Quotes from Calvin Miller

We must look to Mary's example to know how to deal with the glorious impossibilities of God. Look how she turned the world upside down by making one simple statement.

One of the great things silence does, it gives us a new concept of God.

It is not such a fiercesome thing to lead once you see your leadership as part of God's overall plan for His world.

Becoming a great preacher, like becoming a great artist, requires a life commitment.

Beware, O earth, the prophet who claims to know the time but never wears a watch.

Those who fervently love God are intoxicated by His warmth and live out their addiction like moths drawn to a flame.

Love is substance; Lust, illusion. Only in the surge of passion do the two mingle in confusion.

A passion to obey Christ is born out of our relationship with him. The more we love him, the more we want him to be a part of our affairs.

Define your times. Treasure your calling. Pray without ceasing. The terrors of the age are less than the grandeur of the Christ within you.

Without application, preaching is at best a lecture and at worst entertainment.

Hunger for Christ keeps us talking to God till our separation is swallowed up in our unending togetherness with him. Till this union is complete, he who keeps our prayers awaits our union. After all, God hungers for union with us even more than we desire union with him. And prayer is the rails on which our two desires move toward each other. Our devotion moves us from separateness into oneness with God, and the resulting joy is worth the journey.

Jesus' Great Commission can just as well be translated: Since you are going into all the world anyway, why not take the gospel with you? (Matthew 28:19). GOD

John Hines said, "Preaching is effective as long as the preacher expects something to happen—not because of the sermon, not even because of the preacher, but because of God.

Donald Coggan's wisdom: "When true preaching takes place, the main actor is not the preacher, nor the congregation, but the Holy Spirit."15

When we sin, we do not infuriate God, our Lover. We only hurt Him. We grieve Him!

To get the job done preaching must be committed to two goals: first it should be passionate and second, fascinating.

Much of Christmas' beauty is in its sameness. The same traditions. The same meals. The same songs. The same story. Yet each Christmas is a little different.

Most of these super-sovereigns feel that God can comment if he wants to, but God must avoid getting loud. While God is welcome to his opinions, he is only one voice, and he doesn't get extra points just for being God. The unstudied opinionated are prone to say, even to God, "Yes, but here's what I think." In such a world, classic apologetics has lost much of its force.

Axiom #3: When told how to apply sermons specifically, most people over-congratulate themselves on how biblically they already live while thinking of others who could really use the sermon.

CHRIST'S LIFE ILLUSTRATES PLAINLY THAT THE CROWN OF VICTORY IS FORGED FROM THE GOLD OF OBEDIENCE.

If anybody is left behind in a congregation of a thousand, the preacher has not preached well.

Anytime our sermons become confessional, they become more powerful.

Edward Markquart, a brilliant homoletician, wrote: "People want their preachers to be authentic human beings . . . who experience the same feelings and struggles as the laity, who do not hide behind the role of reverend so and so.

Fellowship with Christ can only be experienced at a wilderness table for two.