Joshua Nickel > Quotes

“You live in the last days, in which God has revealed Himself by His Son. You have a unique personality that is designed by God to bear witness to Jesus Christ. And the more you testify to Christ with your life, the greater will be your spiritual joy.”
― Joshua Nickel, To Live is Christ: 30 Days With God's Servant Paul

“So, if you rely on your conscience to comfort you, it might do so for a little while, but it will turn around and bite you. If you live by self-analysis, you will die by self-analysis.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“Don’t let the simplicity of the gift keep you from using it daily.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“Paul had a gift from God, but he did not allow it to put unnecessary pressure on those who did not have the same gift. If you don't recognize your gifts for what they are, manifestations of God's grace, you will assume that what is easy for you is easy for others as well. This can make other people think there is something wrong with them, when in fact they simply have different gifts. False humility makes light of God's gifts; true humility values them.”
― Joshua Nickel, To Live is Christ: 30 Days With God's Servant Paul

“Then again, maybe we should not dismiss his warnings too easily. He is right about something we easily overlook: the conscience is a relational tool. It is not meant to measure our performance against a standard. It is meant to judge the health of our relationships with others and with God—especially with God.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“The peace of conscience that most Christians experienced was shallow, he said; it wasn’t battled-tested, and it wasn’t built for endurance.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“The question is not, “How often do you debate justification by faith?” The question is, “How often do you enjoy being justified by faith?”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“A true theologian finds a way to stay calm in stressful situations. In times of temptation, a true theologian instinctively flees. When there is no way to flee, a true theologian endures and overcomes by tapping into the joy of their salvation, sometimes completely turning the situation around.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“Find that place where it is not about what you are doing wrong, but it is not about what you are doing right either. It is not about what you are doing at all, but what Christ has done.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“The truth is that spiritual growth is not a do-it-yourself project. It’s a God-does-it project. You still do all those same things: prayer, fasting, Bible study. But these are just as much the result of spiritual growth as they are the cause.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“You release that power by keeping the law as far away from the matter of your justification as you possibly can.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“You can’t love and obey the law if it means your own destruction. You can’t put to death the deeds that have been condemned if you feel that you yourself are also under the same condemnation.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“In Christ, you are free from the need to justify yourself—not always before others, but before God. Until you begin to appreciate this freedom, you will never realize how much you used to try to justify yourself. Christ, who is your righteousness before God, gives more value to your existence than you can imagine. He gives you favor and peace with God. He gives you a purpose that transcends any earthly cause. Until you grasp this, you will look for value and purpose somewhere else. You will try to create your own. It is human nature to do so.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“The words are simple; but during temptation, to be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“A dull conscience is not the same as a clean conscience. We may seem, even to ourselves, to be at peace, while far below the surface our consciences are suffering in silence.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian

“Wesley also found fault with their new method of encouraging people to claim perfection by faith (“The bidding them say, ‘I believe,’” as Wesley put it) with no other evidence, and then affirming that those people were perfected because they said they believed. Here they were taking Wesley's teaching a step further than he was willing to go, but in a direction that seemed logical. Wesley had long taught that the blessing of perfection comes by faith alone and does not depend on the preparation or worthiness of the recipient. So why could someone not believe to have received it without any further evidence, for why would faith need evidence? Wesley, however, was never willing to affirm this conclusion. Years later he expressed his position as follows (by “absolute decrees,” he means the idea that a man is predestined to believe or not believe, and can do nothing but wait and see): To say that every man can believe to justification or sanctification when he will is contrary to plain matter of fact. Everyone can confute it by his own experience. And yet if you deny that every man can believe if he will, you run full into absolute decrees. How will you untie this knot? I apprehend very easily. That every man may believe if he will I earnestly maintain, and yet that he can believe when he will I totally deny. But there will be always something in the matter which we cannot well comprehend or explain.”
― Joshua Nickel, Groaning After Full Redemption: John Wesley's Quest for Scriptural Holiness

“You must forgive. You do not have a choice. That is true. So, in that sense, it is a requirement. But you can forgive, and you want to. That is a gift from God.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk This Way: Following Jesus Through the Sermon on the Mount

“If we think we have mastered this subject, that’s a good sign that we haven’t even come close.”
― Joshua Nickel, Walk Between Heaven and Earth: Listening to Martin Luther on How to Be a True Theologian