The truth is I have the highest regard for the law. And it precisely because I have the highest regard for the law that I know that no man can keep the law… It is us grace preachers who have the highest regard for the law!… I am for the law, for the purpose for which God gave the law… God did not give the law for us to keep. He gave the law to bring man to the end of himself, so that he would see his need for a Saviour.” (p.122-3)

8. “Anyone who doesn’t focus on Jesus Christ and His finished work has neither the wisdom of God nor the power of God…” (p.199)

9. “Believers are often exhorted to repent from sin. However, in the New Testament we are actually exhorted to repent from dead works. You see, sin is simply the fruit, dead works are the root…. Dead works are not sins. They are the religious things people do, thinking that by doing these things, they are gaining righteousness with God. If you pray because you think that praying makes you right with God, that’s a dead work. But if you pray because you are right with God and you know that He loves you, there is power there.” (p.234)

10. “Let me teach you how to discern if the grace teaching that you are hearing is doctrinally sound. When you hear the new covenant of grace preached, it is always Christ-exalting. It always reveals more and more of Jesus… There is no grace without Jesus…. Grace is not a doctrine. Grace is a person and His name is Jesus. Therefore, there is no grace teaching without Jesus Christ. You cannot separate Jesus and grace!” (p.32)

11. “The law is about you looking at yourself. The new covenant is all about you seeing Jesus.” (p.196)

12. “There are still people who insist that we have to preach on repentance. Well, I disagree! I think we should do it God’s way – preach the goodness of God and allow the goodness of God to lead people to repentance. Such repentance will be true repentance. It will not be motivated by the fear of judgment and indignation. It will be a genuine repentance that is motivated by His grace, unconditional love and compassion. After all, our ability to love God stems from our first tasting His love for us.” (p.232)

13. “True repentance from the heart results from a revelation of God’s immense and unyielding love.” (p.232-3)

14. “The Holy Spirit never convicts (Christians) of your sins. He never comes to point out your faults…. It does not take a revelation from the Holy Spirit to see that you have failed. However, when you know that you’ve failed what you do need is for the Holy Spirit to convict you of your righteousness.” (p.135)

15. “Sin does not stop God’s grace from flowing, but God’s grace will stop sin.” (p.249)

16. “Look at all the people who received miracles from Jesus during His ministry on earth. Not a single one of them deserved it. They did nothing to earn their miracles… On the other hand, we don’t find any record of those who were trying to deserve blessings from God – the Pharisees – receiving anything from Jesus!” (p.278)

17. “A Christian cannot commit the unpardonable sin… There is no sin the Christian is not forgiven of.” (p.90-1)

18. “We don’t have to confess our sins in order to be forgiven. We confess our sins because we are already forgiven. When I say ‘confess our sins’, I’m talking about being open with God… Confession in the new covenant is just being honest about your failures and your humanity. It is the result of being forgiven and not something you do in order to be forgiven.” (p.104)

19. “People give their lives to sin when they feel rejected and unwanted. But when they know that they are God’s beloved, no temptation can succeed against them.” (p.296)

20. “Beloved, there is nothing you can do today to make God love you more, and there’s nothing you can do to make Him love you any less… Beloved, it’s not enough that you know that God loves everyone. You need to know and believe that He loves you, and let that revelation burn in your heart, especially when you fail.” (p.300-1)

Mark Driscoll has been called the Hulk Hogan of pastors. (Watch this and you’ll see why.) He says a lot of things that shock people and this has given him a reputation as a controversial pastor. My view is that he is a passionate, red-blooded man who is sick and tired of a church that has become emasculated and irrelevant. But he is no mere critic. He has a plan – his radical reformission – to convey the truth of the gospel to the lost. The world needs more leaders like him.

Whatever you think of Driscoll you will agree that he is certainly quotable. Here are 10 of my favorite Driscoll quotes:

1. “So I decided to start a church, for three reasons. First, I hated going to church and wanted one I liked, so I thought I would just start my own. Second, God had spoken to me in one of those weird charismatic moments and told me to start a church. Third, I am scared of God and try to do what he says.”  (Confessions, p.39)

2. “You have been told that God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we’re all good people. That is a lie… God looks down and says ‘I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,’ and we say that is deserved, right and just, and then God says ‘Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.’ This is a miracle.”

3. “I occasionally bought lottery tickets and promised God I would tithe if he’d let me win, but to no avail.”  (Confessions, p.58)

4. “I’m in my jeep minding my own business, when I turn to Christian radio for the first time in a long time. Last time in a long time.” (uncited)

5. “Isn’t it odd that we are apparently becoming a nation of attractive people who sit at home alone at night with our pets, watching television shows about relationships and taking medication for the depression brought on by our loneliness? Meanwhile, our neighbors, whom we do not know, are spending their evenings in much the same way.” (Radical Reformission, 82)

6. “Jesus, could you please rapture the charismaniac lady who brings her tambourine to church?” (chapter title from Confessions)

7. “Even a cursory reading of the book of Ecclesiastes shows that culture is a stationary bike that each generation climbs on in hopes of getting somewhere only to die and fall off so that the new young stud can take his turn peddling and, like a fool, make pronouncements about his progress. We would be wise to see postmodernity as simply the new guy on the old bike and not mistake cultural change for kingdom progress.” (Radical Reformission, 161)

8. “Jesus and Paul were serious dudes. They had teeth missing. Jesus was a carpenter, Paul was in prison. These guys didn’t eat tofu dogs and bean sprouts. They didn’t play tennis. If there were trucks back in their times, they would have been doing driveway lube jobs on a Saturday afternoon. Same thing with King David. Yeah, he might have played a lyre, but he slaughtered thousands of guys.” (re:tool and re:load conference)

9. “Flipping through a phone book once, I saw one church advertising itself as ‘Separated’ and ‘Reaching Out to Seattle,’ presumably much like a boxer reaches out to an opponent with a jab. (Radical Reformission, 141)

10. “Work like an Arminian, sleep like a Calvinist.” (uncited)

I have been looking for an excuse to publish some of my favorite CS Lewis quotes. Well today, February 9^th, just happens to be the 68^th anniversary of the publication of Lewis’s classic The Screwtape Letters. Lewis once said that Screwtape was his least enjoyable book to write. If you’ve read it you’ll not be surprised.

I actually had a difficult time finding quotes from Screwtape – I have just one, perhaps you can think of others – but it was easy to find pearls from his other works. Here are 12 of my favorites.

1. “100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased.”

~ The Weight of Glory (1949)

2. “Badness is only spoiled goodness.”

~ The Case for Christianity (1943)

3. “Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.”

~ The World’s Last Night (1960)

4. “Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won’t last forever. We must take it or leave it.”

~ The Case for Christianity (1943)

5. “Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.”

~ The Problem of Pain (1940)

6. “No good work is done anywhere without aid from the Father of Lights.”

~ Reflections on the Psalms (1958)

7. “The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.”

~ Surprised by Joy (1955)

8. “All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

~ Mere Christianity (1952)

9. “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

~ Mere Christianity (1952)

10. “Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.”

~ Reflections on the Psalms (1958)

11. “Looking for God – or Heaven – by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters…”

~ ‘The Seeing Eye’, Christian Reflections (1967: 150)

12. “Some people probably think of the Resurrection as a desperate last moment expedient to save the Hero from a situation which had got out of the Author’s control.”

~ Miracles (1947)

Given the occasion, here is a bonus quote from The Screwtape Letters …

“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

~ The Screwtape Letters (1942)

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