God's love in John 3:16 is not amazing because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad. D. A. Carson More Quotes by D. A. Carson More Quotes From D. A. Carson The Bible is endlessly interesting because it is God's story, and God by nature is himself endlessly interesting. The Bible is an ever-flowing fountain. The more you read it, the more you find its truth and beauty to be inexhaustible. D. A. Carson fountainstoriesinteresting You cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself. D. A. Carson excellentworshiptrying A billion years or so into eternity, how many toys we accumulated during this life will not seem too terribly important. D. A. Carson toysimportantyears Prayer is God's appointed means for appropriating the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. D. A. Carson prayermeanjesus Wrath, unlike love, is not one of the intrinsic perfections of God. Rather, it is a function of God's holiness against sin. Where there is no sin, there is no wrath-but there will always be love in God. Where God in His holiness confronts His image-bearers in their rebellion, there must be wrath, or God is not the jealous God He claims to be, and His holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing God's holiness. D. A. Carson jealouswrathlove-is If the text is God's Word, it is appropriate that we respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, a questing obedience. D. A. Carson obedienceholyjoy Draw nigh to God, so that you may dread the grave as little as your bed. Draw nigh to God, that you may live a happy and useful life. Drawing nigh to God is the most concentrated energy of the soul. Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God, not a technique for acquiring blessings. D. A. Carson drawingprayerblessing Hell is not filled with people who are deeply sorry for their sins. It is filled with people who for all eternity still shake their puny fist in the face of God Almighty. D. A. Carson christiansorrypeople The place where God has supremely destroyed all human arrogance and pretension is the cross. D. A. Carson arrogancehumanscrosses In any Christian view of life, self-fulfillment must never be permitted to become the controlling issue. The issue is service, the service of real people. The question is, 'How can I be most useful?', not, 'How can I feel most useful?' D. A. Carson realselfchristian It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father's will-and it was his love for sinners like me. D. A. Carson unqualifiedfatherjesus How much would our churches be transformed if each of us made it a practice to thank God for others and then to tell those others what it is about them that we thank God for? D. A. Carson thank-godpracticechristian We do not drift into spiritual life or disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. D. A. Carson prayingprayerspiritual A weak understanding of what the Bible says about sin is tied to a weak understanding of what the Bible says is achieved by the cross. D. A. Carson sinunderstandingweak Effectiveness in teaching the Bible is purchased at the price of much study, some of it lonely, all of it tiring. D. A. Carson effectivenesslonelyteaching Either worrying drives out prayer, or prayer drives out worrying. D. A. Carson prayerworry The Bible does not tell us that life in this world will be fair. Evil and sin are not Victorian gentlemen; they do not play fair. D. A. Carson gentlemanevilplay The person who loves his life will lose it: it could not be otherwise, for to love one's life is a fundamental denial of God's sovereignty, of God's rights, and a brazen elevation of self to the apogee of one's perception, and therefore an idolatrous focus on self, which is the heart of all sin D. A. Carson selfrightsheart True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us D. A. Carson genuinepleaseliberty The person who prays more in public than in private reveals that he is less interested in God's approval than in human praise. Not piety but a reputation for piety is his concern. D. A. Carson reputationapprovalprayer
