Vance Havner (1901 – 1986) began preaching at 14 and never stopped until he was called home to glory. A highly sought after conference speaker, Havner always shared that a Christian should exhibit faithfulness to Jesus in every area of life. Someone once said of Havner: “Old Vance was half Charles Spurgeon and half Billy Sunday with the voice of Will Rogers.”1 To this humble man of God Jesus was everything! I pray that the following quotes by Havner will inspire, convict, and challenge you to walk closer with the Lord.2
“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.”
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. ”
“The task of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
“Let it never be forgotten that, although we may do nothing about the Word we hear, the Word will do something to us. The same sun melts ice and hardens clay, and the Word of God humbles or hardens the human heart.”
“Salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way.”
“To some, Christianity is an argument. To many, it is a performance. To a few, it is an experience.”
“Worry is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”
“I don’t believe God is going to fill anybody with the Holy Spirit until the purpose of their heart is to glorify Jesus and to glorify God.”
“A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child and the hide of a rhinoceros. His biggest problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.”
“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.”
“We must be careful not to be so scared of getting out on a limb that we never get up the tree.”
“If you are a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world.”
“We are the salt of the earth, mind you, not the sugar. Our ministry is to truly cleanse and not just to change the taste.”
“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.”
“The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.”
“It is not our business to make the message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.”
“God is on the lookout today for a man who will be quiet enough to get a message from Him, brave enough to preach it, and honest enough to live it.”
“I remember when the Titanic sank in 1912, it was the ship that was supposed to be unsinkable. The only thing it ever did was sink. When it took off from England, all kinds of passengers were aboard – millionaires, celebrities, people of moderate means, and poor folks down in the steerage. But a few hours later when they put the list in the Cunard office in New York, it carried only two categories – lost and saved. Grim tragedy had leveled all distinctions.”
“The tragedy of today is that the situation is desperate but the saints are not.”
“If you see a Bible that is falling apart, it probably belongs to someone who isn’t!”
“The Word of God is either absolute or obsolete.”
“Our efficiency without God’s sufficiency is only a deficiency.”
“The primary qualification for a missionary is not love for souls, as we so often hear, but love for Christ.”
“No man can be a Christian by knowingly and willfully taking Christ on the installment plan, as Savior now, and Lord later.”
“The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.”
“When a man makes alliance with the Almighty, giants look like grasshoppers.”
1 Who Was Vance Havner? | Jack Wellman (patheos.com)
2 All of these Havner quotes are from the following two websites:
Inspirational Quotes by Vance Havner (bibleportal.com)
TOP 25 QUOTES BY VANCE HAVNER (of 206) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)