Quotes from Vance Havner

A deep and sober concern to please God is the rarest of rarities.

Most of the notable turn out to be the not-able. God's greatest truths still belong to babes.

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

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.

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

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

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.

We honor God by asking for great things when they are a part of His promise. We dishonor Him and cheat ourselves when we ask for molehills where He has offered mountains.

If you are what you've always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.

More Bibles are bought and fewer read than any other book.

The detour is always rougher than the main road

The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.

If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.

Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.

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.

A soft and sheltered Christianity, afraid to be lean and lone, unwilling to face the storms and brave the heights, will end up fat and foul in the cages of conformity.

If you lack knowledge, go to school. If you lack wisdom, get on your knees.

The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.

We may never be martyrs but we can die to self, to sin, to the world, to our plans and ambitions. That is the significance of baptism; we died with Christ and rose to new life.

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

No life is great that does not point to Christ.

It is only the life that is lost for Him that is found in Him.

We've learned how to lengthen life, but we don't know how to deepen it.

Before we can strengthen believers or win the lost, we must be converted from the self-life to the Christ-life. . . "Not I, but Christ."