Earlier this week, the famed Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias passed away from cancer at the age of 74. Zacharias had an international ministry that took him across the globe defending the Christian faith and presenting the gospel. He had a prodigious travel schedule and wrote many books. He leaves behind a tremendous legacy and a wealth of wisdom and insight into human nature, society, and theology. What follows are some of my favorite quotes from Ravi.
John Calvin is both one of the greatest theologians of all time and one of the most polarizing theologians of all time. He lived from 1509-1564 and was a brilliant writer and preacher. Calvin’s greatest work was his voluminous theological treatise “Institutes on the Christian Religion.” It’s a summary of Calvin’s theology for which he is best known and a theological system that was later simply called Calvinism. Within Calvin’s theological understanding of the Bible, people were viewed as being so sinful that even the act of coming to God in faith was a supernatural work of grace and sovereignty that came from God. This is summarized in technical theologies concepts such as “unconditional election,” “limited atonement,” and “irresistible grace.”
Regardless of if someone is a Calvinist or not, John Calvin had one of the greatest theological minds of all time. And his ideas are worth studying and being familiar with.
Faith and works
It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone.
Joy and suffering
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
Grace and judgment
God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.”
Jesus
Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.
Truth
Peace is not to be purchased by the sacrifice of truth.
Preachers
If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than preaches that sermon.
Contentment
The happiness promised us in Christ does not consist in outward advantages-such as leading a joyous and peaceful life, having rich possessions, being safe from all harm, and abounding with delights such as the flesh commonly longs after. No, our happiness belongs to the heavenly life!
Creation
There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
Prayer
Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.
Blessing
However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.
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Relentless effort (not talent or intelligence) is the key to achieving great things in your life. Struggle is part of the process. It is hard and often painful. But it’s also necessary, because it’s in the struggle that great things are achieved.
-Urban Meyer, in Above the Line
Tonight, one of the greatest college football coaches of all time retires.
Urban Meyer concludes his seventh and final season as the head coach at Ohio State. Meyer has amassed an incredible record at Ohio State and throughout his coaching career. Coming into tonight’s Rose Bowl, Meyer is 82-9 as the Buckeye head coach. In his seven seasons, Meyer never lost more than two games in a season. He lost four conference games total. He won his first 24 games in Columbus.
He’s one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. Three national championships. He won .85 percent of his games. Meyer had four winning streaks of 20 or more games (to put that in perspective, no other coach even has three).
Great coaches can teach us all things. I think of things I’ve read over the years from people like John Wooden, Vince Lomardi, Woody Hayes, Bobby Knight.
For people who have succeeded in competitive endeavors, they have insights from which we can all benefit in terms of work ethic, leadership, and grit.
We so often make excuses for our failures and mediocrity. Great coaches don’t settle for mediocrity. They demand excellence from themselves, from their staffs, and from their players. We so often chalk up failure to a lack of resources, things beyond our control, or the fault o others. Great coaches show us all that excellence comes from hard work. Success comes from preparation and learning from mistakes. Success comes from wanting it more than your opponent.
It’s true on the playing field, on the court, and in life.
“I’ve come to learn that leadership is not automatically granted to you because of your position or your salary or the size of your office. Leadership is influence based on trust that you have earned. A leader is not someone who declares what he wants and then gets angry when he doesn’t get it. A true leader is someone who is going someplace and taking people with him, a catalyst for elite performance who enables people to achieve things they wouldn’t achieve on their own. A leader is someone who earns trust, sets a clear standard, and then equips and inspires people to meet that standard.”
-Urban Meyer in Above the Line
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Susanna Wesley was the mother of 19 kids, but her two most famous, were sons John and Charles. The Wesley brothers, along with George Whitfield founded Methodism. John Wesley was one of the most prolific preachers of the 18th century, preaching an estimated 40,000 sermon in his lifetime. His brother Charles was a great hymn writer, considered by some the best ever. Charles wrote classics such as “Hark! The Herald Angles Sing,” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “And can it be that I should gain,” and “come thou long expected Jesus.”
Incredible men raised by an incredible woman.
I’ve always loved this quote from Susanna Wesley on the nature of sin. (more…)
Who doesn’t love Mister Rogers? In trying times such as these, I know our society could use his wisdom. So much disagreement, polarization, and anger in our society today.
Fred Rogers died in 2003. There is a new documentary about Rogers, appropriately titled “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
I thought it would be worth taking a look at this man’s own words. Here’s a little taste of the Philosophy of Mister Rogers.
Community
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.
The meaning of life
At the center of the Universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service.
The uniqueness of you
You are a very special person. There is only one like you in the whole world. There’s never been anyone exactly like you before, and there will never be again. Only you. And people can like you exactly as you are.
Making a difference
If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.
Choices
You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.
Service
I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said “yes,” when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.
Compromise
It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.
Happiness
The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.
Identity
What’s been important in my understanding of myself and others is the fact that each one of us is so much more than any one thing. A sick child is much more than his or her sickness. A person with a disability is much, much more than a handicap. A pediatrician is more than a medical doctor. You’re MUCH more than your job description or your age or your income or your output.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
