Christians need to learn from discerning voices. We need mature believers who will speak truth, guide us through trials, and teach us about God, ministry, and culture. A major part of the problem in the age of outrage is that we are looking for answers in the wrong places. When we turn to the voices of our culture for wisdom—Fox News or MSNBC; celebrities or athletes; musicians or pop psychologists; or the self-help section at the bookstore or on our podcast app—we give platforms to people with no allegiance to or love for the gospel. One of the major ways to combat this and ensure our worldview is shaped by the gospel is by listening to voices that lead us toward holiness.
Truth
William Penn
Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.
Jennie Allen
It physically hurts to see our pride, to see our sin, to quit playing good, to feel broken and to need God. And it hurts, even more, to let others see it. So we run from falling; we choose large fig leaves to cover up with and not God. We run from that vulnerable feeling that we may not measure up, all while aching to measure up.
Kris Vallotton
It doesn’t take a prophetic gift to see the sin in sinners or the junk in the lives of Christians. It does require the eyes of God, though, to see broken people like Simon (Simon means “broken reed”) and in the midst of their brokenness, call them Peter (Peter means “rock”). True prophetic ministry is looking for gold in the midst of the dirt in people’s lives.
Thomas Aquinas
We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.
Lisa Bevere
There were many times when truth spoke to me, but I did not listen. Often it called to me, but I did not hear it. I was too busy listening to lies. Unfortunately, if you listen to lies long enough, when truth speaks you cannot hear or bear it.
Martin Luther
As the baby Jesus is to the manger in Bethlehem, so Christ is to scripture. Without Christ, scriptures are just so much straw.
Kris Vallotton
Scripture is our blueprint to evaluate whether or not a word contains the DNA of God. Even though the entirety of who God is and how He operates is not contained in Scripture, I believe the Holy Spirit gave humankind the Bible to protect our understanding from deception. His character is in there. His nature is revealed.
Madeleine L’Engle
It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.
Athenasius
It is not by the sword or the spear, by soldiers or by armed force that truth is to be promoted, but by counsel and gentle persuasion.