Category: Quotes

Many priests there are, and few;
many in name, and few in works.
See, therefore, how you sit in the official chair,
for the chair does not make the priest, but the priest makes the chair:
the place does not sanctify the man, but the man the place.
Not every priest is holy;
but every holy person is a priest.
–John Chrysostom

Another “workplace pastor” quote reaching all the way back to 400 A.D.
Chrysostom realized that each of us has the role to be a holy person that serves others, even if our paycheck wasn’t written by a church. Your role is to be a holy person, and therefore to serve as a workplace pastor for those who you are around everyday.

People who do not actually read the Bible confidently assure us that when we move from the Old Testament to the New, the theme of divine judgment fades into the background. But if we examine the New Testament, even in the most cursory way, we find at once that the Old Testament emphasis on God’s action as judge, far from being reduced, is actually intensified. The entire New Testament is overshadowed by the certainty of a coming day of universal judgment, and by the problem thence arising: How may we sinners get right with God while there is yet time?
–J. I. Packer

So thankful that God has made a way!

I am weak, and therefore I often feel that I am unfit for ministry. Is weakness a disqualifier for ministry?

You could argue that if human weakness was an automatic disqualifier from ministry, none of the disciples would have been called into ministry. The fact of the matter is that there is never a day when you don’t demonstrate somehow, someway that you are weak. There is never a day when you don‘t reveal that there are still pockets of foolishness in you. In fact, God will use the responsibilities, opportunities, burdens, and temptations of ministry to reveal to you and those who love you how weak you really are. He reveals your weakness to you so that you will continue to seek the help of His grace, and he reveals it to others so that they can be instruments of His grace in your life. Paul didn’t resign his ministry because he became convinced he was the foremost of all sinners. No, you could argue that it is your admission of weakness that protects your ministry from becoming all about human reputation and kingdom building. And it is your weakness that protects you from the dangers of self-righteousness and self-reliance.
–Paul David Tripp

Take time to thank God for your areas of weakness that remind you to rely on Him and on others.

God is not only the doctor who prescribes.
He is the nurse who lifts up our powerless head and puts the spoon in our mouth.
And He is the medicine.
–John Piper

He is ALL that we need!

In many respects I would find an unresurrected Jesus easier to accept.
Easter makes Him dangerous.
Because of Easter I have to listen to His extravagant claims and can no longer pick and choose from His sayings. Moreover, Easter means He must be loose out there somewhere.
Like the disciples, I never know where Jesus might turn up, how He might speak to me, what He might ask of me. As Frederick Buechner says, Easter means “we can never nail Him down, not even if the nails we use are real and the thing we nail Him to is a cross.”
–Philip Yancey

He is alive and loose out there somewhere. What might He say to me today?