Quotes about Adaptation

Oh, unheard of compassion of the apostle! In seeking to make the Jews Christians, he himself became a Jew! For he could not have persuaded the luxurious to become temperate if he had not himself become luxurious like them;

Many Christians have what we might call a "cultural holiness". They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

It is the fault of the orders, which are too rigid. There is no allowance for a change in circumstance.

That was called transplanting yourself, I thought, and it could be as necessary with people as with other sorts of growing things.

I wish I had a stone for the knife," the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt. "I should have brought a stone." You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

It is not basically a question of the size in repose, I said. It is the size that it becomes. It is also a question of angle.

YOU DO NOT know how long you are in a river when the current moves swiftly.

Where there's no progress, there's no growth. If there's no growth, there's no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life.

If you want your church to stand the test of time, then you have to be replaced.

What have we fallen in love with that's not as effective as it used to be? What do we love doing that's not really working? What's off limits for discussion? Do we have any "old couches" that need to be thrown out?

It's a shame that so many churches are married to a designed-by-Christians-for-Christians-only culture. A culture in which they talk about the Great Commission, sing about the Great Commission, but refuse to reorganize their churches around the Great Commission.