Inspirational Quotes by D.A. Carson

“We ask our heavenly Father for things because he has determined that many blessings will come to us only through prayer. Prayer is his ordained means of conveying his blessings to his people. That means we must pray according to his will, in line with his values, in conformity with his own character and purposes, claiming his own promises.”

“What is it, precisely, that Paul asks for? Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesians might know God better. That is what the text says. Of all the things Paul might have asked for, that is what he puts at the top of his list: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (1:17).”

“But Paul never thinks that we are called by God because we deserve it. How could he? He knew that it was while he was busily persecuting the church and trying to destroy it that God intervened and called him by his grace (Gal. 1:13–15).”

“public praying is a pedagogical opportunity.”

“What we will have to show before the great King on the last day will be infinitely more important to us than what we leave behind here.”

“If the things I value are taken away, is my joy in the Lord undiminished?”

“Public praying is a responsibility as well as a privilege.”

“the fundamental difference between “Amen!” and applause must be noted: the “Amen!” is directed to God, even if it serves to encourage the person who is ministering, while applause in our culture signals approval of the performer. God is left out, and the “performer” may the more easily be seduced into pride.”

“Christians are organisms that grow, not machines that simply perform a designated function for which they were designed.”

“But it does mean that if you are, say, a Lutheran, you must not cut yourself off from what is right and good in the Wesleyan, Reformed, charismatic, Anabaptist, and other lines. (And of course, I could have rephrased that sentence in any combination.)”

“Clever, witty, amusing, glittering discourse may be warmly applauded by the literati, but it does not easily square with the odium of the cross. So Paul will have none of it.”

“He is not even addressing how one comes to a knowledge of what some specific passage of Scripture really means. His focus is the fundamental message of the crucified Messiah. And this, he insists, is fundamentally incomprehensible to the mind without the Spirit.”

“But does anyone truly understand the message of the cross apart from brokenness, contrition, repentance, and faith? To repeat rather mechanically the nature of the transaction that Christians think took place at Golgotha is one thing; to look at God and his holiness, and people and their sin, from the perspective of the cross, is life changing. What Paul says, then, is that our self-centeredness, our sin, is so deep that we cannot truly see the cross for what it is, apart from the work of the Spirit. What the Spirit accomplishes in us is more than mere application of truth already grasped.”

“white and one black. They were used in making decisions, but just how they”

“When the pressure to “contextualize” the gospel jeopardizes the message of the cross by inflating human egos, the cultural pressures must be ignored.”

“Fourth, in times of genuine revival, judgment may be more immediate than in times of decay. When God walks away from the church and lets the multiplying sin take its course, that is the worst judgment of all; it will inevitably end in irretrievable disaster. But when God responds to sin with prompt severity, lessons are learned, and the church is spared a worse drift.”

“Press them a little harder, and ask how they know their interpretation is correct and what checks they accept on their own authority, and they may reply, with supreme confidence, in the words of verse 15: “The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment.” In the worst cases, this leads to flagrant authoritarianism—utterly self-focused leaders who are accountable to no one but themselves.”

“Paul has not launched into a new topic, a fresh discussion of esoteric wisdom. He is still focused on the message of the cross—and we shall fail to understand this chapter unless we bear that fact in mind.”

“The initial impetus to cross lines of race and heritage with the Gospel of Jesus Christ arose not from a committee planning world evangelization, but from God himself.”

“centered. That is more than a creedal commitment; it sets out Paul’s priorities, his lifestyle, and, in this context, his style of ministry. If he really holds that God has supremely disclosed himself in the cross and that to follow the crucified and risen Savior means dying daily, then it is preposterous to adopt a style of ministry that is triumphalistic, designed to impress, calculated to win applause.”