Christian Calling Quotes & Sayings

We have been chosen and called to be like Jesus Christ. — Lailah Gifty Akita

God is calling you to relinquish your old habits and beliefs that are holding you back from being all He called you to be. To trust that He has something bigger and better in store for you. — Dana Arcuri

We commit to other believers in the local church simply because it's part of God's calling us into his family. It's what it means to be a Christian. Take the passage from 1 John 4:19-21. It starts with our salvation: "He first loved us." Then it continues into our love for other Christians. "Whoever loves God must also love his brother." Every person loved by God in this salvific sense loves other Christians. There are no exceptions. And that means we should stop viewing commitment to a local church as a process and start viewing it as an event. The event is our salvation, and commitment is something that inevitably follows- not something that merely happens as we mature. — Jamie Dunlop

Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America. Just as the prophets in the Old Testament warned Israel that they were not safe just because they lived in the land of Israel, so we are not safe just because we wear the label 'Christian' or because some people persist in calling us a 'Christian nation. — Francis Chan

Altho' I rarely waste time in reading on theological subjects, as mangled by our Pseudo-Christians, yet I can readily suppose Basanistos may be amusing. Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. If it could be understood it would not answer their purpose. Their security is in their faculty of shedding darkness, like the scuttlefish, thro' the element in which they move, and making it impenetrable to the eye of a pursuing enemy, and there they will skulk.
[Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp on 30 July 1810 denouncing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity] — Thomas Jefferson

He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a 'Christian' without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd. — Francis Chan

Like a child exploring the attic of an old house on a rainy day, discovering a trunk full of treasure and then calling all his brothers and sisters to share the find, Richard J. 'Foster has 'found' the spiritual disciplines that the modern world has stored away and forgot, and has excitedly called us to celebrate them. For they are, as he shows us, the instruments of joy, the way into mature Christian spirituality and abundant life. — Eugene H. Peterson

O Lord, only you can satisfy my soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

We walk in the path of light. — Lailah Gifty Akita

For the Deist ... prayer is calling across a void to a distant deity. This lofty figure may or may not be listening. He, or it, may or may not be inclined, or even able, to do very much about us and our world, even if he (or it) wanted to ... all you can do is send off a message, like a marooned sailor scribbling a note and putting it in a bottle, on the off-chance that someone out there might pick it up. That kind of prayer takes a good deal of faith and hope. But it isn't Christian prayer. — N. T. Wright

A true Christian lives and labors on earth not for himself but for his neighbor. Therefore the whole spirit of his life him impels him to do even that which he needs not do, but which is profitable and necessary for his neighbor. — Martin Luther

I believe people have different ways of approaching the Word. For me, it's metaphor, written by people a long time after Christ died and interpreted by specific groups. I read the gospels that aren't included in the Bible. These make me feel good about calling myself a Christian. — Jane Fonda

It is true that the church must be in many places and with many people, but it is the poor who will reveal to the church - dramatically and poignantly - the nature of its heart and mission. — Gary Smith

What God is doing today is calling people out of the world for His name. Whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light they have and I think they're saved and they're going to be with us in heaven. — Billy Graham

Our real calling to be a compassionate Christian came when we stepped out of the waters of baptism ... We don't need a bishop's assignment to be kind. We don't need to sign up to be thoughtful. We don't need to be sustained by our wards to be sensitive. — Chieko N. Okazaki

God, the one true benefactor of the world, has done a work for the world in Jesus Christ, loving it, saving it, and calling it to communion with God. As Robert Taft has put it, in the deepest sense, the one true liturgy is God's work of salvation in Jesus Christ. In the Eucharist, the Christian community joins in that work made present to it again and participates in God's love enacted, made real in the world. The church, in fact, both commits to working together in the great benefaction of God's gift of love through Christ, and is empowered to be part of it. In this way, Christian faith is renewed again and again in the Eucharist, not simply as a set of ideas to be held, but a form of life to be lived. — James W. Farwell

In solitude, the deep silent, awakens the divinity of the soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

There is no humility in calling yourself a Christian; placing Christ in the role of colleague. The humility lies in the truth of your imperfection and a more accurate description as a student of Christianity; placing Christ back in the role as head teacher. — Steve Maraboli

Calling a child "rebellious" has the equivalent effect of calling a child that is struggling in school "stupid." It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. — Tim Kimmel

It is simultaneously the blessing and the curse of the reflective Christian that believers are called to live out their faith in the church. No institution has accomplished so much for good in the world; none has fallen so short of its calling! The church is God-ordained, God-inspired, but accomplishes its work through human beings subject to every possible failing. — Daniel Taylor

Don't harden your heart. Return to the Lord. He will revive and restore you. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Persistent calling upon the name of the Lord breaks through every stronghold of the devil, for nothing is impossible with God. For Christians in these troubled times there is simply no other way. — Jim Cymbala

There are certain times in a concert when I'll call an audible because I feel like God is calling me to play a different song. But truthfully, I feel called to play for the church whether it's song being played on Christian radio or it's concerts I'm doing primarily in churches. — Jonny Diaz

In the life of every Christian, there is a wilderness experience — Sunday Adelaja

The Christian gospel is a summons to peace, calling for justice beyond anger, mercy beyond justice, forgiveness beyond mercy, love beyond forgiveness. — Wendell Berry

Nothing has contributed so much to the obscuring of Christian truth in the eyes of the heathen,
and has hindered so much the diffusion of Christianity through the world, as the disregard of [non-resistance] by men calling themselves Christians, and the permission of war and violence to Christians. — Leo Tolstoy

Our greatest value is to reproduce ourselves in the lives of others. When you leave behind a vibrant Christian who knows his calling and his commission, you can be buried, but you will live on through all those in whom you have been reproduced. — Jerry Falwell

I cannot tell you that the sacrifice will be light: it is a serious thing to stand against the whole current of an age; it is a serious thing to be despised and hated by the generality of one's fellow men. Yet that is increasingly the lot of the truth Christian today. He will not, indeed, be inclined to complain; for he has something with which all that he has lost is not worthy to be compared; and he knows that despite temporary opposition the ultimate future belongs to him and to His Lord. But for the present he is called upon to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It can hardly be said that unworthy motives of self-interest can lead a man to enter into a calling in which he will win nothing but reproach. — J. Gresham Machen

Count the cost of your calling, find the value of your dream, and most of all find your place in His love. — Deborah Brodie

God does not judge the condition or quality of His church by how good the meetings are on Sunday morning, but by how good the people are on Monday morning. The main calling of our life is more than just knowing the truth - it is having that truth become our life. — Rick Joyner

I ain't the first on the list that people are sending scripts to. I'm very lucky. I've managed to put myself in the position with some directors, who will be calling me directly, and we're working on things and talking about things, but that's on a purely creative level. — Christian Bale

They seem to be a doomed people. The curse of a people calling themselves Christian, seems to follow them everywhere; — Richard Henry Dana Jr.

The Lord's gracious hand is upon us.
We will begin the good work. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Jesus is the Son of God.
We are sons and daughters of God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The real problem is that our values are changing and the new ones are wearing us out. But they're also keeping us from forming genuine, long-term, and meaningful commitments that actually contribute to the lives of others. Over time, the hype of living a new life, taking up a radical calling, and changing the world can creep into every area of our life. And it can make us tired, depressed, and mean. Michael Horton, Ordinary, 13-14 — Michael S. Horton

Live a passionate life.
Life can end any time, any day. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Self-control is spiritual. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You exist to know thy Creator. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The sacred jar of oil shall never run out. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I nod, and taking my tea, I head into the library. It's my refuge. I dig my BlackBerry out of my purse and contemplate calling Christian. I know it's a shock for him - but he really did overreact. When does he not overreact? — E.L. James

We cannot save ourselves. Only God has the power to save us. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Yet as she tells the story, the change came about when that director stopped treating her like an antagonist and treated her like a person. He apologized for publicly calling her "baby-killer" and started spending time with her during her smoking breaks in the parking lot. Later, McCorvey accepted an invitation to church from a seven-year-old girl whose mother also worked at Operation Rescue. Pro-abortion forces had dismissed McCorvey - her dubious record of drug-dealing, alcohol, lesbianism, and rape made bad public relations - but Christian leaders took the time to counsel her in the faith, keeping her out of the public spotlight for half a year. "Ultimately, God is the one who changes hearts," says McCorvey now. "A Christian witness is the biggest tool in effecting change. — Philip Yancey

May the Lord grant you a tender kind heart. — Lailah Gifty Akita

In today's newspaper there was a story about a married clergyman with three children who is calling for all sex to be declared un-Christian. He says lifelong virginity is the ideal for Christians. I wonder, has he told his wife and children this? — Wendy Buonaventura

The uncompromising example of Jesus Christ places upon every Christian minister the responsibility to withstand the temptation to align oneself with the secular ruling powers. It is true that it is part of every minister's calling to be a pastor to his or her parishioners, to be a spiritual leader and teacher and a comforter of the sick at heart and those afflicted in mind, soul, spirit, or body. Ministers of the Gospel must comfort the afflicted, but they also have the prophet's duty to afflict the comfortable. — Obery M. Hendricks Jr.

His story is colored by the murder of a brother, the rape of a sister, the betrayal of a friend, the pounding of nails into flesh and bone, and the darkening of the sky. A world of what-ifs and could-have-beens, peopled by has-beens and might-have-beens. It is a world soaked in fear and drenched by the blood of a million martyrs. A world of men burned at the stake and babes slaughtered at their mother's breasts. A dark history with pain oozing into all its hidden corners. At the center of history is a death. Christ's death, the decisive point of history. Christianity is perhaps the most morbid religion of the world. Perpetually meditating upon death with little crosses hung around their necks, Christian disciples sing their way to martyrdom. Anticipating death and calling it gain, Christians are evangelists of the grotesque. The very hope of the Gospel rests directly upon our ability to imagine a world in which suffering serves as the soil from which resurrection springs. — Ben Palpant

the striving (and anxious) Christian, deprived of the Catholic's recourse to sacramental justification, could find signs of his being among the elect if he could successfully and unceasingly apply himself to disciplined work and his worldly calling. Material productivity was often the fruit of such effort, which, compounded by the Puritan demand for ascetic renunciation of selfish pleasure and frivolous spending, readily lent itself to the accumulation of capital. Whereas traditionally the pursuit of commercial success was perceived as directly threatening to the religious life, now the two were recognized as mutually beneficial. — Richard Tarnas

You can walk in the light by faith. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You can keep your own religion - Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism - you just need to add Jesus to the equation. Then you become complete. You become a Buddhist with Jesus, a Hindu with Jesus, a Muslim with Jesus and so on. You can throw out the term Christianity and still be a follower of Jesus. In fact, you can throw out the term Christian too. In some countries, you could be persecuted for calling yourself a Christian, and there is no need for that. Just ask Jesus into your heart, you don't have to identify yourself as a Christian. — Rick Warren

Jesus is the Heir of God.
We are joint-heirs of God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

God's love for mankind; wide, long, high and deep. — Lailah Gifty Akita

We are citizens of heaven.
We must conduct ourselves, worthy of our calling, faith in Christ. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Sadly, in the volatile arena of the sexuality/Christianity debate, interaction is often reduced to name calling by angry gay activists and self-righteous Christian conservatives. Name calling never enhances conversation, rational discussion or creates a constructive dialogue. It only reinforces each other's perceptions/positions. It must be remembered however, that one of the reasons some LGBT people are quick to revert to name calling (bigot, homophobe, hater) is because they learnt about its impact early in life (faggot, queer, pervert). — Anthony Venn-Brown

The only Christian work is good work well done. — Dorothy L. Sayers

Mothering or nurturing is not just a calling for women who have biological or adopted children. Mothering is a calling for all women. Every Christian woman is called to the spiritual motherhood of making disciples of all nations. — Gloria Furman

My passionate adventure is to fulfill my calling; revered, preacher woman. — Lailah Gifty Akita

To call a Christian a theist is roughly equivalent to calling the space shuttle Atlantis a glider. — R.C. Sproul

O God, make me worthy of this calling, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me and I in him. — Arthur Bennett

The Christian fact is very straightforward: To be a student is a calling. Your parents are setting up accounts to pay the bills, or you are scraping together your own resources and taking out loans, or a scholarship is making college possible. — Stanley Hauerwas

Lord, I am your chosen woman; use me to accomplish your work on earth in Jesus Name. Amen. — Lailah Gifty Akita

We are God chosen-souls. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Let the Christian remain in the world, not because of the good gifts of creation, nor because of his responsibility for the course of the world, but for the sake of the Church. Let him remain in the world to engage in frontal assault on it, and let him live the life of his secular calling in order to show himself as a stranger in the world all the more. But that is only possible if we are visible members of the Church. The antithesis between the world and the Church must be borne out in the world. That was the purpose of the incarnation. That is why Christ died among his enemies. That is the reason and the only reason why the slave must remain a slave and the Christian remain subject to the powers that be. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There is more to life than I imagine — Lailah Gifty Akita

There is enough work for everybody. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Nature is God's workshop. The sky is his resume. The universe is his calling card. You want to know who God is? See what he has done. — Max Lucado

Calling resists privatization by insisting on the totality of faith. Calling resists politicization by demanding a tension with every human allegiance and association. Calling resists polarization by requiring an attitude toward, and action in, society that is inevitably transforming because it is constantly engaged. Grand Christian movements will rise and fall. Grand campaigns will be mounted and grand coalitions assembled. But all together such coordinated efforts will never match the influence of untold numbers of followers of Christ living out their callings faithfully across the vastness and complexity of modern society. — Os Guinness

A great mission by a great woman. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Let every preacher take note: Amid the frustrations and hardships of ministry, the most Christ-like thing is to stay focused on your calling, give thanks to God, and go on preaching the Gospel. — Joel Beeke

I have decided on my destiny; accepted by calling as writing for God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The doctrine of vocation or calling gained currency as men began to take time and history seriously. If the goal of the Christian life is a neoplatonic flight from this world, then pietism has effectively undermined the doctrine of non-ecclesiastical callings. To speak of having a calling is usually to speak of the clergy and clerical office. — Rousas John Rushdoony

We are peculiar people called to fulfill a great mission. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Living the good life as created beings depends on living within the limits and according to the truths of the human condition. Purity of heart and the capacity to channel desires toward personal self-mastery in holiness are part of the high calling of the Christian life. These remain necessities, despite the promises of a false humanism that claims that human nature has neither limits nor boundaries, being infinitely plastic and malleable -- a vain and counterproductive attempt to liberate humans from guilt. — George Cardinal Pell

No amount of organization and time management will compensate for a lack of Christian character, not when it comes to this great calling of glory through good - bringing glory to God by doing good to others. — Tim Challies

Prayer is not only for answers but a spiritual act. — Lailah Gifty Akita

May your light shine in the darkness. — Lailah Gifty Akita

May God be a pillar of shield for us. — Lailah Gifty Akita

There is no surer mark of a low and unregenerate nature than this tendency of power to loudness and wantonness instead of quietness and reverence. To souls baptized in Christian nobleness the largest sphere of command is but a wider empire of obedience, calling them, not to escape from holy rule, but to its full impersonation. — James Martineau

You ought to pause and enjoy the peace in the moment. — Lailah Gifty Akita

How do I find joy in my homeschool journey?
The answer is quite simple. I accept lots of God's grace. Grace to make mistakes. Grace to take a nap when I am exhausted. Grace to not feel guilty. Without His abundant provision of grace, I would be depleted, discouraged, and dissatisfied. Instead, I place all my trust in His direction and I embrace my calling as a homeschool mom. His grace has set me free from worry, fear, doubt, and guilt and I am overflowing with joy. Praise God! — Tamara L. Chilver

If you're calling yourself a maverick and you're not Dirk Nowitzki, then you are probably not one. In fact, this rule applies to anyone declaring themselves a 'God-fearing Christian' or a 'Man of the people.' — Adam McKay

One of the greatest advantages of singleness is the potential for greater focus on Christ and accomplishing work for Him. — Elizabeth George

The sacred duty of every soul is to fear God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Every Christian can have victory in his calling — Sunday Adelaja

The secular humanist, although he would never dream of committing the social faux pas of calling a black man a negro, feels perfectly free to castigate Christians and their leaders in any way he likes. — Frank Schaeffer

May every soul reconnect to the Creator. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of him, wrestles with him; yea, will not let him go without a blessing ... They are only a few noble-spirited souls, who dare take heaven by force, that are fit for this calling. — William Gurnall

As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ. — Rachel Held Evans

Other 'Christian' girls may watch the same movies, listen to the same music, wear the same clothes, and have all the same pop culture addictions as the rest of the world with just slightly higher morals tacked on. But God has called us to a higher standard-the very standard of Jesus Christ. And I believe it's time we become worthy of the calling we have received. — Leslie Ludy

Monastic vows rest on the false assumption that there is a special calling, a vocation, to which superior Christians are invited to observe the counsels of perfection while ordinary Christians fulfill only the commands; but there simply is no special religious vocation since the call of God comes to each at the common tasks. — Martin Luther

In the sacredness of pureness; a spark of divinity manifest. — Lailah Gifty Akita

My Master's call I have decided to respond
That His work will not be left ajar as I stand afar
Harvest full; laborers' few
The Master is calling and I choose to respond to my calling

Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
That I may complete my work with excellence
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus


My Master's call I have decided to respond
Aloud He calls; a soul He wants; salvation He gives!
The Master is calling! Jesus is calling!
And I choose to respond to my calling

Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
That I may complete my work with excellence
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus
Be my guide dear Lord Jesus — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

This is what it means, for me, to be called. This is what it means to follow the living Lord...It meant letting go of everything in my life that I thought might give me security, and coming to the realization that such trust ought never be placed in anything but the living Son of God.

Being called by God, I learned...means being called to surrender - not just surrendering once, and then returning to our former way of life, but an entire life of surrender...

Christian calling means being called by the living, resurrected Christ to follow Him. And it is in following Christ, through continual self-surrender, that we begin to realize who we are, and what it means to walk with God day by day. — Ryan J. Pemberton

One of God's high callings for His people is that they be teachers of good things. — Elizabeth George

I have to serve with all my might. — Lailah Gifty Akita

True Christian Living is the willingness to deny yourself and consider pleasing God and obedience to Him to be your highest calling in life no matter what station you are in. The things that you do in secret for God will be of more value in His Sight then the pleasures of this world and doing what people think you should do. — Anya VonderLuft

Life is sacred existence. — Lailah Gifty Akita

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Ephesians 4:4-6 (King James Version) — Anonymous

The need itself is not the call. — Charles E. Hummel

The time of my departure is here. Place your hand gently on the soil beside my own, and feel the rumble of the earth beneath. The power of a thousand thousands is coming ... evil warriors fighting against the Noble One. Here I stand with Him. Take up your sword and come with me, for the Prince is calling. And if you do not go ... who will? — Chuck Black

It's one thing for the people in the industry to know who you are, because they've heard about you earlier. I have friends calling me from the Christian bookstore because there's a poster on the wall. It's just weird. — Stacie Orrico