James MacDonald Quotes

Beware of begging God for things you don't have to have.

This fight is not going to be over in 10 minutes or 10 weeks; there's no quick solution. If you think it's taking too long, remember, God is with you.

Suffering always reveal idols of the heart.

Faith is active confidence in God.

Revival is not emotional extravagance where people are caught up in the moment and fall down, act bizarrely, unbiblically, and out of control. That's not revival.

I don't have everything I want but I have everything I need. That's contentment.

At the end of life, each of us must answer the question, Whose story captured my soul?

Trust means you anchor your heart in the reality of God's awareness of your situation.

You would think that the more a man knows and loves God, the deeper he gets into understanding His Word, and the further he progresses in personal holiness, the better he would be at being a watchful man, but that is sadly not the case.

The day you stop loving your people, they're not your people anymore.

Preachers who pride themselves on never giving a public invitation to be saved, never calling for a response of any kind, reveal not greater fidelity to the gospel but a lack of faith in its power.

Colossians 2:6 says, "As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him." The path to salvation by faith travels down the way of repentance and we never leave that road.

All the stories and poems and letters and oracles and wisdom verses of God's Word, like individual instruments in a great orchestra, serve THE WHOLE story.

God's Word doesn't change, the message doesn't shift. It can't be compromised in any way. It's where we stand firm.

Reality is God-centered and all human beings are worshipers, whether or not they are conscious of this reality and its implications.

I'll take a bath and then I'll return. No, God is the bath.

All God's righteous hatred of all that sin from all of human history was poured out upon Christ as He hung there on that cross.

When we see the faults of others, we are to forgive and forbear in humility.

More of anything other than God will never fill that longing for fulfillment He has placed within you and me.

Because in prayer I expand my sense of how I have offended God. And I thereby lower my sense of how much others have offended me. Prayer is changing me.

In a society where rationality has ruled so long, the church frequently fails to see that in forsaking the weekly pursuit of the transcendent, we have given up the only ground that was uniquely ours in this world. In attempting to make the church something that can attract and add value to secular mind-sets, we have turned our backs on our one true proposition - transcendence.

Pride rises above and against the knowledge of God, acting as if He is unworthy to be retained in our thoughts.

God forgive the church of Jesus Christ for trading its birthright access to the transcendent for the pot of stew that is horizontal helpfulness. How shortsighted and human centered. The outcome of this disaster is that we have created a Creator in our own image who weeps, cares, and longs to help, but in the end we doubt He can because we have made Him so much like ourselves. In making God our buddy, we find Him nice for cuddling but not much help when the hurricane comes.

Every man needs a place to be open and vulnerable with brothers leaning together upon the Lord.

While the United States is becoming the most culturally diverse nation in the world, less than 5.5% of Christian congregations are multiethnic.

Small groups are the place to push past Bible knowledge and on to life application so that we can see people's lives transform more and more into the image of Christ.

Within the nature of God is a strength that is fashioned in His perfection. Strength flows from the fountain of God's integrity. Honest people are the strongest people.

The Christian life is the life of Jesus in me by the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not me striving to live like Jesus as a "thank-you" for saving me. Christianity is Christ taking up residence in me by the Holy Spirit and living His resurrection life through me.

As men we cannot take our eyes off the road for even a second. One bad moment can destroy a lifetime of careful watching. One weak, selfish decision can crash a decade of keeping your eyes on the road. God grant to us Holy Throne-Room clarity at all times in every situation so that what we are really living for doesn't crash before our eyes.

Whenever you are in a critical temper, it is impossible to enter into communion with God.

The reason I withdrew from formal, regular, scheduled community was that I failed to experience the two things my doctoral thesis revealed men absolutely must experience to remain in community. First, men need confidentiality. They have to believe that what they disclose will remain in that room and never be shared with anyone - not a spouse, not a cousin in a far country, no one. Second, men need to experience mutuality. Men need to know that if they bring you in on whatever battles they have kept secret, you won't "leave them hanging," or pridefully conceal the truth about yourself. They need you to quickly match their personal disclosure.

Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half as persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way

God brings us low, even to the point of death, in order to bring us up again.

The Christian way is a life of faith. In order to hold on to the promises of God, you've got to believe them and live by them.

the unpopularity of an obviously right action should not hinder the execution of an obviously right decision. My

If you're wrong in the way you're right, you're wrong even if you're right.

Love is selfless! Love is "you before me" decision making. Need it shorter? Love = Ub4me! There it is.

When will we see that the depravity of the human heart is not most clearly on display in the gay pride parade or at the abortion clinic? The greatest failures in human experience are not seen in the activist atheist rallying unbelief or the scorning skeptic ridiculing Jesus Christ, or the senseless wars, or baffling famines. The greatest failure in human existence is the failure of Christ-followers to love one another earnestly from a pure heart

ELEVATE Lord, thank You for a fresh view of Your exalted holy nature. Great God of the universe, holy and high, lifted up. I exalt You, Lord. You are the object of my greatest thoughts, the end of my deepest affections. I give myself wholly to You and to You alone. Revive me according to Your Word even as I bow. I ask in Jesus' strong name. Amen. REPLICATE

When we shift from personal purity to personal happiness, we lose biblical hope because we are not focusing on God's agenda, we are focusing on our own. God's agenda is guaranteed on our agenda is not.

When we pray, we are speaking to the One Whose eternal purpose and designs are unfolding as our present realities. In order to find hope in them, we must seek HIM and HIS perspective. This requires a keen understanding of the redemptive nature of our existence, which points to the glorious gospel of Christ.

All I can say is Bishop Jakes would not currently accept the designation of Prosperity Preacher or Word of Faith Preacher as an accurate description of what he believes currently. Now his ministry will have to bear that out. I'm not here to defend him or stick up for his various errors. And I don't want to minimize error that is significant. All I'm saying is that he, as of two weeks ago, would not accept those terms, in private conversation, as accurate descriptors of what he believes.

Proverbs 18:22 says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing.

In our humanness we can't handle all His holiness; so God, in mercy, raises the veil and dwells in mystery.

Revival is: God, gladly at the center of my life, experienced and enjoyed.

When we want decisions more than we want disciples, we get tares instead of true converts and Ichabod, departed glory for the church.

Don't get a bad attitude like they did back in the wilderness, or you're going to be joining them.

John 8:44 says Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He captures and conquers men's lives through his convincing lies, often nullifying good intentions with wrongful actions that seemed manly in the moment but in the end lacked the balancing power of clarity.

Satan mounts his mutiny against God through a deceitful stronghold: God is untrustworthy. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, he places God's heart on trial by whispering insidious lies: God is holding back on you. He wants you to jump through hoops in order to earn His love. He's stingy. He doesn't have your best interest in mind. You're better off trusting in yourself. Your resources and functional saviors work better then waiting and trusting in Him.

Our view of human problems determines who is qualified to speak to them. If sin is the primary human problem, then those with the theological and practical expertise in dealing with sin – in its varied and complex forms – should lead the way in the field of people-helping. Unless we have an accurate and robust conception of sin, the church will concede much of its work to outside professional and will be ill-equipped to cooperate with them when needed.

Christians have a way of crouching in their own culture instead of penetrating the one they live in with the gospel. Too many migrate to a faith that elevates issue debate and substitutes a set of personal preferences for the glorious gospel.

Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired.

Nothing is more important than your family. Nothing comes before your responsibility to watch out for them and provide a home safe from any assault upon them, body or soul.

We must not think that action alone is successful Christ-following. In God's eyes, the motives behind our actions are of paramount importance. You can want a godly family or a successful career or a low handicap or a beautiful lawn, but if you want them for yourself and not the glory of God, it's a fail.

Revival is renewed interest after a period of indifference or decline. He wants to wake us up, to refresh our faith - to fire us up again.

Without a complete view of sin, people can burn out in their pursuit of pleasure.

And call no man your father on earth ... " No religious leader is to be called father. How clear is that? Don't call people "father" for " ... you have one Father who is in heaven" (v. 9).

I've learned to be careful of becoming a critic. Criticism really sours your heart.

Spending too much time in one's individual silo can produce pride, isolation, and a stagnated ministry.

Faith doesn't grow or deepen when we cower in secrecy. Faith strengthens as we go public.

God brings tests into your life because your faith in Him
your belief that He is in control and that He is good
can be proved only in times when life is hard.

Given the impossibility of not failing one another, when the Bible says, "We all stumble in many ways,"7 the only way forward in loving community with one another is forgiveness.

If all you are doing is spending time with the struggling members of your church and you are not building proactively into your church's culture, and you are being shortsighted and limiting the effectiveness of your ministry.

When you worship, you are saying, "This one is worth more." At the same time you are implying, "I am worth less." Worship is the magnification of God and the minimization of self. One of the most succinct expressions of a worshipper's heart in all the New Testament came from John the Baptist: "He must increase, but I must decrease."5

When we fail to assist people responding to the gospel at church, we train our people to repeat that failure at home and at work.

God can and will wipe all that shame and sadness away if you will only repent.

When revival comes to the human heart, it's a torrent, it's a cascade, it's a deluge. It's a downpour!

God's love is not a pampering love. God's love is a perfecting love. God does not get up every day trying to figure how He can plant a bigger smile on your face. God is in the process of growing us and changing us. His love is a transforming love.

Let's embrace the expectation that we will not be treated better than the early disciples when we share Christ the way they did.

Our job is to get people to Jesus Christ and to get them back to Him in profound, life-altering ways every week.

Eventually everyone vacates church where God is not obviously present and working. Getting people back to church is pointless unless God comes back first - that's what Vertical Church is all about! Ritual church, tradition church, felt-need church, emotional-hype church, rules church, Bible-boredom church, relevant church, and many other iterations are all horizontal substitutes for God come down, we all get rocked and radically altered, Vertical Church.

Criticism plugs the flow of God's blessing.

I will not fail: God is always victorious.

The entity God created to traffic His transcendence has fallen far from its mission when it chooses instead to traffic what can be found on any street corner or at the local mall. You may ask, "But how has the church done that?"
* By offering secularists what they find mildly interesting and calling it church.
*By submitting to self-help sermons where encounter with God is not even on the agenda.
* By letting the horizontal excellence of the show stand in for Vertical impact.
*By substituting the surprise or shock of superficial entertainment for the supernatural.
Church was designed to deliver what we were created to long for. Church must again be about a Vertical encounter that interrupts and alters everything.

God is holy, and to see His holiness means to do it His way.

Wouldn't it be great if attacking others to feel better about ourselves was something we outgrew like acne or crying when we have to go to bed? The fact is, many men still exhaust themselves in critiquing and attacking others. Maybe we fear that other people's success will somehow diminish ours. Maybe we take responsibility for more than we really need to and have appointed ourselves protectors of some kingdom. Deeper down, though, men are driven to stand in judgment of others because we have a deeply engrained bent and a pesky, persistent pattern of seeming to be wise in our own eyes. This makes love an impossibility.

For those who love God all things work together for good.

When it's personal and painful, humble yourself.

We know we are called to act like quality men with urgency that is governed by clarity in the strength of the Lord. What remains is this matter of love.

If we had not experienced our deep sinfulness and Jesus' deep forgiveness through the cross, we will not love others well in the midst of their struggles. If we do not see the beauty and glory of God in our own redemption, we will not be able to offer a compelling redemptive vision for those who are hopeless and who doubt God's love for them.

Repentance is the key that unlocks the door to all that God has for us, but it is not easy.

Quality men are men under authority. Quality men listen and yield to the collective counsel of the wise and godly men around them. Whether your father was good or bad, loving or lecherous does not, in the end, give you license to do as you please. Our Daddy is God the Father and He expects that we will live in submission to His Word and His will for our lives. Quality men can hear the voice of their own flesh demanding satisfaction, calling out for privilege and private pleasure. They hear the voice of temptation just as worthless men do, but they say NO! In God's strength and for His glory, a quality man denies himself for a higher purpose and says yes to the Lord.

So often, it's others around us who can see where God wants to grow us even before we see it ourselves.

Worship is the actual act of ascribing worth directly to God. Worshipful actions may do this indirectly, but when the Bible commands and commends worship as our highest expression, it is not talking about anything other than direct, intentional, Vertical outpouring of adoration.

Whether you realize it or not, your ongoing battle with unbelief drives all your sinful thoughts, emotions, desires, and actions.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

With God, we can be satisfied and fulfilled with very little, but without Him, all that we have will always be dry and deeply disappointing.

Too often, we think of sin as self-contained, point-in-time choices with no interconnection or momentum. But sin refuses to remain contained in the moment it is conceived.

Too many times we're looking for ways to get around deep waters and dangerous fires, rather than through them. Has this ever been your experience?

Suffering related to circumstances beyond my control, suffering related to consequences of my besetting sin, and suffering caused by others who refused to see their own sin. In all these instances, the Lord has been at work, refining my focus upon personal holiness, amplifying my ministry through very humbling experiences, and reminding me repeatedly to extend grace not just to the gracious but to those who lack a grace I took too long to come to myself.

Doubt is a lack of confidence or assurance that God will keep his promises. Faith is an active confidence that God's promises are always true.

Men don't open up because they are prideful and self-protective. The lonely, isolated man is that way because he won't make himself known to others. Disclosure of self is the currency of intimacy. It's what our wives want and what true friendship demands. You don't have to spill your guts to everybody or anybody, but God will get you to the place where you know you need to do it with somebody. The temptation to keep it all inside is the downside of being wired as a protector. He loves us too much to leave us alone. You will never fulfill your potential as a man of God going it alone.

To disrespect a person made in the image and likeness of God is a lot worse than desecrating a flag. We should be offended and repulsed in the same way when God's image bearers are desecrated – abused, beaten, neglected, discriminated against, and not loved and taken care of as they should be.

Tell them," God said through Isaiah, "hard times are coming, but don't give up - now or ever. Don't let them underestimate My power to reorder the universe. Tell them to keep trusting Me and living the way I told them to in spite of what's coming.

Every step with God is a step of faith. Every lesson learned is a lesson of faith. Every victory won is a victory by faith. That's the prominence of faith in the New Testament.

The core of humanity's sin problem is not a horizontal behavior to be corrected but a Vertical relationship to be restored.

We also notice that Paul was focused. He had a clear goal, and he would not veer to the right or to the left from it. We can't help but wonder how many emails Paul would have skipped over, or how current he would have been with the news of the day, or even how vigorously he would be rooting for his favorite sports teams or athletes. Our ability to have information quickly is both a blessing and a curse. Our ability to function in a fast-paced society sometimes encourages us to focus on nothing of lasting value, just running from one temporal thing to the next. Just

Most counseling cases today involve good desires that have become overgrown. In these cases most relevant passages of Scripture may not be those that rebut particular manifestations of sin, but those that remind us to love God with all our hearts.

What you hope for determines what you live for. What you hope for determines WHO you live for. Hope misplaced can devastate you.

Be loving in conflict or be loving in frustration or let love command your every interaction because love never fails.