Calvin Miller > Quotes

“Teach me the wilderness simplicity.
Help me to point to you, honestly and joyously,
as the threshold of all that really matters.”
― Calvin Miller, Until He Comes: Daily Inspirations for Those Who Await the Savior

“It is strange how oftentimes the air speaks.

We are sane as long as we hear voices when there are none.

We are insane when we hear nothing and worse we are deaf.”
― Calvin Miller

“With love that knew no fear, the Singer caught his torment, wrapped it all in song and gave it back to him as peace.”
― Calvin Miller, The Singer

“We must look to Mary's example to know how to deal with the glorious impossibilities of God. Look how she turned the world upside down by making one simple statement ...”
― Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

“Those who fervently love God are intoxicated by His warmth and live out their addiction like moths drawn to a flame.”
― Calvin Miller

“After eating the world's bread, we wake each morning to remember: We are still hungry. Seek a better loaf. Eat, and never die. Taste, savor, and be filled forever.”
― Calvin Miller, The Words of Christ : An Everyday Journey With Jesus

“Jesus always quickens artistic and literary imagination.”
― Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

“Do not God's visitations unnerve us? But why? Because He never comes to us without asking us to do something. We never know what He will ask of us, but we know that we will be overwhelmed by our feelings of inadequacy”
― Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

“Beware, O earth, the prophet who claims to know the time but never wears a watch.”
― Calvin Miller, The Finale

“But we are wealthy, and our purses are so heavy that we cannot carry both our goods and his cross. So we cling to our wallets and leave the cross bearing to those who have less to surrender.”
― Calvin Miller, A Hunger for the Holy: Nuturing Intimacy with Christ

“But we have arrived at a glistening, smug day when nobody much sins, and those that do are prone to call it something else.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Application is what gets the Sermon off the Mount, and down in the valley where the toilers live out their days.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“God needs only a little of our agreement in order to work mighty wonders.”
― Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

“We have become the revisionist society. We rewrite history in favor of viewpoints. We rewrite ethics in favor of “what’s right is what makes you feel good after.” Political correctness puts Jesus and Buddha on the same low shelf. Gender inclusivity has us tied up in proper pronouns. Since God goes undefined, His expectations have been missing for some time, and sin is what you do that hurts others.”
― Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor

“In all the religions and philosophies of the world, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. But not so with Jesus Christ.”
― Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor

“Terra has just one stone
To mark her great insanity:
Across her continents it reads:
HERE LIES HUMANITY!”
― Calvin Miller, The Singer

“Never lose the awe and wonder of having a personal God get personally involved in your life.”
― Calvin Miller, The Words of Christ : An Everyday Journey With Jesus

“we cannot make believers. Believers make themselves by voluntarily coming to faith, one at a time.”
― Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

“The Father and his Troubadour sat down Upon the outer rim of space. "And here, My Singer," said Earthmaker, "is the crown Of all my endless skies-the green, brown sphere Of all my hopes." He reached and took the round New planet down, and held it to his ear.
"They're crying, Troubadour," he said. "They cry So hopelessly." He gave the little ball Unto his Son, who also held it by His ear. "Year after weary year they all Keep crying. They seem born to weep then die. Our new man taught them crying in the Fall.
"It is a peaceless globe. Some are sincere In desperate desire to see her freed Of her absurdity. But war is here. Men die in conflict, bathed in blood and greed."
Then with his nail he scraped the atmosphere And both of them beheld the planet bleed.
Earthmaker set earth spinning on its way And said, "Give me your vast infinity My son; I'll wrap it in a bit of clay. Then enter Terra microscopically To love the little souls who weep away Their lives." "I will," I said, "set Terra free."
And then I fell asleep and all awareness fled. I felt my very being shrinking down. My vastness ebbed away. In dwindling dread, All size decayed. The universe around Drew back. I woke upon a tiny bed Of straw in one of Terra's smaller towns.
And now the great reduction has begun: Earthmaker and his Troubadour are one. And here's the new redeeming melody--The only song that can set Terra free.
The”
― Calvin Miller, The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict

“What would I do differently if I could do it all over again? I would put more emphasis on being a better husband and father. To the church or the university I would whip out a lot more noes, and a lot more yesses to my family. I would eradicate almost all of the ‘Daddy’s-too-busies,’ and the ‘later, darlings,’ from my vocabulary.”
― Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor

“Hunger for Christ keeps us talking to God till our separation is swallowed up in our unending togetherness with him. Till this union is complete, he who keeps our prayers awaits our union. After all, God hungers for union with us even more than we desire union with him. And prayer is the rails on which our two desires move toward each other. Our devotion moves us from separateness into oneness with God, and
the resulting joy is worth the journey.”
― Calvin Miller, The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy

“What is born at midnight, in the eeriest hours of God's presence, can beget our entire reason to be.”
― Calvin Miller, Life Is Mostly Edges: A Memoir

“CHRIST’S LIFE ILLUSTRATES PLAINLY THAT THE CROWN OF VICTORY IS FORGED FROM THE GOLD OF OBEDIENCE.”
― Calvin Miller, A Hunger for the Holy: Nuturing Intimacy with Christ

“The human spirit is either a treasure chest or a junk box. We were designed to bear the power of God, but the debaucheries of our hearts can quickly fill the space intended for God.”
― Calvin Miller, A Hunger for the Holy: Nuturing Intimacy with Christ

“With what dread and apprehension we entrust important jobs into the hands of others. Imagine the love of a needless God who is willing to want our work.”
― Calvin Miller, The Words of Christ : An Everyday Journey With Jesus

“To get the job done preaching must be committed to two goals: first it should be passionate and second, fascinating.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Churches that ignore their communities will not grow, and churches that will not globalize don’t matter much.”
― Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor

“Jesus’ Great Commission can just as well be translated: Since you are going into all the world anyway, why not take the gospel with you? (Matthew 28:19). GOD”
― Calvin Miller, A Hunger for the Holy: Nuturing Intimacy with Christ

“Don’t forget that déjà vu is the word that when you look it up the dictionary says, “You’ve looked this up before, haven’t you?”
― Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor

“Long ago I learned that more than half of any pastor’s congregation come to church broken and in the grip of some life issue that is eating at their wellbeing.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition