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If the devil cannot keep you from being saved, if next he fails to make you backslide, then he undertakes to keep you just an average Christian. Here he succeeds with most believers.

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
Failing
Succeeds
Christian
Believers
Keep
Fails
Next
Believer
Cannot
Saved
Make
Average
Devil
Backslide
Succeed
Undertakes

More quotes by Vance Havner

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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.
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We justify ourselves when we should judge ourselves. If we learned humility, it might spare us the humiliation.
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In other days people chose a church on the basis of their doctrinal convictions. Now, lacking doctrinal convictions, they choose for social reasons.
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A preacher who is too big for a little crowd would be too little for a big crowd.
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I would say to today's young minister, 'Be not afraid to give much time to solitary walks and meditation'.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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One of the greatest errors in the church today is the artificial distinction we have created between accepting Christ as Savior and confessing Him as Lord. We have made two experiences of it, but the New Testament makes them one.
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The man who sets out to live the life worthwhile-to follow his vision and speak his heart-need not look for position, honors, prosperity.
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If you would try out a preacher, send him to preach to farmers: if he cannot make the grade there, let him reconsider his call - or maybe he needs to be converted.
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A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. His problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.
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The first step towards the evangelizing of the world is the christianizing of the church.
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When we are weakest and most despondent, Jesus is most considerate. When there is a break in our progress or we have a spell of depression, he sees the whole of our lives and in the light of that He is longsuffering with discordant details.
Vance Havner
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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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The devil is in constant conspiracy against a preacher who really prays, for it has been said that what a minister is in his prayer closet is what he is, no more, no less.
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Jesus Christ demands more complete allegiance than any dictator who ever lived. The difference is, He has a right to it.
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Progress is a farce because man's head and hand have created wonders that stun the imagination, but his heart does not keep step and his morals undo all that his mind has wrought.
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Adam tried to hide behind the trees in the garden. There is only one tree that can hide us from Him and that is the tree of the cross.
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Popularity has killed more prophets than persecution.
Vance Havner