Greg Laurie Quotes

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Jesus asked, “But what about you? … Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:15 NIV).

If you walk with the Lord on earth, you also will walk with Him in Heaven. If you walk away from the Lord on earth, you will walk away from Him, right into eternity.

Prayer is the idea of wishing for something from the depth of our hearts and bringing that desire forward to the throne of God.

Suffering is a part of every life. Rain falls upon every life. All people encounter tragedy. Everybody struggles through hardship—not just Christians. But for the believer, for the child of God, whatever comes into our life first comes through the grid of God’s plan and purpose for our lives. There are no accidents in the life of the believer.

God can use anyone who truly decides he or she is “for Jesus,” as Greg did in 1970, to accomplish extraordinary things for His kingdom.

Often we fear the most difficult experiences of life only to discover that these are the experiences that bring Jesus Christ closer to us.

To get right with God, we need to utter three difficult words: “I have sinned.” God cannot forgive the sin we will not confess!

Billy Graham once said, “We are the Bibles the world is reading. We are the creeds the world is needing. We are the sermons the world is heeding.

Far too often, unbelievers know Christians only for what we stand against, not what we stand for.

Unbelievers are not the enemy—they are people for whom Christ died. We need to remember we were each one of them once.

our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. Christians are to be living epistles, written by God and read by men (2 Cor. 3:2).

Remorse is feeling sorry, while repentance is being sorry enough to stop.

I read a story about an old gentlemen who was known for his godly life. Someone asked him one day, “What do you do when you are tempted, old man?” He replied, “I just look up to Heaven and say, ‘Lord, your property is in danger.’

if you want to see a revival, do revival-like things.

A poll by researcher George Barna revealed that about 25 percent of the adults in the United States would go to church if a friend would just invite them. Barna

The kids (in the Jesus Movement) weren't singing for themselves. It seemed like they were singing TO Someone.

I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation

Like the prodigal’s father, God accepts us as we are. But He doesn’t want to leave us that way. God will change us.

I’ve always maintained that only when you get to the end of yourself do you get to the beginning of God.

24For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

The full concept of discipleship includes sharing our faith, leading people to Christ, and helping them to mature in their faith. But somewhere along the line, the church has separated evangelism from discipleship.

This is what every follower of Jesus should be engaged in on a regular basis: sharing our faith, leading others to Christ, discipling them, and helping them to get grounded in the church—and then going out and doing it all again.

Today, 75 percent of young people who grew up in Christian homes and churches are now abandoning their faith as young adults. More than one-third of millennials say they are unaffiliated with any faith, up 10 percentage points since 2007.

One is a path I’ve warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility.

Every disciple is a believer, but not every believer is necessarily a disciple. Anything short of discipleship, however, is settling for less than what God really desires for us. Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the very foundation of being a disciple. If you want to live your Christian life to its fullest, then love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. Either you will have harmony with God and friction with people, or you will have harmony with people and friction with God. You become a disciple in the biblical sense only when you are totally and completely committed to Jesus Christ and His Word. As a true disciple, your life won’t only be characterized by practical results and a hunger for Scripture, but you also will have love for others — especially fellow believers. Without all of these characteristics, you can’t really claim to be His disciple. A person who has been with Jesus will boldly share his or her faith. A person who has been with Jesus will be a person of prayer. A person who has been with Jesus will be persecuted. If for you, the Christian life is all about feeling good and having everything go your way, then you won’t like being a disciple. Being a follower of Christ is the most joyful and exciting life there is. But it also can be the most challenging life there is. It’s a life lived out under the command of someone other than yourself. Most prayers are not answered because they are outside the will of God. Once we have discovered God’s will, we can then pray aggressively and confidently for it. We can pray, believing it will happen, because we know it is not something we have dreamed. A forgiven person will be a forgiving person. A true disciple will harbor no grudge toward another. The disciple knows it will hinder his or her prayer life and walk with God. It is far better to sit down for an hour and talk genuinely with one person than to rattle off trite clichés to scores of people. Attending more Bible studies, more prayer meetings, reading more Christian books, and listening to more teaching without an outlet for the truth will cause us to spiritually decay. We need to take what God has given us and use it constructively in the lives of others. You were placed on earth to know God. Everything else is secondary. The more we know God, the more we should want to make Him known to a lost world. Your life belongs to God. You don’t share your time and talents with Him; He shares them with you! He owns you and everything about you. You need to recognize and acknowledge that fact.

C. S. Lewis observed that new believers can become discouraged, right at the doorstep of faith, if they seek only the initial emotional experience, not the ongoing reality of a maturing relationship with God. Speaking in the fictional voice of a devilish tempter in The Screwtape Letters, he wrote, The Enemy [God] allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavor. . . . The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His “free” lovers and servants—“sons” is the word He uses. . . . Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to “do it on their own.” And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.

He will hear your cry and step in to remove the thing that frightens or troubles you. Call out to Him, and don’t hesitate! 3. God has His purposes in the storms of life. Remember this: No matter what, God is in control and has a plan. So we look to the Lord in our crisis, recognizing that He can accomplish great things in and through our hardships, disappointments, and setbacks. Why? Because God knows all things, past, present, and future, He is uniquely qualified to know when to ordain or permit evil and suffering, and when not to. Therefore, if the Lord allows something to enter your life, He has a plan in mind for dealing with it. We love to follow the Lord when things are

doubt they had ever heard anyone sing in that dungeon before.

The problem was, my rebellion against her lifestyle was now taking me to the biblical foundation she had thought she’d escaped. She did not care for that irony.

...a few weeks before production wrapped on the movie 'Le Mans', racer David Piper lost control of his car and crashed as the cameras rolled. Years later, Piper recounted to a reporter, "I suddenly found myself sitting in only half a car, surrounded by smoke and dust, and I thought, Good Lord, that's my shoe over there--- and my foot is still in it!

1Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.

8Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough 9to live forever and never see the grave.

16So don’t be dismayed when the wicked grow rich and their homes become ever more splendid. 17For when they die, they take nothing with them. Their wealth will not follow them into the grave.

1How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 2I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. 3Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God! 4What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.

6In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered.

Psalm 101

man.” 25But they wouldn’t listen to him. So the Levite took hold of his concubine and pushed her out the door. The men of the town abused her all night, taking turns raping her until morning. Finally, at dawn they let her go. 26At daybreak the woman returned to the house where her husband was staying. She collapsed at the door of the house and lay there until it was light. 27When her husband opened the door to leave, there lay his concubine with her hands on the threshold. 28He said, “Get up! Let’s go!” But there was no answer.* So he put her body on his donkey and took her home. 29When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine’s body into twelve pieces. Then he sent one piece to each tribe throughout all the territory of Israel.

Unchained

Guess what? Your god is you. You just made him up. Your god is fake, because you can’t edit out the parts of the Bible you don’t like. If you treat the Word of God like a buffet line and say, “I will take this aspect of God, but I don’t like that one,” then you will end up with a god of your own making. It won’t be the God of the Bible. And that god of yours won’t be able to save you in the final day, because it isn’t real.

What a heartbreak it would be to live an 'almost' Christian life, then 'almost' get into Heaven.

I will never leave you nor forsake you. . . . And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV; Matthew 28:20, NLT)

Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. But I also know that You are the Savior who died on that cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin and I repent of it right now. Come into my life, Jesus, right now. Thank You for hearing and answering this prayer. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen.

There is so much to be afraid of. But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid.” Did you know that the phrase, “Don’t be afraid” is used 365 times in the pages of the Bible? That means that there is one “Don’t be afraid” for every day of the year. Fear will always rob us of joy.

55But I called on your name, LORD, from deep within the pit. 56You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!” 57Yes, you came when I called; you told me, “Do not fear.

1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

This doesn’t make sense to me right now, but it’s all going to make sense in eternity. It will produce something in eternity that would not have been there otherwise. So in faith I’m going to

At other times, He may answer the prayer differently than you wanted Him to or expected Him to. He doesn’t stop the storm or take away the problem or heal the illness, but He walks with you through it. Those are times when we must trust Him. Again, if He has said to you, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake,” He will get you to the other side of the lake! It may not be through placid waters, but you will arrive: God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. (Psalm 46:1-3) Really, David? You won’t even be afraid if the earth is removed? You won’t be traumatized if great mountains start crashing into the sea? David had learned to trust his God no matter what. In Isaiah 43, the Lord said, When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through

The gospel is only Good News if it gets there in time.

Jesus did not say that the whole world should go to church, but He did say that the church should go to the whole world. Esther

the point is verbal communication of the gospel message that has already been lived out before their eyes.

Every testimony is valid because there is someone out there a lot like you.

statistics indicate that 95 percent of all Christians have never led another person to Christ. For

He will not force you to share your faith, but He will prompt you. And when you take that step of faith, He will empower and use you.

Another thing about these words of the Great Commission to both preach the gospel and make disciples: they are directed to every follower of Jesus. These words were not merely directed to the original disciples. Nor are they meant only for what we might call “professionals”—evangelists, pastors, missionaries, etc. They are for every follower of Jesus. Every man and every woman who believes in Him is called and commanded to go and proclaim His message.

Real spiritual growth comes only through discipline and perseverance. In other words, it comes through sticking with it. One of the traps for all of us, however, is substituting activity for genuine fellowship with God. I

You show me a church that does not have a constant flow of new Christians coming in, and I will show you a church that is stagnating. We in the church have a choice: evangelize or fossilize! The

Satan, whom Paul labeled as “the god of this evil world,” is so clever that he has fooled many people into thinking that he doesn’t even exist—while in reality he controls their very lives.

Show me your faith without youra works, and I will show you my faith by myb works.

As Christians, regardless of what cause we may have to be troubled, there is greater cause not to be.

12Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.

True discipleship is getting back to the Christian life as it was meant to be lived.

It’s been said, “There is one thing that believers and nonbelievers have in common: they are both uptight about evangelism,” and that is true. When it comes to sharing the gospel, it seems we plan for failure far more often than success.

the second part of Matthew 6:12, we see that we must also be willing to forgive others. Basically, Jesus is saying, “As you are receiving the forgiveness from God for the wrong that you have done, be sure to extend that same forgiveness to others who have wronged you.” In short, forgiven people should be forgiving people.

First, Paul and Silas were whipped by the jailer. Then their feet were fastened into metal stocks, and their legs were spread as far apart as humanly possible, causing excruciating pain. Did they curse God? Did they say, “How could a God of love do this to us?” No. They prayed and they praised the Lord. They realized it was time to pray: “At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). Songs, not groans came from their mouths.

God does not expose your sin to drive you to despair. God’s Holy Spirit never convicts you of your sin to drive you away. The Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin to draw you nearer to Him. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). To confess means that you are saying, “Lord, I agree with You. I have sinned. I am sorry. Show me what is wrong, because I want all barriers that might separate You from me to be removed.

Our prayers cannot be divorced from our lifestyles. If your life is not pleasing to God, your prayer life will be non-existent

Prayer is not just trying to get God to move. It is an important process through which God moves and changes us. In other words, prayer will not only transform whatever you are praying about; it will transform you.

is important to understand that modern Israel today is largely a secular nation. Sure, there are many religious Jews who live there and practice their faith, but the average Israeli is not a person of faith. But after this divine intervention on God’s part, many of the people will turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They will turn to Jesus as the Messiah, and God will pour out His Spirit on the nation of Israel again.

So reach out and receive the gift.

We all come to Christ differently. Andrew and John found Jesus through a preacher’s message. Simon Peter and Nathanael came to Jesus as the result of the personal efforts of another believer. In the case of Philip, there was no human instrument used by God. He literally met Jesus in the middle of a regular day. It didn’t matter what these men were looking for. What they found was Jesus.

once

2Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, a descendant of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God, for we have married these pagan women of the land. But in spite of this there is hope for Israel. 3Let us now make a covenant with our God to divorce our pagan wives and to send them away with their children. We will follow the advice given by you and by the others who respect the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law of God.

Good deeds can’t save us, but they do provide good evidence that we are saved.

Men and women who have lived wisely and well will shine brilliantly, like the cloudless, star-strewn night skies. And those who put others on the right path to life will glow like stars forever” (Daniel 12:3, msg).

Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, NLT).

Are you a single person? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness as an unmarried man or woman. What does that mean? It means that you allow God to find that right person for you, if you are supposed to be married. It means you don’t rush out and grab someone who might be “available” or fool yourself into thinking you can date a nonbeliever and bring him or her to Christ.

They worshiped worthless idols, so they became worthless themselves.

45David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies

two musical options: old hymns or cheery camp songs. Then, as hippie musicians who came to Jesus applied their talents to writing praise music about Him, Christian teenagers had new music to call their own. The resulting creative explosion—what’s known now as contemporary Christian music—changed the face of worship in many churches for decades to come.

22David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the LORD will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.

Never forget that what may look like God’s insensitivity is nothing of the sort, but rather an invitation to draw closer to Him through persistent praying in faith.

5Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.

You may know Jesus, but you will never know him deeply until he comes to you in the midst of the storms of life.

Jack Higgins is one of the most successful authors on earth. His thriller novels have sold more than 150 million copies in sixty different languages. When asked by a magazine writer what he knew now that he wished he’d known earlier in life, the accomplished author responded, “I wish I had known that when you get to the top, there is nothing there.