John Ortberg Quotes
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The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because... he was a single man.
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I know that those of us who go into church work are to regard ourselves as servants, are to offer our lives as a gift.
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Politics, after all, is largely about power. And power goes to the core of our issues of control and narcissism and need to be right and tendency to divide the human race into 'us' vs. 'them.'
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There are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God's counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator.
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Authentic spiritual authority is what puts you in touch with reality.
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In community, we discover who we really are and how much transformation we still require. This is why I am irrevocably committed to small groups. Through them, we can accomplish our God-entrusted work to transform human beings.
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The question isn't if someone will sign up for spiritual formation; it's just who and what our spirits will be formed by.
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Better to be a loving person without knowing how you got there, than an expert no one can stand to be around.
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From ancient times, the core idea of the soul is the soul is the capacity to integrate different functions into a single being or into a single person. The soul is what holds us all together: what connects our will and our minds and our bodies and connects us to God.
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I'm not sure ministry can ever have the urgency it requires if it is not aware of evil, both externally and internally.
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The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it's still our deepest longing - but it's now also our deepest fear.
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'Who Is This Man?' is about the impact of Jesus on human history. Most people - including most Christians - simply have no idea of the extent to which we live in a Jesus-impacted world.
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A bad sermon is like a car wreck - everyone slows down to see what happened.
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As much as we complain about it, though, there's part of us that is drawn to a hurried life. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means I don't have to look too closely at my heart or life. It keeps us from feeling our loneliness.
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There are no clear boundary lines between what is physiological, what is psychological, and what is spiritual. Those are language domains that make sense and have integrity but overlap significantly.
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My main job is to live with deep contentment, joy, and confidence in my everyday experience of life with God. Everything else is job number two.
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Ghettos and barrios and abusive homes and trauma wards may produce scarred souls; they can cripple more human spirits than they strengthen.
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When it comes to sermon writing, generally there are two problems. Some preachers love the research stage but hate the writing, and they start writing too late. Others don't like doing research, so they move way too fast to the writing part.
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I need an inspiration that is grounded in reality while thoroughly transcendent.
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Sin is protean. It is a cancer that keeps mutating, and just when you think you have killed off one form, it turns out a deadlier strain yet is threatening your heart.
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Learning something new is a fabulous way to be refreshed. When work can grind you down, something about learning a new activity thrills the soul. It reminds you that the world is bigger than your desk and your to-do list.
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Evil exists. Evil is real. One of the hallmarks of evil is that it seeks to convince its victims that it exists 'out there.'
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Over time, grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness.
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Prudence is foresight and far-sightedness. It's the ability to make immediate decisions on the basis of their longer-range effects.