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Religion Quotes by John Ortberg

56 Religion quotes by John Ortberg

All Religion quotes John Ortberg’s page

Ortberg says death is the doorway to the new life God plans. He warns that hurry steals spiritual growth, and that each thought pulls us toward or away from God. He describes Jesus caring for the suffering beyond old rules, and the Holy Spirit guiding us to love others as Jesus would.

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The primary goal of spiritual life is human transformation.

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The church is in the hope business.

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Live this day in an open, repentant spirit.

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Too often we argue about Christianity instead of marveling at Jesus.

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Death is the prerequisite to resurrection, the new life God intends.

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Jesus gave the world its most influential movement.

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Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.

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Authentic spiritual authority is what puts you in touch with reality.

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Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world.

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As long as we have unsolved problems, unfulfilled desires, and a mustard seed of faith, we have all we need for a…

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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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Churches need to figure out how they will address the spiritual lives of their staffs and leadership teams.

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When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human.

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People cheer the Bible, buy the Bible, give the Bible, own the Bible - they just don't actually read the Bible.

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Congregations shaped by the Scriptures generally have preachers who are shaped by the Scriptures.

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The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us.

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Real spiritual authority has to do with the truth of the actual words being spoken, and the spirit of the person behind…

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“If you ask people who don’t believe in God why they don’t, the number one reason will be suffering. If you ask…

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Sometimes in churches somebody will discover a particular vein of spirituality and seek to recruit others into it, or assume a superior…

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For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so…

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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…

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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…

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The entire life of Jesus isn't the story of somebody climbing up a ladder; it's a picture of someone coming down-a series…

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“The “with God” life is not a life of more religious activities or devotions or trying to be good. It is a…

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If ever there were a true "just as I am" church, if ever there were a community where everybody could bring all…

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“If you want to free your soul, you acknowledge that there is a spiritual order that God has designed for you. You…

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I need to worship because without it I can forget that I have a Big God beside me and live in fear.…

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Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like…

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We must learn to cast off our anxieties because we have so many of them. The world destroys spiritual life by generating…

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This much I have learned: human beings come with very different sets of wiring, different interests, different temperaments, different learning styles, different…

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One of the great misconceptions about spiritual growth that develops in a lot of churches is that information alone is adequate to…

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“Despite the rise of the mental health profession, people are becoming increasingly vulnerable to depression. Why? Martin Seligman, a brilliant psychologist with…

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Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely.

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“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

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Jesus ... associated with the outcasts; he spoke with them, touched them, ate with them, loved them.

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Sometimes, an inability to believe in Satan reflects a larger inability to believe in a spiritual plane at all.

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The main measure of your devotion to God is not your devotional life. It is simply your life.

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“Christianity is like a nail," he (Yemelian Yaroslavsky). "The harder you strike it, the deeper it goes.”

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At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

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In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God. No thought…

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More by John Ortberg

“What do we do in the dark night? We do nothing. We wait. We remember that we are not God. We hold on. We…

If we are serious about loving God, we must begin with people, all people. And especially we must learn to love those that the…

True repentance never leads to despair. Its leads home. It leads to grace.

The greatest bloodbaths in the history of the human race were recorded in the twentieth century in countries that sought to eliminate God, worship,…

There is no way for a human being to come to God that does not involve surrender.

Will you keep going when you don't know why? When you can't get any answers that would make the pain go away, will you…

Death is the prerequisite to resurrection, the new life God intends.

From ancient times, the core idea of the soul is the soul is the capacity to integrate different functions into a single being or…

“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God. No thought is purely…

The miracle of Sunday is that a dead man lives. The miracle of Saturday is that the eternal Son of God lies dead.

“The most important thing about you,” Dallas would often say, “is not the things that you achieve; it is the person that you become.”

Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world.

God is a God of endless opportunities to do good; the God of the open door.

One of the most painful aspects of suffering is the loneliness of it. Others may offer support or empathy, but no one can walk…