Keith Ferranate

The problem in our church world is that we’re so fixated on pastors and pulpits. The vast majority of people in the Christian world will never see a pulpit. If we don’t get unimpressed with the pulpit and pastors, then we’ll never see the reformation and harvest we all want. Whatever you affirm, you empower. Not afirming the ministry that goes on through the saints in their daily life, work, family, the mundane but necessary things, etc., has caused the repetitive strongholds that don’t get a breakthrough. We wonder why we don’t see a breakthrough in our churches, so we try harder and harder to preach better sermons and have better speakers because we hope that it’s the way to bring transformation. In this reformation, God is moving the pulpit from center stage to the back corner. The pulpit will still have a role. But our view of the pulpit will drastically change, and preaching in a church building behind the pulpit will become a smaller part of the transformation needed in the church, not the largest part. Now don’t get me wrong, most of my world is built around the pulpit. I love to preach and spend a lot of time preaching, teaching and training. But God is up to something different.

Darlene Cunningham

I sometimes throw out this thought-provoking question to unsuspecting audiences: “Which one is more spiritual – raising the dead or washing the dishes?” Nearly always, someone blurts out, “raising the dead!” Then he or she backtracks on their response. Honestly, that is the automatic inward response of most everyone. We believe it is more “spiritual” to do something supernatural, when the simple answer is that it’s more pleasing to God to do whatever He asks. So it can be far more spiritual and pleasing to God to do the dishes, if that is what the Father asks of us.

 

George Hodges

He is a Christian who follows Christ, who measures all things by the standard of His approbation [official approval], who would not willingly say a word which he would not like to have Christ hear, nor do an act which he would not like to have Christ see. He is a Christian who tries to be the kind of neighbour Christ would be, and the kind of citizen Christ would be, and who asks himself in all the alternatives of his business life, and his social life, and his personal life, what would the Master do in this case? The best Christian is he who most reminds the people with whom he lives of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who never reminds anybody of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a Christian at all.

Francis Frangipane

Most Christians only engage in spiritual warfare with the hope of either relieving present distress or attaining a normal existence. However, the purpose of all aspects of spirituality, warfare included, is to bring us into the image of Christ. Nothing, not worship nor warfare, neither love nor deliverance is truly attainable if we miss the most singular objective of our faith, christlikeness.

Tim Tebow

People often seem to think that when you’re following the Lord and trying to do His will, your path will always be clear, the decisions smooth and easy, and life will be lived happily ever after and all that. Sometimes that may be true, but I’ve found that more often, it’s not. The muddled decisions still seem muddled, bad things still happen to believers, and great things can happen to nonbelievers. When it comes to making our decisions, the key that God is concerned with is that we are trusting and seeking Him. God’s desire is for us to align our lives with His Word and His will.

Francois Fenelon

What are you afraid of? Let God act. Abandon yourself to Him. You will suffer, but you will suffer with love, peace and consolation. You will fight, but you can carry off the victory, and God Himself, after having fought with you, will crown you with His own hand. You will weep, but your tears will be sweet, and God Himself will come with satisfaction to dry them. You will not be free any longer to give yourself up to your tyrannic passions, but you will sacrifice your liberty freely, and you will enter into a new liberty unknown to the world, in which you will do nothing except for love.