quotes that make me stop and think

Today all I am going to share with you are some quotes.  These and many like them take hold of my thinking and even of my heart.  Some preachers catch my attention more than others.

These men have caught my attention.  A couple of them are from my history.  Others are more current, but each makes me stop in my tracks and think.  The church and Christians need to stop and think.  Our faith must increase.

I remember reading from Henry Blackaby that the reason the world is not seeing God in the church is because the church is not attempting things that only God can do (not a direct quote but comes from his book Experiencing God).

As you read on I pray God speaks to our hearts and that we will be challenged:

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church. --- Charles Spurgeon

The quickest way to forget about your pain is to help someone who hurts more... --- Matthew Barnett

You know you're hearing from God when you don't walk away with facts but you walk away with faith. --- Carl Lentz

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. --- Francis Chan

Choose to view life through God's eyes. This will not be easy because it doesn't come naturally to us. We cannot do this on our own. We have to allow God to elevate our vantage point. Start by reading His Word, the Bible...Pray and ask God to transform your thinking. Let Him do what you cannot. Ask Him to give you an eternal, divine perspective. --- Charles R. Swindoll

Jesus sees our sin more clearly than anyone, yet He loves us more than anyone. --- JudahSmith

The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time. --- Francis Chan

I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need. --- Charles Spurgeon

I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him. --- Ravi Zacharias

The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice. --- Francis Chan

Encouragement is awesome. Think about it. It has the capacity to lift a man's or a woman's shoulders. To breathe fresh air into the fading embers of a smoldering dream. To actually change the course of another human being's day, week, or life. --- Charles R. Swindoll

Stay optimistic to the point where people question your sanity. --- Matthew Barnett

Those thoughts … on the church’s impact, my need for God, His love for me, living in the power of the Spirit, being an encourager … make me stop and think!