Julie Halitzka

An index of all of the quotes in my quotes collection.

“God’s ultimate goal in giving us biblical revelation is not punitive. He desires that His word equip us for His service. Its message brings us reconciliation through the work of Christ. Its probing exposes our need for a reconciled relationship with Him. And then His Word gives us the tools we need to actually experience that reconciled relationship on a daily basis. This is what Paul told Timothy about the role of the Bible: ‘All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). — Richards & Bredfeldt, Creative Bible Teaching

…let me suggest that you talk to your spouse and to others close to you and ask them questions like these: Do I confess my sin consistently? Do I confess specific instances of sin and not just general categories or general references to sin? Do others find it easy to correct me? Do others know the areas of temptation in my life at present? Do they know the most pronounced patterns of sin in my life at present? — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

A Christian, informed and inspired by Scripture, views the cessation of work each day, the limitation God places upon work each day, and the laying down to sleep each night, as altogether a gift from God. A gift so graciously provided in His lavish generosity. And those who neglect this gift will inevitably suffer consequences. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

A classic Peanuts cartoon opens with Linus curled up in a chair, quietly reading a book. Lucy stands behind him with a funny look on her face. ‘It’s very strange,’ Lucy tells him. ‘It happens just by looking at you.’ ‘What happens?’ Linus asks. Lucy calmly answers, ‘I can feel a criticism coming on.’ How often do you feel the same way when you look closely at those around you? The truth is, that’s the tendency we all have apart from grace. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

Application provides the capstone of Bible study, the peak of the proccess of mining the gold of Scriptures. Without application, Bible Study remains incomplete. As James wrote, ‘Do not merely listen to the Word… Do what it says.’ (James 1:22) The Bible is not a museum piece to be exhibited or an antique to be examined. It is a guidebook for living. — Roy B. Zuck, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend. — John Stott, Pride, Humility, & God

But since the human race is prone to judge sins not by the strength of the actual lust, but rather by the standard of its own practices, people generally regard as culpable only such actions as men of their time and place tend to blame and condemn, and regard as commendable and praiseworthy only such actions as are acceptable within the conventions of their own society. And so it happens that if scripture enjoins something at variance with the practices of its readers, or censures something that is not at variance with them, they consider the relevant expression to be figurative (always assuming that their minds are governed by the authority of the Word). But scripture enjoins nothing but love, and censures nothing but lust, and moulds men’s minds accordingly. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues… the Christian rule is, ‘ either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.’ — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents. — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christians quickly realize that they must advocate in the public square for their positions using the ‘natural law’ arguments that are accessible and persuasive to all. It does little good to argue for the sanctity of life using Psalm 139:13 when your opponent, or the public you are trying to convince, does not hold the Bible as authoritative. One must craft arguments that appeal to everyone, Christian or not. Although Scripture must always be our guide, we must be able to defend our positions with arguments that resonate with those who do not share our reliance on the Bible. We can appeal to human beings’ God-given reason, the evidence God has placed in his creation, and the precepts he has written on all persons’ hearts (Rom 1:19-20) — Stephen Monsma & Mark Rodgers, Toward an Evangelical Public Policy

Christians should seek to penetrate the world of the mass media and to equip themselves as television script writers, producers, and performers. We can hardly complain of the low standard of many current programs if we take no constructive initiatives to provide alternatives which are not only technically equal if not better, but more wholesome as well. — Johh Stott, Between Two Worlds

Clearly articulated theological reflection provides Christians with ground rules for participation in public life. It bestows content and meaning for the kind of response Christians might have to controversial issues when they arise. — Mark G. Toulouse, God in Public

Everyone realizes what ‘pro-life’ people want to impose: They want to protect the baby and thus impose on the mother the duty of carrying her child to term. But what is so often missed in this debate is that ‘pro-choice’ activists want to impose their morals on others, as well: They want to impose the morals of the mother on the baby and, in some cases, on the father. When an abortion is the choice, the morals imposed on the baby come in the form of a knife, a vacuum, or scalding chemicals. Such a choice also imposes on the biological father by depriving him of fatherhood and the right to protect his child. — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear — fear of insecurity. — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

for the first 240 years of modern science (1620-1860), the belief in the Creation of the world was the dominant view in the scientific community. Sir Isaac Newton’s statement serves to illustrate this belief: ‘This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.’ — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

Great teachers know that people tend to learn more when they are involved than when they are uninvolved. When you are talking, students may or may not get involved in learning. But when they are talking, students must get involved. So the first principle of involvement in learning is this - to some degree, the less the Bible teacher talks, the more the students learn. — Richards & Bredfeldt, Creative Bible Teaching

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them. — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

If you are going to bore people, don’t bore them with the Gospel. Bore them with calculus, bore them with earth science, bore them with world history. But it is a sin to bore people with the Gospel. — Howard Hendricks, Creative Bible Teaching

In God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

In Luke 6:12-16 we see our Lord in the process of choosing His men. Three criteria were employed, all of which are usable by any teacher: (1) He bathed His choices in prayer. Jesus spent an entire night seeking the Father’s mind. John 17:6,9 informs us these were those the Father had given him. (2) He chose individuals with proven characteristics. Jesus had extensive and intimate involvement with these men - at least a year, some thing more - living and ministering together. (3) Jesus opted for diversity in His choices. He handpicked a radical and a redneck, extroverts and introverts, natural leaders and those we seldom hear from. — Howard G. Hendricks , The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

In the final analysis, those who say they want no morals imposed on others really want their own morals imposed on everyone. The truth is, all laws impose their morals on others, good or bad. Good laws don’t allow ‘anything goes’ - they protect innocent people by limiting the freedom of others to do harm. And that means a good morality must be imposed…. legislating morality is not only ethical, it is also unavoidable and necessary for a functioning society. It is impossible not to legislate morality. — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

It is evident that man never attains a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. — John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

it is your and my calling as citizens rather than mere subjects to encourage the state to live up to its task of promoting justice and serving the general welfare. When all around [people] are saying that the state is nothing more than an arena for negotiating power relationships, the Christian will never weary of insisting that the task of the state in God’s creational and providential order is to promote justice and serve the common good. — Nicholas Walterstorff , Toward an Evangelical Public Policy

It makes an e-e-enormous amount of difference if you face conflict in your own strength - or if you face it with Jesus. — Bill Lane, The Walk

Jesus wanted his disciples to be with him in the face of personal rejection. He knew that the call of God on the disciples’ lives meant that they would also find themselves in conflict with their own families and with biblical scholars (and practically everyone else.) Learning to deal with rejection is an important part of preparing for ministry. It [rejection] seems to be inevitable. — Michael Card, The Walk

love of God leads us to love our neighbor, and love of neighbor requires our participation in the culture and in the political proccess. — R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Culture Shift

More important than any amount of grandeur of style to those of us who seek to be listened to with obedience is the life of the speaker. A wise and eloquent speaker who lives a wicked life certainly educates many who are eager to learn, although he is useless to his own soul, as scripture puts it (Ecc 37:2). That is why Paul says ‘ Let Christ be proclaimed, whether in pretence or in truth’ (Phil 1:18). Christ is the truth, and yet the truth can be proclaimed even by the untruth, in the sense that things which are right and true may be proclaimed by a wicked and deceitful heart. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. We are looking for an ally where we are offered a Master or - a Judge. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Nowhere are Christians urged to go off by themselves and set up their own social institutions. With the exception, of course, of religious institutions, they are to participate side by side with non-Christians in the institutions of their society: marriage, family, economy, and polity. They are to do so with a difference, however, a difference both in how they understand the significance of those institutions and how they conduct themselves within them. — Nicholas Walterstorff, Toward an Evangelical Public Policy

oratorical ability, so effective a resource to commend either right or wrong, is available to both sides; why then is it not acquired by good and zealous Christians to fight for the truth, if the wicked employ it in the service of iniquity and error, to achieve their perverse and futile purposes? — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘Do not neglect your gift’ (1 Tim 4:14) and ‘fan into flame the gift of God (2 Tim 1:6). A spiritual gift is ‘fanned into flame’ when it is exercised or used. To let it lie dormant or unused signals a shortcoming in good stewardship. — Roy B. Zuck, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

Prior to our conversion we were sin’s prisoners, and even after our conversion we continue to fight the presence of sin, though we’re freed from the power and penalty of sin. And if you aren’t aware of this danger, you’ll never sufficiently appreciate the significance of His death. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

real moral arguments are not possible without moral absolutes. Without absolutes, all disagreements would be nothing more than differences of opinion. For example, one person would be ‘right’ in asserting Hitler was ‘better’ than Mother Theresa. Another person would also be ‘right’ in declaring that murder is the ‘best’ thing anyone could do; there’s nothing wrong with child abuse or slavery; rape should be encouraged; kindness to others should be outlawed; there’s no moral difference between the ideals of the Ku-Klux Klan and those of Martin Luther King, etc. Our morally informed consciences tell us that these conclusions are nonsense - they’re absolutely wrong. And if they are wrong, than so is relativism. — Geisler & Turek , Legislating Morality

Sleep is a gift that God makes available to all humanity. It’s another of the innumerable illustrations of His extravagant generosity not only toward His people but even toward those who are hostile and opposed to Him. And we, as His own people, should not only thank Him but also respond fully and appropriately and humbly in receiving this gift. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

So it seems to me that the following advice is beneficial for young people who are keen and intelligent, who fear God and seek a life of true happiness. Do not venture without due care into any branches of learning outside the church of Christ, as if they were a means to attaining the happy life, but discriminate sensibly and carefully between them. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Some teachers focus on the content they desire to cover in the class as the primary factor in teaching. Creative Bible teachers do not. They recognize the necessity of teaching the truth of the Bible and the importance of strong content, but they also know that they teach students, not lessons. — Richards & Bredfeldt, Creative Bible Teaching

The aim of our orator, then, when speaking of things which are just and holy and good - and he should not speak of anything else - the aim, as I say, that he pursues to the best of his ability when he speaks of these things is to be listened to with understanding, with pleasure, and with obedience. He should be in no doubt that any ability he has and however much he has derives more from his devotion to prayer than his dedication to oratory; and so by praying for himself and for those he is about to address, he must become a man of prayer before becoming a man of words. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

The bottom-line qualification for leadership is for one to have a following. No matter what other credentials a person has, if no one follows, it is quite a stretch to call that person a leader. A helper-leader is one who is ready to lead or follow, to serve or accept service from others. To quiet the voices that lead to pride or arrogance (the ones that say, ‘You deserve better than this’) and the voices that lead to dependence and failure to use our gifts (the ones that ask ‘Who do you think you are?’ and say, ‘You can’t possibly do this?’), requires prayer and support. — Susan Hunt & Peggy Hutcheson, Leadership for Women in the Church

The church must affirm senior citizenry because we live in a society that puts a premium on youth. We tend to look at retired people in the light of what they have been or have accomplished, rather than what they are or perhaps still will accomplish. The result to the older person is a feeling of having been shelved, and the body of Christ should provide a balanced view. — Kenneth O. Gangel, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

The fundamental explanation of our conversion was not that we were wiser or morally superior to others in choosing God, but that God chose to have mercy on us and intervened in our lives, revealing our need for His provision of the gospel. Our salvation is owed completely to the sovereign grace of God. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

the interpreter and teacher of the divine scriptures, the defender of the true faith and the vanquisher of error, must communicate what is good and eradicate what is bad, and in this process of speaking must win over the antagonistic, rouse the apathetic, and make clear to those who are not conversant with the matter under discussion what they should expect. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

the Moral Law is not always the standard by which we treat others, but it is nearly always the standard by which we expect others to treat us. It does not describe how we behave, but how we expect others to behave. In other words, it is not the way people do behave, but the way people ought to behave. — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

the moral philosophy upon which our nation was founded was presented explicitly in the Declaration of Independence. It reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Notice that our Founding Fathers, in accordance with the Moral Law, affirmed their belief in (1) a Creator (God), (2) Creation (that man was created), and (3)God-given moral absolutes (that man has God-given ‘unalienable Rights.’). — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

The old adage that we ‘learn by doing’ is true. Somehow, when we begin to live out what we have learned, we are interested in learning more. The heart is like a sponge. Fill it with knowledge of the Word that remains unapplied, and it becomes stagnant. But use the knowledge and the heart becomes ready to soak in more. Application has a way of motivating learning. — Richards & Bredfeldt , Creative Bible Teaching

The real issue here is not if pride exists in your heart; it’s where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life. Scripture shows us that pride is strongly and dangerously rooted in our lives, far more than most of us care to admit or even think about. — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures - and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of their meaning. Some people read them but neglect them; by their reading they profit in knowledge, by their neglect they forfeit understanding. Those who remember the words less closely but penetrate to the heart of scripture to the eyes of their own heart are much to be preferred, but better than either is the person who not only quotes scripture when he chooses, but also understands it as he should. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

there is a critical difference between legislating religion and legislating morality. We can avoid legislating a particular religion, but we can’t avoid legislating morality. All laws, by their very nature, declare one behavior to be right and another to be wrong. We need laws to maintain a safe and functioning society. So the only question is, ‘Whose morality do we legislate?’ — Geisler & Turek, Legislating Morality

There is a danger in forgetting what one has to say while working out a clever way to say it. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

There is no genuinely secular state, no secular argument, and no secular motivation, even among those who consider themselves secular. There is no neutrality. On questions as ultimate as the existence or nonexistence of God, or the binding or nonbinding character of His dictates and commands, or the objectivity or subjectivity of morality, or the absoluteness or nonabsoluteness of truth. There are no mediating positions. There is no neutrality. — R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Culture Shift

This year millions of Americans will take a step which will change their own lives significantly, and profoundly affect the next generation: they will have children. How they raise their youngsters will have a greater impact on society than how they vote, what technologies they produce, the wars they fight, or the art they create. — James R. Slaughter, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

Three basic facts that shape the context of evangelical political engagement - the sinful nature of the political world, the limitations of Christians engaged in the political world, and the political world being downstream from culture - are not an argument for avoiding political engagement. Far from it. We are firmly convinced that God calls Christians to be active in the political world as Christians, that is, as persons whose stances and actions are shaped by their faith in Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives and their Savior from sin. — Stephen Monsma & Mark Rodgers, Toward an Evangelical Public Policy

We as evangelicals have much to offer those ‘in authority over us,’ and to fail to act is to fail to shine the light of the gospel in the halls of government that are part of God’s ordering of this world. — Stephen Monsma & Mark Rodgers, Toward an Evangelical Public Policy

What is the use of correct speech if it does not meet with the listener’s understanding? There is no point in speaking at all if our words are not understood by the people to whose understanding our words are directed. — Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Whenever we are faced with a challenge, like mentoring another person, we must learn to flee to the life of Jesus. In any given situation, we should always ask the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ or ‘How did Jesus accomplish this?’ In order to do this, we must all become experts on his life. — Michael Card, The Walk

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

While it is true that teachers also serve, they serve best by leading. Servant leaders are not passive but active; they are not waiting for something to happen but causing something to happen. We all embrace the concept but fail to understand exactly what is involved. It embraces more than acts; it is an attitude that pervades all that we do. — Howard G. Hendricks, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

Women who have a love for the church will not, and should not, be satisfied with pouring all their energies into outside ministry opportunities. This is where shared responsibility comes into play. Women are responsible for using their abilities for the good of their local churches. The churches are responsible for employing the gifts of all their members. — Susan Hunt & Peggy Hutcheson, Leadership for Women in the Church

Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do, and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god. — Harold Best, Unceasing Worship

You can impress people at a distance but you can only impact them up close. Teachers need to intensify their interpersonal relations with their students. Leadership is caught not taught. — Howard G. Hendricks, The Christian Educators Handbook on Teaching

You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society. — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

… though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity