Timothy J. Keller Quotes

#1. Created meaning is a less rational way to live life than doing so with discovered meaning. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#2. If you have settled this - if you have grasped the character of your heart and admitted your desolation apart from Christ - then, he says, you can begin to pray. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#3. Hope comes not in the solution to the problem but in focusing on Christ, who facilitates the change. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#4. What is the definition of "love"? Jesus answered that by depicting a man meeting material, physical, and economic needs through deeds. Caring for people's material and economic needs is not an option for Jesus. He refused to allow the law expert to limit the implications of this command to love. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#5. The main problem in a person's life is never his suffering; it's his sin. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#6. As John Newton said, if we are not getting much out of going to God in prayer, we will certainly get nothing out of staying away. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#7. What if your only hope was to get ministry from someone who not only did not owe you any help - but who actually owed you the opposite? What if your only hope was to get free grace from someone who had every justification, based on your relationship to him, to trample you? - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#8. He expects us to come to him for refuge from our grief, fear, and pain and not to dull those emotions with amusements and distractions that promise, but can never deliver, blessing. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#9. This is one of God's great purposes in marriage: to picture the relationship between Christ and His redeemed people forever! - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#10. Our modern culture's idea of freedom is wholly negative. We are free as long as no one is constraining our choices. However, this concept is too thin to be adequate. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#11. we can conclude that a professed Christian who is not committed to a life of generosity and justice toward the poor and marginalized is, at the very least, a living contradiction of the Gospel of Christ, the Son of God, whose Father "executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#12. the only character flaws that can really destroy you are the ones you won't admit. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#13. obviously different from everything that a nonbeliever does. That - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#14. The primary theological fact about prayer is this: We address a triune God, and our prayers can be heard only through the distinct work of every person in the Godhead. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#15. Gifts are things we do, but spiritual fruit or graces are things we are - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#16. If you seek God as the nonnegotiable good of your life, you will get happiness thrown in. If, however, you aim mainly at personal happiness, you will get neither. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#17. the city is humanity intensified - a magnifying glass that brings out the very best and worst of human nature - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#18. Theologians sometimes have spoken of the "impassibility of God;" namely that God could not be capable of emotions, of either joy and pleasure or pain and grief.237 But this goes beyond the language and teaching of the Scripture. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#19. When you see him dying to make you his treasure, that will make him yours. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#20. If you go to Jesus to get a new personality, Lewis says, you still haven't really gone to Jesus. Your real self will not come out as long as you are looking for it; it will only emerge when you're looking for Him. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#21. Prepare the preacher more than you prepare the sermon. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#22. OVERCONFIDENCE. We often stroll through life, thinking everything will be fine, until suddenly it isn't. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#23. But this is an impossibility.23 You cannot get an identity through self-recognition; it must come in a great measure from others. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#24. Cultural engagement in preaching must never be for the sake of appearing "relevant" but rather must be for the purpose of laying bare the listener's life foundations. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#25. Where light leaves the affections behind, it ends in formality and or atheism; where affections outrun light they sink into the bog of superstition, doting on images and pictures or the like. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#26. prayerful dependence on the grace of Jesus is our only refuge from our own sin. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#27. helps you to habitually put God into every picture, seasoning your feelings and thoughts, lifting you up when disappointed, and humbling you when successful. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#28. Competency is a basic value. It is not a means to some other end, such as wealth or position, although such results may occur. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#29. A marriage based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment will require a low- or no-maintenance partner who meets your needs while making almost no claims on you. Simply put - today people are asking far too much in the marriage partner. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#30. the abuse of the subjective in some circles cannot exclude the 'mystical' and emotional dimensions of Christian experience. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#31. Up until the twentieth century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the world. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#32. All work, according to God's design, is service. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#33. But Christianity is not just for the strong; it's for everyone, especially for people who admit that, where it really counts, they're weak. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#34. Though most spiritual seekers start their search afraid of disappointment, Jesus says that he will always be infinitely more than anyone is looking for. He will always exceed our expectations; he will be more than we can ask for or imagine. So - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#35. Only if your God can say things that upset you will you know you have a real God and not just a creation of your imagination. So - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#36. Sin can harden our hearts so we lose everything, but suffering, if handled rightly, can make us wiser, happier, and deeper. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#37. He argues that science cannot provide the means by which to judge whether its technological inventions are good or bad for human beings. To do that, we must know what a good human person is, and science cannot adjudicate morality or define such a thing. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#38. Only Jesus says, "I have come for the weak. I have come for those who admit they are weak. I will save them not by what they do but through what I do. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#39. Prayer is so great that wherever you look in the Bible, it is there. Why? Everywhere God is, prayer is. Since God is everywhere and infinitely great, prayer must be all-pervasive in our lives. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#40. Follow the pathway of the fear back into your heart to discover the things you love more than God. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#41. God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything that He knows. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#42. We tend to think of the Bible as a book of answers to our questions, and it is that. However, if we really let the text speak, we may find that God will show us that we are not even asking the right questions. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#43. There are many goods that God will not give us unless we honor him and make our hearts safe to receive them through prayer. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#44. The things we love individually not only determine our character, but what a society loves collectively shapes its culture. This latter idea was the heart of Augustine's great work City of God. He believed societies are the mutual associations of individuals united by what they love in common. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#45. John Stott concludes, "It seems to have been Paul's deliberate policy to move purposefully from one strategic city-centre to the next."5 - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#46. Jesus hates suffering, injustice, evil, and death so much, he came and experienced it to defeat it and, someday, to wipe the world clean of it. Knowing all this, Christians cannot be passive about hunger, sickness, and injustice. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#47. Without socially shared discovered meaning we have no basis for saying to somebody else: "You need to stop doing that!" Created meanings cannot be the basis for a program of social justice. Martin - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#48. It is our nature to be strong and independent. Yet, there is no room for the ego in suffering. This stripping of my ego opens the doors to authentic relating to others. As I am drawn closer to others, I am experiencing God in the here and now. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#49. We are as strictly and solemnly commanded to pray as in the others . . . not to kill, not to steal, etc."165 We must pray whether we feel like it or not. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#50. Only the sacrifice of an innocent god could justify the endless and universal torture of innocence. Only the most abject suffering by God could assuage man's agony."208 Berger sees the brilliance of - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#51. Prayer, therefore, leads to a self-knowledge that is impossible to achieve any other way. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#52. Another reason for the primacy of praise is that it has such power to heal what is wrong with us and create inner spiritual health. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#53. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#54. The lesson is that the medium is not the message, that we must not ignore uncomfortable truths just because they come through an unimpressive messenger. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#55. All the seemingly loose threads and contradictory claims of the rest of the Bible come together in Jesus. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#56. You are with Another, and he is unique. God is the only person from whom you can hide nothing. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#57. What will make the people in your neighborhood be glad you are there? Connect with individuals and leaders in the community and begin to meet the perceived needs of the community. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#58. The path Jesus takes you on may look like it's taking you to one dead end after another. Nevertheless, the thread does not work in reverse. If you just obey Jesus and follow it forward, it will do its work. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#59. Job 28 is a magnificent poem that engages the modern technology narrative head-on. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#60. Righteous Lord, I have many who falsely accuse me. Defend me from them! But I also know my sin, and my heart rightly accuses me. I rest in Jesus's atoning death for me. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#61. Christians have their attitude toward God changed from one of duty to free, loving self-giving because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#62. there is something in us from God that knows we are not alone in the universe, and that we were not meant to go it alone. Prayer is a natural human instinct. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#63. Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#64. A seven-year-old cannot question the mathematical calculations of a world-class physicist. Yet we question how God is running the world. Does that make sense? - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#65. Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. . . . It saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. . . . So by prayer we acquire our true selves."242 - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#66. He so tempers the outcome of events according to his incomprehensible plan that the prayers of the saints, which are a mixture of faith and error, are not nullified."185 - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#67. Father, your Son taught us to pray, "Hallowed be thy name" before "Give us this day our daily bread." Help me pray not "You've got to do this, God!" but "Be glorified in my life." That is hard at first; then it is freedom itself. Amen. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#68. How can I lose my attraction to the most beautiful face in the universe? Revive my soul and reopen my eyes to your glory and grace. Amen. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#69. Our prayer is that as you read, you'll be struck not by the contents of this book, but by the book it's helping you open up; and that you'll praise not the author of this book, but the One he is pointing you to. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#70. Gilligan argued that while men seek maturity by detaching themselves, women see themselves maturing as they attach.18 - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#71. the fear of God" is increased by an experience of God's grace and forgiveness. What it describes is a loving, joyful awe and wonder before the greatness of God. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#72. If earthly fathers, who are sinful, ordinarily want to make their children happy, "how much more" committed is our perfect heavenly Father to our well-being and happiness? - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#73. Augustine writes: "We love God, therefore, for what He is in Himself, and [we love] ourselves and our neighbors for His sake." That - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#74. Prayer turns theology into experience. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#75. To understand the Scripture is not simply to get information about God. If attended to with trust and faith, the Bible is the way to actually hear God speaking and also to meet God himself. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#76. When we contextualize faithfully and skillfully, we show people how the baseline "cultural narratives" of their society and the hopes of their hearts can only find resolution and fulfillment in Jesus. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#77. Lipton, a professor of history at SUNY Stony Brook, concluded, "In the face of recent revelations about the reckless and self-indulgent sexual conduct of so many of our elected officials, it may be worth recalling that sexual restraint rather than sexual prowess was once the measure of a man. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#78. Now I know that you love me more than anything in the world." That's what "the fear of God" means. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#79. As soon as you express the gospel, you are unavoidably doing it in a way that is more understandable and accessible for people in some cultures and less so for others. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#80. When you say, "I'll serve, as long as I'm getting benefits from it," that's not actually serving people; it's serving yourself through them. That's not circling them, orbiting around them; it's using them, getting them to orbit around you. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#81. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to both religion and irreligion. It can't be co-opted by either moralism or relativism. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#82. Our greatest motive for surrendering to him cannot be for what he will do in us. It must be to love him for what he did for us. In - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#83. Christmas shows us that Christianity is not good advice. It is good news. THE - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#84. God shakes our confidence in our earthly life so that we can yearn for our heavenly life, where our joy is truly unshakable and where our wailing will be turned into dancing. Prayer: - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#85. I confess that I am simply not changed enough by the great truths of the Gospel that I profess to believe with all my heart. Show me the specific gaps between my faith and my practice, and empower me to close them. Amen. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#86. We should listen, study, think, reflect, and ponder the Scriptures until there is an answering response in our hearts and minds. It may be one of shame or of joy or of confusion or of appeal - but that response to God's speech is then truly prayer and should be given to God. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#87. The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#88. You have been saved through a dying sacrifice, so you are free to be a living one. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#89. In the end faith always moves beyond mental assent and duty and will involve the whole self - mind, will, and emotions. Why - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#90. The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible, but it is noteworthy that the first Psalm is not a prayer per se but a meditation - in - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#91. when the Spirit enables us to understand what Christ has done for us, the result is a life poured out in deeds of justice and compassion for the poor.5 - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#92. Christians don't face adversity by stoically decreasing our love for the people and things of this world so much as by increasing our love and joy in God. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#93. Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#94. We must not decide how to pray based on what types of prayer are the most effective for producing the experiences and feelings we want. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#95. If we believe the great God of the universe really loves us, it should make us emotionally unshakable in the face of criticism, suffering, and death. In - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#96. When you claim to have the truth, you are trying to get power and control over other people. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#97. The Gospel, because it is a true story, means all the best stories will be proved, in the ultimate sense, true. THE - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#98. the natural condition of the human ego: that it is empty, painful, busy and fragile. - Author: Timothy J. Keller

#99. Our culture tells us that you must look inside to discover your deepest desires and dreams and to express them. You must do this yourself, and must not rely on anyone outside to affirm and tell you who you are. - Author: Timothy J. Keller