Quotes from Ed Stetzer

Through Scripture, we hear Christ's voice speaking into the outrage, giving us wisdom rather than forcing us to seek it from the chaotic masses. Through prayer, we cast our anxieties and fears upon Christ rather than pouring them out into a vat of outrage. Through fasting, we remind ourselves of the soul's dependence upon Christ and the insufficiency of everything else.

Outrage has no time for dialogue, and it won't be distracted by nuance or even truth.

Worldly love (licentiousness) seeks to endorse or embrace everything. It begins from the false dichotomy that we either accept without question people's beliefs and behavior (unless it is obviously destructive to someone else) or we are unloving. As a result, we cannot address underlying sin or rebellion. Thus, love is set as opposite to judgment.

But too many Christians are content in their own salvation and allow an ethnocentric provincialism to dismiss the imperative of God's mission to the nations.

A disciple who grows spiritually will have a growing desire to be a witness and reach out to those who are lost.

To play it safe is the most risky decision we could make. To risk is the safest decision we can make with God. No matter the short-term implications, we must obey God with reckless abandon.

Therefore, it is vital for churches to provide a clear target explaining the attitudes and behaviors of a disciple; you must have a clear definition of disciple.

Maybe the first thing we need to pray about is for God to help us see the huge field of people waiting to be harvested and to give us an incredible love for those people.

We do not see the divine intervention for which we yearn in our country because we think it is for us and our needs rather than an impetus for God's mission.

God does not want us distracted. He does not want our loyalties to be divided. Our allegiances are to be His alone. He loves us that intensely.

I mean, he himself defined his ministry as being focused on the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed (Luke 4:18). So, therefore, we join him on mission not only when we proclaim his saving gospel but when we confront injustice, when we touch human need, when we seek to bring about changes that transform this world to look more like it will be when Jesus returns.

You can preach heresy at a lot of churches, and people will not object. Leaders can lead double lives, and people will let it be. But, change the order of service, and it's time for a fight.