Erwin Raphael McManus Quotes & Sayings

The life of faith is less about gathering information than it is about expanding imagination. The movement Jesus started was a movement of dreamers and visionaries, not a movement of academics and theologians. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Yet the integrity of the universe is the context in which creativity is best expressed. The canvas does not limit God's creativity but rather celebrates it. The elegant complexity of creation is a beautiful reminder that the creative mind is a disciplined mind, that the creative act is not a struggle to be free of limitations but a demonstration that when we embrace our limitations, creativity has no boundaries. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The Ten Commandments are the lowest possible standard of humane living. — Erwin Raphael McManus

When calling for authenticity, we need to take seriously the brokenness and sinfulness of the human heart. If to be authentic means to be who we really are or to express what we really feel, then in most cases I'm going to vote for hypocrisy. Our prisons are filled with men and women who acted on their feelings and impulses. If authenticity is about being true to yourself, these individuals should be our models of inspiration. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Robert's Rules of Order becomes the guiding text rather than the pattern of the apostolic church. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Love never comes without wounds; faith never comes without failure. — Erwin Raphael McManus

All art is an expression and extension of ourselves.. Art finds its deepest value when it is the authentic expression of a deep human experience. — Erwin Raphael McManus

To create is to reflect the image of God. To create is an act of worship. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Three powerful life-changing words passed on from God to us: Now choose life! Right now, this moment, put away the baggage from the past, shake yourself free from the fear of the future unknown. Right now, choose life - seize your divine moment. A — Erwin Raphael McManus

Our citizenship is in eternity; history is our temporary residence. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Whether we realize it or not, everything we do is an expression of either how alive our souls are or how much we have allowed ourselves to be deadened over time. — Erwin Raphael McManus

While never violating our uniqueness, we move together, united in heart and soul. Our greatness is unleashed in the context of community. When we move together, God is most perfectly revealed in us. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Creativity should be an everyday experience. Creativity should be as common as breathing. We breathe, therefore we create. — Erwin Raphael McManus

True creativity does not come easily; creativity is born of risk and refined from failure. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Far too often, when we think we are frightened by mystery, the fact is that we are haunted by history. — Erwin Raphael McManus

For those of us who embrace the cause of Christ, the cost to participate in the mission of God is nothing less than everything we are and everything we have. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Most of us are still in some small way victims of the Industrial Revolution. Whether through our grandparents, our parents, or our own experience, we were raised to believe that our place in life required compliance and conformity rather than creativity and uniqueness. We have been raised in a world where information is deemed far more important than imagination. Adults replaced dreams with discipline when they were finally ready to grow up and be responsible for their lives. Whether this contrast was reinforced on an assembly line, in a cubicle, or in a classroom, the surest path to acceptance in society is accepting standardization. And we more than willingly, relinquish our uniqueness. — Erwin Raphael McManus

While religions have historically tried to make us the same, Jesus calls us to be different. If you have ever experienced this, you know your soul bristled at the demand to quietly get in line and conform. But something in your gut told you this was wrong. If there was a God, his value would not be uniformity, but uniqueness. And you were right. Imprinted on your soul is the fingerprint of God. There is something inside you that resists surrendering your soul to legalism. The good news is that all that time it wasn't you fighting against God; you were fighting for what God has created you to become. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Love, no matter how you come at it, is a huge risk. It makes it easier for me to remember that God will never reject me because I am not good enough and that any community that has His heart will embrace me as I am. Jesus invites us into a community where imperfect people can find acceptance, love, forgiveness, and a new beginning. — Erwin Raphael McManus

I have come to realize, after over thirty years of studying human creativity, that the great divide is not between those who are artists and those who are not, but between those who understand that they are creative and those who have become convinced that they are not. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Artists love without reservation. They give their hearts completely and leave nothing on the table. They are naked and unashamed. They leave no room for pretension. And because they have given all of themselves, they live without regret. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Attitude is an accurate monitor of where we fall on the spectrum of pride and humility. — Erwin Raphael McManus

For believers in persecuted countries. We champion their sacrifice and willingness to stand for Christ, even at the cost of their own lives. Yet we consider laying aside our traditions and cultural preferences as an unreasonable expectation. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Jesus's early followers formed a movement of dreamers and visionaries. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Discipleship ... a process of unleashing the creative potential in each person. — Erwin Raphael McManus

What is your idea of you? Who is it that you have decided to become? If your greatest work of art is the life you live, and ultimately life is a creative act, what life will you choose to leave behind as your masterpiece? — Erwin Raphael McManus

According to Scripture, everything is connected, and every action has at least some effect on the whole. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Reflects who we are. Our soul is the material for all we create. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Since part of our creative responsibility is to move from imagination to image, we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and allow our imagination once again to be the playground of God. And once our dreams and visions are the material that has been passed on to us by a divine imagination, then it is time to dream, to risk, and to create. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Frankly, the people who whine the most about how hard their lives are have very rarely experienced much to be disappointed about. They seem to find solace in their most negative memories, using these as a blank check that abdicates them from all personal responsibility. "I am how I am because of the pain of my past. If you had experienced what I have experienced, you would understand my bitterness, my anger, my paralysis, my despair. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Category. A church doesn't need to pray about whether it should pray. It doesn't need to pray about whether it should serve. It doesn't need to pray about whether it should evangelize. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Our lives will become our greatest works of art not only when our relationships are a beautiful expression of love, acceptance, and intimacy, but when we have a deep sense of purpose that produces accomplishments that express, for us, success and significance. — Erwin Raphael McManus

We are all time voyagers leaving history in our wake, pioneering into the future. — Erwin Raphael McManus

There is no proof of creativity without action. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew your name? If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price? To live a life of courage is not a guarantee of prestige or adulation. It only matters if you live and die fulfilling the mission you were born for. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Who do we become when we stop allowing all the voices in our head to crowd out the one voice we must hear to come to life? — Erwin Raphael McManus

To be apathetic is literally to be without passion. — Erwin Raphael McManus

When we are freed from the rules and regulations that are so often imposed on us in the name of God, we discover that creativity is the natural result of spirituality. And if this is true, then our soul is the primary material for all artistic expression. — Erwin Raphael McManus

While we may never find or receive the love from others that our hearts are desperate for, we can receive a love even greater than that of which we were deprived. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The soul is both fragile and resilient...The artisan soul must be both tender and tough. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Most people who describe themselves as visionaries are actually saying something quite different. They are abdicating their responsibility for the details. Details matter. The more someone or something matters to us, the more the details relating to them matter to us. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Im often accused of being irreligious, and I suppose it's for this very reason. Whether it's Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, or any other ism, when a religioin is created on the subtle premise that God withholds his love and you must submit to the system to earn that love, I consider it the worst of corruptions ...
For centuries, the church has been telling us that if we want God to love us, we need to follow the rules. It's been far more important to focus on the sin problem than the love problem. — Erwin Raphael McManus

God is not a drug, and He certainly does not create experiences and emotions that make us feel better but not become better. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The best use of technology is to enhance the power of worship that is an expression of spirit and truth. — Erwin Raphael McManus

What if the creative act is not an act against God but a reflection of His image within us? — Erwin Raphael McManus

How is it, that for many of us, being a good Christian is nothing more than being a good person? The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate; rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed, faith. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Whoever tells the best story shapes the culture. — Erwin Raphael McManus

If we are inherently spiritual creatures, we are by our nature creative beings, yet we live in the fear that if we aspire to be more we will discover ourselves to be less. — Erwin Raphael McManus

If God refuses to mass-produce but insists on an intimate process that in the end forms each of us into the image of Christ, why would we choose a lesser path for our own lives? The work of the artist begins with the care of his or her own soul. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The fuel of ambition is not the problem; it is the focus of ambition that frees or betrays us. — Erwin Raphael McManus

the unexpected truth that the safest place for a sinful person to go is to God. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity. We are not healthy when we are alone. We find ourselves when we connect to others. Without community we don't know who we are ...
When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others. We lose ourselves ... Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us. — Erwin Raphael McManus

It takes courage to not only accept our limitations but embrace our potential. To deny our creative nature is to choose a life where we are less and thus responsible for less. We see ourselves as created beings, so we choose to survive. When we see ourselves as creative beings, we must instead create. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The only art we can create is that which authentically reflects who we are. Our soul is the material for all we create. Thus, to nurture the artisan soul, essence is far more important than talent. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Unfortunately, the people who have the greatest influence in our lives rarely understand the power of their words to shape who we become. They never fully understand that what informs us forms us. Words spoken into a soul are like the hands of a potter pressed against wet clay. — Erwin Raphael McManus

When we are passionate about God, we can trust our passions. — Erwin Raphael McManus

In an ideal world, the voices that teach us language teach us self-respect, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Those same voices also form in us humility and gratitude, and as those voices inform our inner voices, they also pass on wisdom. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The first and most important step in the process of becoming genuinely is to be once again authenticated by the original designer. — Erwin Raphael McManus

What is the path to wholeness? We will see this path more clearly if we recognize that greed's ugly stepsister is ungratefulness. Greed always wants more. When we are greedy, we are never satisfied. Whatever we receive from others, we conclude we deserve. And in whatever quantity it may come, it is never enough. Lack of gratitude is a manifestation of an abundance of greed. From the vantage point of the taker, it is his or her justification for always demanding. He is endlessly disappointed in others. No one ever comes through for him. No one ever keeps his promises. Everyone always falls short of his expectations. There is no need for thanks, except thanks for nothing. No truth, no matter how profound, will find its way into a heart that is absent of gratitude. — Erwin Raphael McManus

goal of spirituality is not to extract from you all desire and passion. The call of Jesus is the exact opposite - delight — Erwin Raphael McManus

It is not balance you need but adaptability. — Erwin Raphael McManus

irony is that, while secular leadership has become blatantly spiritual, Christian leadership has become blatantly (and blandly) secular. — Erwin Raphael McManus

We have defined holiness through what we separate ourselves from rather than what we give ourselves to. I am convinced the great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live. You — Erwin Raphael McManus

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Who we were created to become already exists in the mind of God. It's placed in our physical DNA and in the longings of our soul. Our lives are supposed to be a manifestation of the imagination of God, and whatever else we leave behind - the life we choose to live and the person we choose to become - is the ultimate expression of the artisan soul. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The artisan soul is not about rebellion but about resonance. — Erwin Raphael McManus

The serving that we are called to requires direct contact. You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it. — Erwin Raphael McManus

If he's just watching, then we're all unwilling participants in the universe's biggest reality show - the original Survivor. — Erwin Raphael McManus

Within the universe's intention and its unique design around relationship, we find that the focal point of the universe, the motive of the universe, is love. God created life so that we could know love. Everything God does is an expression of his love. It is neither trite nor superficial that the Scriptures summarize this in three simple words: "God is love." It is critical to understand this because, if we are to reclaim our role in the creative process and express our lives as masterful works of art, we, too, must be sure that our motivation is the expansion of love. — Erwin Raphael McManus

This is perhaps why so many of us who know love fear love. We know that love is not the absence of pain. If anything, love is the promise of pain. No one has loved more deeply than God. Has anyone ever been more betrayed? God would not know suffering if He did not know love. But because He is Love, He chose to suffer on our behalf. Without love there is no glory in suffering. — Erwin Raphael McManus

We are called to fear only God. There is an important reason for this. What we fear is what we're subject to; our fears define our master. Where there is no fear, there is no control. — Erwin Raphael McManus

JESUS beckons HIS followers to a path that's far from the easy road. It's a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities - the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart. This is the barbarian way: to give your heart to the only ONE who can make you fully alive. To unleash the untamed faith within. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate GOD. To go where HE sends, no matter the cost. The Barbarian Way — Erwin Raphael McManus