Vance Havner Quotes

Nothing under the sun can be as dry and flat and tedious and exhausting as religious work without the wonder.

When the Lord's sheep are a dirty grey, all black sheep are more
comfortable.

I believe in the Church and in loyalty to a local church. I am not in favour of that view of the invisible church that makes one invisible at church on Sunday morning.

Worry is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere.

There are two omnipotences with Him: ‘With God all things are possible”: “All things are possible to him that believeth.

those who are desperate enough to know Him, seek Him, and obey Him will find themselves enjoying a richer and fuller life in Christ.

A church may have the bones of organization and sound theology. It may have the body of a large membership. But, if the breath of the Holy Spirit is not on it and in it, then it is only Sardis, having a name to be alive but dead.

The Saturday Review is not a church paper. It’s a secular paper. But, the other day, it said, “The desensitization of 20th century man is more than a danger to the general safety. There are some things we have no business ever getting used to.

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.

I don’t believe God is going to fill anybody with the Holy Spirit until the purpose of their heart is to glorify Jesus and to glorify God.

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

We must be careful not to be so scared of getting out on a limb that we never get up the tree.

Junior bit the meter man, Junior kicked the cook; junior is anti-social now, according to the book. Junior smashed the clock and lamp; Junior hacked the tree. Destructive trends are treated in chapters two and three. Junior threw his milk at mom; Junior screamed for more. Notes on self-assertiveness are found in chapter four. Junior tossed his shoes and socks out into the rain; negation that, and normal. Disregard the stain. Junior got in Grandpop’s room, tore up his fishing line. That’s the inattention, see page 89. But, Grandpop seized the slipper and yanked Junior ‘cross his knee, ‘cause Grandpop hadn’t read a book since 1893.

Let it never be forgotten that, although we may do nothing about the Word we hear, the Word will do something to us.
The same sun melts ice and hardens clay, and the Word of God humbles or hardens the human heart.

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and He shows me His plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been had He had His way, and I see how I blocked Him here and I checked Him there, and I would not yield my will, will there be grief in my Savior’s eyes, grief, though he loves me still? He would have me rich, and I stand there poor, stripped of all but His grace while memory runs like a hunted thing down the path I cannot retrace. Then my desolate heart will well nigh break with the tears that I cannot shed. I shall cover my face with my empty hands. I shall bow my inclined head. Lord of the years that are left to me, I give them to Thy hands. Take me and break me and mold me to the pattern Thou hast planned.