Christian Wisdom

 

1. “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” ~ C.S. Lewis
    
2. “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ~ C.S. Lewis
    
3. “God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.” ~ C.S. Lewis
    
4. “The provision is in the promises.” ~ Derek Prince
    
5. “I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.” ~ Annie Dillard
    
6. “Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?” ~ Annie Dillard
    
7. “Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.” ~ Watchman Nee
    
8. “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” ~ Corrie ten Boom
    
9. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ~ Corrie ten Boom
    
10. “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” ~ Corrie ten Boom
     
11. “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” ~ Dallas Willard
     
12. “A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying “Why?” ~ Dallas Willard
     
13. “I'm practicing the discipline of not having to have the last word.” ~ Dallas Willard
     
14. “Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.” ~ Dallas Willard
     
15. “When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God's work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight.” ~ Richard Foster
     
16. "The world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it. . .” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
     
17. "The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
     
18. “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.” ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen
     
19. “Peace is first of all the art of being.” ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen
     
20. “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” ~ Frederick Buechner
     
21. “Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.” ~ Frederick Buechner
     
22. “Only miracle is plain; it is in the ordinary that groans with the weight of glory.” ~ Robert Farrar Capon
     
23. “The Christian religion is not about the soul; it is about man, body and all, and about the world of things -with- which he was created, and -in- which he is redeemed. Don't knock materiality. God invented it.” ~ Robert Farrar Capon
     
24. "It doesn't honor God to pretend everything is OK. That’s the beauty of Jesus that so many people miss. The beauty is that he died on the cross for our sins, but also that he existed the way we exist." ~ John Mark McMillan
     
25. “All sins are attempts to fill voids.” ~ Simone Weil
     
26. “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.” ~ Simone Weil
     
27. “A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.” ~ Dorothy L. Sayers
     
28. “To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick.” ~ Dorothy L. Sayers
     
29. ?"Educated Christians like myself expect God's grace to prefer people of greater natural ability, higher standards of behaviour, and superior education in the liberal arts. In fact God mocks my expectations." ~ Augustine of Hippo
     
30. "Heaven is important, but its not the end of the world" ~ N.T. Wright
     
31. "You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship." ~ N.T. Wright
     
32. "If you're a Christian you're just a shadow of your future self." ~ N.T. Wright
     
33. "I feel about John's gospel like I feel about my wife; I love her very much, but I wouldn't claim to understand her." ~ N.T. Wright
     
34. “Grace means that all your mistakes now serve a purpose instead of serving shame.” ~ Unknown

Scriptures: Proverbs 4:19

How to Start a Talk...(Sermon)

 

The 10 Commandments of an Effective Sermon Introduction

1. You shall always know where your message is headed before you prepare the sermon introduction. There are few things worse than an introduction that isn’t related to the rest of the sermon.
2. You shall intentionally attempt to connect with everyone in the room. Visitors shouldn’t feel lost or confused. Avoid Christianeze.
3. You shall not introduce your introduction. Telling the congregation what you’re going to tell them is redundant and uninteresting. Let it flow like a story.
4. You shall make it long enough that people lean in. Don’t cut the introduction too short. You may not get everyone on the bus for the journey.
5. You shall make it short enough that people see the text as the main event. The introduction shouldn’t be the focal point of the sermon. The truth of the text and how it speaks to the introduction and informs and impacts life going forward must be the focal point.
6. You shall start with a story. Personal ones are best, true ones are great, funny ones are good, made up ones are meh.
7. You shall start with a question. Questions cause us to not be able to think about anything other than the question. It’s called instinctive elaboration and it’s a real thing.
8. You shall not start with an announcement. Let some other communication channel do this or make it an action step if it’s a major one.
9. You shall bring in the problem (our sin, world’s brokenness, etc). Combining a story with a further elaboration on a problem causes people to lean into the solution: God’s word and His gospel.
10. You shall not be monotone and low energy. By all means, be yourself. But be the energetic version of yourself. Don’t be afraid to be a bit animated. Be passionate about the fact that you get to share the gospel with the congregation and its visitors.