C.J. Mahaney Quotes

We don't accidentally drift into holiness; rather we mature gradually and purposefully, one choice at a time.

I find myself so easily discouraged. It is pathetic how easily I can be discouraged - easily discouraged by resistance, easily discouraged by opposition, easily discouraged by hardness of heart, easily discouraged by blindness.

Modesty is humility expressed in dress.

We cannot free ourselves from pride and selfish ambition; a divine rescue is absolutely necessary.

Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from GOD and acceptance by GOD through my obedience to GOD

Its important to understand that a legalist isn't just someone with higher standards or more rules than you. A lot of us wrongly stereotype a legalistic person as one who doesn't go to the movies, or who thinks that any music with a beat is evil. Legalism is much more subtle and serious than that. Here's a simple definition that I use: Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God.

Your greatest need is not a spouse. Your greatest need is to be delivered from the wrath of God - and that has already been accomplished for you through the death and resurrection of Christ. So why doubt that God will provide a much, much lesser need? Trust His sovereignty, trust His wisdom, trust His love.

A love for the world begins in the soul. It's subtle, not always immediately obvious to others, and often undetected by the people who are slowly succumbing to its lies.

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. Do you want a cross centered life? A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days.

So make it your aim and lifelong habit, when you see someone who's serving, to be reminded of the sacrifice of the Savior, for apart from His sacrifice there is no serving.

It's not 'those who help themselves' whom God helps; it's those who humble themselves.

We know the inner call to lay down our lives for one another because He laid down His life for us. What a powerful death! The cross ransoms, the cross liberates, the cross transforms!

Only those who are humble can consistently identify evidences of grace in others who need adjustment. It's something the proud and the self-righteous are incapable of.

If you are anything like me, you do a lot of listening to yourself everyday.

Truly edifying words are words that reveal the character and the promises and the activity of God. They're cross-centered words. They're words rooted in and derived from Scripture, words that identify the active presence of God, and words that communicate the evidences of grace that you observe in others. They're words that flow from a humble heart.

To learn true humility, we need more than a redefinition of greatness; we need even more than Jesus' personal example of humble service. What we need is His death.

First importance. The Bible tells us that, while there are many different callings and many possible areas of service in the kingdom of God, one transcendent truth should define our lives. One simple truth should motivate our work and affect every part of who we are.
Christ died for our sins.
If there's anything in life that we should be passionate about, it's the gospel. And I don't mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate in thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.

Sunday is the best day of the week because we celebrate the risen Christ of the cross in the local church, the dearest place on earth.

Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.

Endurance in ministry is rooted in the eternal perspective. The absence of an eternal perspective makes you vulnerable to losing heart.

Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification.

Over the years, I have studied church history as well as the contemporary church, and I noticed how rare it is for a God-glorifying transition of leadership to take place in a local church.

Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness.

The biblical purpose of every conversation you have, in every personal interaction, is that they person who hears you will receive grace.

Because what's perplexing is not that you and I encounter suffering in this life; what's really perplexing is that He suffered in our place. Why did the innocent One suffer for our sins?

The cross was the centerpiece of Paul's theology. It wasn't merely one of Paul's messages; it was the message. He taught about other things as well, but whatever he taught was always derived from, and related to, the foundational reality that Jesus Christ died so that sinners would be reconciled to God and forgiven by God.

It is true that I have been studying both humility and pride for many years for the purpose of weakening pride in my own life and cultivating humility by the grace of God.

If you crossed Matthew Henry's path, you would quickly realize that here was someone taking thankful notice of all God was doing for him, and doing so in an attractively joyful way that was infectious.

All topics should be studied through the lens of the Gospel.

All gifts from God are intended to direct our attention to God and create fresh affection for God.

Students in the school of prayer never graduate from the school of the Gospel.

Pride takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification. That's the motive and ultimate purpose of pride - to rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him. The proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God, thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only He is worthy to receive

Encourage others each and every day–nothing's more important than our words.

Did you know that, on average, each of us speaks about twenty-five thousand words daily? My last book didn't have that many words. A lot of language is flowing out of our mouths every day and having an impact on those around us. But how much of that flow is fulfilling God's intended purpose for our speech? How much of it reflects pride, rather than a gospel-motivated humility?

We may assume God gave us music just to make us happy, not holy; he actually gave us music to make us happy and holy.

Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel.

Unless you see yourself standing there with the shrieking crowd, full of hostility and hatred for the holy and innocent Lamb of God, you don't really understand the nature and depth of your sin or the necessity of the cross.

What joy the gospel gives me! I can approach the throne of God with confidence-not because I've done a good job at my spiritual duties, but because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Every one of us can honestly claim that "worst of sinners" title. No, it isn't specially reserved for the Adolf Hitlers, Timothy McVeighs, and Osama bin Ladens of the world. William Law writes, "We may justly condemn ourselves as the greatest sinners we know because we know more of the folly of our own heart than we do of other people's."
So admit you're the worst sinner you know. Admit you're unworthy and deserve to be condemned. But don't stop there! Move on to rejoicing in the Savior who came to save the worst of sinners. Lay down the luggage of condemnation and kneel down in worship at the feet of Him who bore your sins. Cry tears of amazement.
And confess with Paul: "I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:16)

No matter the severity of suffering we experience in this life, it will always be less that what we have deserved for our sins

Pastoral ministry is a sacrificial call with unique challenges. We are called to take the Gospel to those with hard hearts and blind eyes.

The personal desolation Christ is experiencing on the cross is what you and I should be experiencing
but instead, Jesus is bearing it, and bearing it all alone.
Why alone?
He's alone so that we might never be alone.

Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.

God is decisively drawn to the humble.

The presence of any humility in my life is purely and completely an evidence of God's grace. From my perspective, I am not a humble man. I am a proud man pursuing humility by the grace of God.

As we mature personally, as our families mature, and as our churches mature, we need the doctrine of sin more, not less; and we need to keep growing in rightly understanding and applying this doctrine. Be assured that this is no less true if you're a pastor or teacher or ministry worker. There's no pastoral privilege in relation to sin. There's no ministry exemption from the opposition of the flesh. There's only a heightened responsibility to oppose sin and to weaken the flesh, as an example to the flock.