Dave Harvey Quotes & Sayings

Marriage is the union of two people who arrive toting the luggage of life. And that luggage always contains sin. — Dave Harvey

What we believe about God determines the quality of our marriage. — Dave Harvey

Serving in obscurity can do more to shape a future leader than a dozen years of combing evangelicalism for the perfect position. — Dave Harvey

What a person believes about God determines what he or she thinks about how we got here, what our ultimate meaning is, and what happens after we die. So essentially our worldview, our perspective on life, is determined by our perspective on God. — Dave Harvey

Maybe you are beginning to sense that if your experience of sin is not all that bitter, and your experience of marriage not all that sweet, maybe your theology is not all that it should be. — Dave Harvey

When God intends a man for eminent usefulness in the ministry, he leads him through deep waters, and causes him to drink freely of the cup of spiritual sorrow, that he may be prepared, by a long course of afflictive experiences, to sympathize with tempted and desponding believers; and may learn how to administer to them that consolation by which his own heart was at last comforted.4 — Dave Harvey

You must read to lead. Reading feeds. It opens our souls to a long line of counselors. — Dave Harvey

Mercy sweetens marriage. Where it is absent, two people flog one another over everything from failure to fix the faucet to phone bills. But where it is present, marriage grows sweeter and more delightful, even in the face of challenges, setbacks, and the persistent effects of our remaining sin. — Dave Harvey

Everything in Scripture is either preparation for the Gospel, presentation of the Gospel, or participation in the Gospel. — Dave Harvey

Bitterness differs from unbelief merely in the intensity and depth - in the degree - of its rebellion. As my friend Andy Farmer has pointed out, the two are distinguished simply by the difference between can't and won't. Unbelief says, "I can't do this," while bitterness says, "I won't do this." Unbelief tells a spouse, "You can't change," and bitterness declares, "You won't change." Unbelief claims, "God can't affect what I like and dislike"; while bitterness says, "God won't affect them. — Dave Harvey

Today matters because tomorrow can't be assumed — Dave Harvey

Do I trust that where I am in life today - no matter how far it is from where I think I should be - can never limit God's ability to accomplish his will in my life? — Dave Harvey

Human sin is stubborn," says Cornelius Plantinga, "but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way."3 Stubborn, persistent, unrelenting grace that changes us. Now that's good news indeed. — Dave Harvey

Sin is wrong, not because of what it does to me, or my spouse, or child, or neighbor, but because it is an act of rebellion against the infinitely holy and majestic God. — Dave Harvey

So we're tempted to despair - the despair of the not-as-great-as-we-want-to-be. Charles Spurgeon's epitaph on Alexander could easily describe one way we can go: See Alexander's tears! He weeps! Yes, he weeps for another world to conquer! Ambition is insatiable! The gain of the whole world is not enough. Surely to become a universal monarch, is to make one's self universally miserable.13 — Dave Harvey

If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for. — Dave Harvey

What motivates Olympic athletes to train for years for one event - in some cases, for just seconds of actual competition? It's the same thing that kept my friend Pete nosing around old bookstores for years. It's the same thing that makes a person venture out of a comfortable job to start a new business. We see it in the artist who spends day after day in a studio chipping away at a block of stone. Look closely and you'll find it in the shopper who passes up the good deal in search of the best deal. It's one of the things that makes us most human. We consciously pursue what we value. It's not simply a matter of being driven by biology or genetics or environmental conditioning to satisfy instinctive cravings. Rather, we perceive something, prize it at a certain value, then pursue it according to that assigned value because we were created that way. This ability to perceive, prize, and pursue is part of our essential humanness, and it's the essence of ambition. — Dave Harvey