Quote

A mortician can make a dead man look better than he ever did when he was alive. So churches like Sardis may appear very much alive when they are dead in the sight of the Lord. God knows the difference.

Vance Havner

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vance Havner
Age: 77 †
Born: 1886
Born: February 16
Died: 1963
Died: May 2
Clergyman
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Plainfield
New Jersey
Make
Church
Churches
Men
Christian
Appear
Like
May
Sight
Better
Difference
Ever
Dead
Look
Differences
Looks
Alive
Much
Lord
Morticians

More quotes by Vance Havner

Image
It is one thing to say Jesus is all you want until He is all you have and you discover He is all you ever needed.
Vance Havner
Image
If the church would only be the church- if Christians would only be Christians- nothing could halt our onward march.
Vance Havner
Image
A preacher who is too big for a little crowd would be too little for a big crowd.
Vance Havner
Image
We justify ourselves when we should judge ourselves. If we learned humility, it might spare us the humiliation.
Vance Havner
Image
God's deepest secrets often miss the wise and prudent and are revealed unto babes. We say, Children, be like your parents. Jesus said, Parents, be like your children.
Vance Havner
Image
Plenty of church members are shaky about what they believe, while not many are shaken by what they believe.
Vance Havner
Image
Popularity has killed more prophets than persecution.
Vance Havner
Image
The real test of your Christianity is not how pious you look at the Lord's table on Sunday, but how you act at the breakfast table at home. If it takes two cups of coffee to make you fit to live with, you had better go to the mourner's bench.
Vance Havner
Image
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.
Vance Havner
Image
Because the Lord loves us He chastens and rebukes us. Modern sentimentality has reduced God to a tolerant indulgent grandfatherly being who winks at our transgressions.
Vance Havner
Image
The gospel is for lifeboats, not showboats, and a man must make up his mind which boat he is going to operate.
Vance Havner
Image
Jesus Christ demands more complete allegiance than any dictator who ever lived. The difference is, He has a right to it.
Vance Havner
Image
People get so used to the dark that they think it is growing brighter.
Vance Havner
Image
We have suffered from the preaching of cheap grace. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. People will take anything that is free, but they are not interested in discipleship. They will take Christ as Savior but not as Lord.
Vance Havner
Image
If you are what you've always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.
Vance Havner
Image
Too many church services start at eleven sharp and end at twelve dull.
Vance Havner
Image
We've learned how to lengthen life, but we don't know how to deepen it.
Vance Havner
Image
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
Image
An old minister explained the smudges on his sermon outlines by saying they were caused by sweat and tears. And without those two marks, a sermon is not a sermon.
Vance Havner
Image
I wouldn't cross the street to hear Ingersoll preach on the mistakes of Moses, but I'd love to hear Moses preach on the mistakes of Ingersoll!
Vance Havner