Vance Havner Quotes

Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.

It is truer to say that martyrs create faith more than faith creates martyrs.

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

Now I begin to be a disciple... Let fire and cross, flocks of beasts, broken bones, dismemberment... come upon me, so long as I attain to Jesus Christ.

Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one.

I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God's sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ.

God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.

For all have not the gift of martyrdom.

Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.

To be a Christian is to move toward need, not comfort.

Some missionaries bound for Africa were laughed at by the boat captain. 'You'll only die over there,' he said. But a missionary replied, 'Captain, we died before we started.'

To be Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.

Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart's blood!

I would rather die for Christ than rule the whole earth.

The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon

A martyr's disciples suffer more than the martyr.

If I had a thousand pounds, China should have it. If I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for Him?

I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and He was a missionary and a physician. I am a poor, poor imitation of Him, or wish to be. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die!

The blood of Christians is seed.

We must all have the spirit of martyrdom, though we may not all die martyrs.

Christ asked for everything he got.

A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.

I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that.

Rather than allow themselves to be separated from the love of Christ, they submitted cheerfully to every privation, to contumely and disgrace, and to death itself.