Vance Havner Quotes

       Vance Havner
       1901-1986
      
       Vance Havner started preaching at 14, and didn't stop 'til he went to glory! Through a preaching and writing ministry that spanned over 70 years, Vance Havner spoke forth the truth of God's Word in a most effectual manner.
      
       In addition to preaching in many of America's most influential churches, Dr. Havner was a highly sought speaker for conferences at places such as Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He frequently spoke at both state and national meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Havner delivered chapel messages and baccalaureate sermons at colleges such as the Citadel, Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University), Liberty University, Southeastern Baptist Seminary, and Garner-Webb College.
      
       Though Dr. Havner died in 1986, his influence for Christ continues. His ministry is a testimony to the way in which God can use one surrendered life to touch countless other lives. A preacher once said that: "Old Vance was half Charles Spurgeon and half Billy Sunday with the voice of Will Rogers.

If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.     Topics: Apathy It is one of the ironies of the ministry that the very man who works in God's name is often hardest put to find time for God. The parents of Jesus lost Him at church, and they were not the last ones to lose Him there.     Topics: Apathy People get so used to the dark that they think it is growing brighter.     Topics: Apathy Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.     Topics: Backsliding, Fellowship We may never be martyrs but we can die to self, to sin, to the world, to our plans and ambitions. That is the significance of baptism; we died with Christ and rose to new life.     Topics: Baptism Plenty of church members are shaky about what they believe, while not many are shaken by what they believe.     Topics: Believing, Church You can't tell it like it is, if you don't believe it like it was.     Topics: Believing God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.     Topics: Brokenness Some people are like wheelbarrows; useful only when pushed, and very easily upset. The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.     Topics: Character Salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way.     Topics: Christianity A soft and sheltered Christianity, afraid to be lean and lone, unwilling to face the storms and brave the heights, will end up fat and foul in the cages of conformity.     Topics: Christianity We are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts.     Topics: Christianity, Apathy