Top 72 Quotes & Sayings by J. Oswald Sanders

If those who hold influence over others fail to lead toward the spiritual uplands, then surely the path to the lowlands will be well worn.

Each of us is as full of the Spirit as we really want to be.

We are at this moment as close to God as we really choose to be. True, there are times when we would like to know a deeper intimacy, but when it comes to the point, we are not prepared to pay the price involved.

Sacrifice is the ecstasy of giving the best we have to the One we love most.

If you would rather pick a fight than solve a problem, do not consider leading the church

Faith never knows where it is being led, or it would not be faith. True faith is content to travel under sealed orders.

If the world is to hear the church's voice today, leaders are needed who are authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial. Sacrificial, because this trait follows the model of Jesus, who gave Himself for the whole world and who calls us to follow in His steps.

Once the joy of intimacy with God has been experienced, life becomes unbearable without it.

True leaders must be willing to suffer for the sake of objectives great enough to demand their wholehearted obedience.

God is always at work, though we cannot see it, preparing people he has chosen for leadership. When the crisis comes, God fits His appointee into the place ordained for him.

The deity of Christ is the key doctrine of the scriptures. Reject it, and the Bible becomes a jumble of words without any unifying theme. Accept it, and the Bible becomes an intelligible and ordered revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

It is obvious that Paul did not regard prayer as supplemental, but as fundamental-not something to be added to his work but the very matrix out of which his work was born. He was a man of action because he was a man of prayer. It was probably his prayer even more than his preaching that produced the kind of leaders we meet in his letters.

We should always aim to read something different=not only the writers with whom we agree, but those with whom we are ready to do battle. Their point of view challenges us to examine the truth and to test their views...and let us not comment on nor criticize writers of whom we have heard only second-hand, or third-hand without troubling to read their works for ourselves...Don't be afraid of new ideas.

Jesus was the meeting place of eternity and time, the blending of deity and humanity, the junction of heaven and earth.

If we are meticulously careful with the use of the days, the years will take care of themselves.

Most men are notable for one conspicuous virtue or grace - Moses for meekness, Job for patience, John for love. But, in Jesus you find everything.

The final estimate of men shows that history cares not an iota for the rank or title a man has borne, or the office he has held, but only the quality of his deeds and the character of his mind and heart.

One reason why people are unable to understand great Christian classics is that they are trying to understand without any intention of obeying them.

Our consciences are not infallible, and they can become warped or weakened if not kept aligned by the infallible Word of God.

Eyes that look are common; eyes that see are rare.

Time lost can never be retrieved. Time cannot be hoarded, only spent well.

The original meaning of the word tact referred to the sense of touch (as in 'tactile'), and came to mean skill in dealing with persons or sensitive situations. Tact is defined as: 'intuitive perception, especially a quick and fine perception of what is fit and proper and right.' It alludes to one's ability to conduct delicate negotiations and personal matters in a way that recognizes mutual rights, and yet leads to a harmonious solution.

The man of leadership caliber will work while others waste time, study while others sleep, pray while others play. There will be no place for loose or lazy habits in word or thought, deed or dress. He will observe a soldierly discipline, diet and deportment, so that he may wage a good warfare.

When God lays a burden on our hearts and thus keeps us praying, He obviously intends to grant the answer.

True leadership is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you.

It is impossible for a believer, no matter what his experience, to keep right with God if he will not take the trouble to spend time with God. Spend plenty of time with him; let other things go, but don't neglect Him.

Disciples [deep people] are not manufactured wholesale. They are produced one by one, because someone has taken the pains to discipline, to instruct and enlighten, to nurture and train one that is younger.

Before we can conquer the world, we must first conquer the self.

Our problem is not too little time, but making better use of the time we have. Each of us has as much time as anyone else.

Will the leader reflect the ugliness of egotism or the transfigured glory of Christ the Lord?

Spirituality is not easy to define, but you can tell when it is present. It is the fragrance of the garden of the Lord, the power to change the atmosphere around you, the influence that makes Christ real to others.

It is to be kept in mind that the generations of men do not wait for the convenience of the church in respect to their evangelization. Men are born and die whether or not Christians are ready to give them the Gospel. And hence, if the church of any generation does not evangelize the heathen of that generation, those heathen will never be evangelized at all. It is always true in the work of evangelization that the present can never anticipate the future, and that the future can never replace the past. What is to be done in soul saving must be done by that generation.

We can lead others only as far along the road as we ourselves have traveled. merely pointing the way is not enough. If we are not walking, then no one can be following, and ware not leading anyone.

If a man is known by the company he keeps, so also his character is reflected in the books he reads.

A leader is only able to lead others because he disciplines himself. The person who does not know how to bow to discipline imposed from without, who does not know how to obey, will not make a good leader-nor will the one who has not learned to impose discipline within his own life. Those who scorn scripturally or legally constituted authority, or rebel against it, rarely qualify for high leadership positions.

A visionary may see, but a leader must decide.

The spiritual leader will choose the hidden path of sacrificial service and approval of the Lord over the flamboyant self-advertising of the world.

True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing men to one's service but in giving oneself in selfless service to them.

Leadership is the ability to recognize the special abilities and limitations of others, combined with the capacity to fit each one into the job where he will do his best.

The person who sees the difficulties so clearly that he does not discern the possibilities cannot inspire a vision in others.

Leaders who want to show sensitivity should listen often and long and talk short and seldom. Many so-called leaders are too busy to listen. True leaders know that time spent listening is well invested.

To be a leader in the Church has always required strength and faith beyond the merely human.

Are you responsibly optimistic? Pessimism and leadership do not mix. Leaders are positively visionary.

True greatness,true leadership,is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. True service is never without cost. Often it comes with a painful baptism of suffering. But the true spiritual leader is focused on the service he and she can render to God and other people, not on the residuals and perks of high office or holy title. We must aim to put more into life than we take out.

The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.

Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.

Vision involves optimism and hope. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. The pessimist tends to hold back people of vision from pushing ahead.

Desiring to excel is not a sin. It is motivation that determines ambition's character. Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation.

There is no such thing as a self made spiritual leader. He is able to influence others spiritually only because the Spirit is able to work in and through him to a greater degree than in those he leads.

There is no conceivable situation in which it is not safe to trust God.

We are not responsible for our endowments or natural abilities, but we are responsible for the strategic use of time.

The spiritual leader should outpace the rest of the church, above all, in prayer.

Ambition that centers on the glory of God and welfare of the church is a mighty force for good.

A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the Kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.

If Jesus is not God, then there is no Christianity, and we who worship Him are nothing more than idolaters. Conversely, if He is God, those who say He was merely a good man, or even the best of men, are blasphemers. More serious still, if He is not God, then He is a blasphemer in the fullest sense of the word. If He is not God, He is not even good.

Jesus drank a cup of wrath without mercy, that we might drink a cup of mercy without wrath.

If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.

Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the price of never getting tired.

Pride takes many forms, but spiritual pride is the most grievous. To become proud of spiritual gifts or leadership position is to forget that all we have is from God, all the position we occupy is God's appointment.

Spiritual leadership is the power to change the atmosphere by one's presence, the unconscious influence that makes Christ and spiritual things real to others.