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The church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament normal it would seem to people to be abnormal.

Vance Havner

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Vance Havner
Age: 77 †
Born: 1886
Born: February 16
Died: 1963
Died: May 2
Clergyman
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Plainfield
New Jersey
People
Testament
Normal
Seem
Church
Seems
Back
Ever
Would
Abnormal

More quotes by Vance Havner

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More Bibles are bought and fewer read than any other book.
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Salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way.
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The first step towards the evangelizing of the world is the christianizing of the church.
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I'm convinced that a large percentage of people that we call worldly Christians are perhaps not Christian to begin with and that may be the trouble.
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A picture of Christ was hung in the back of a pulpit. When the minister rose to speak one Sunday morning, a little boy asked his mother, 'Mother, who is that man who stands so we can't see Jesus?'
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I preach on specific sins because people are not convicted by sermons on sin in general. It was when our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, 'Go call thy husband...' (John 4:16), that she really faced up to her sinfulness.
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There is a trend today that would put a new robe on the prodigal son while he is still feeding hogs. Some would put the ring on his finger while he still in the pigsty. Others would paint the pigsty and advocate bigger and better hog pens.
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If you see a Bible that is falling apart, it probably belongs to someone who isn't!
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Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the asylum.
Vance Havner
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There never has been a culture since this world began in which a New Testament Christian could feel at home.
Vance Havner
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Not everyone who has made peace with God has realized the peace of God.
Vance Havner
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There was a time when ministers spoke forthrightly and named things. We don't name anything anymore. Finney had a sermon on How to Preach so as to Convert Nobody. He said 'Preach on sin but never mention any of the sins of your congregation - that will do it.'
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If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.
Vance Havner
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I suspect that much of our praying to be used is selfish, and underneath it is the sneaking desire to make our mark and be recognized.
Vance Havner
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Jesus is all we have he is all we need and all we want. We are shipwrecked on God and stranded on omnipotence!
Vance Havner
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Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.
Vance Havner
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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.
Vance Havner
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Don't ever come to church without coming as though it were the first time, as though it could be the best time, and as though it could be the last time.
Vance Havner
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Life is like a grain of wheat: to plant it is to recognize its value to keep it is to destroy its value. The 'planted' Christian counts life dear not unto himself but unto God.
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No nation can last long when it stops praying and takes up playing.
Vance Havner