GraceQuotes.com

He does not want you to be used by anyone, and He would never use you. Your gifts were given to you for the purpose of bringing joy to your life, not for the purpose of serving Him or furthering His cause.… He wants people to think highly of and respect you. He loves it when folks are drawn to you and when they are amazed at how gifted you are… Christians today have been trained to purposefully cover their light, rather than let them shine for all to see, for fear that God might get angry at how bright they are. How crazy is that?…

His purpose is for us to be His sons and daughters, and out of those relationships, we become the message.… What is the one thing all good parents want for their children? They want them to enjoy life.… God’s love is not concerned with what He can get; He’s concerned with what He can give.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 100-1.

Though God loves the angels in heaven, they are basically groupies. All they can see is His glory and majesty. They can’t help but cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” God’s incredible splendor and beauty are so overpowering that anyone or anything that comes into contact with Him immediately falls to the ground in worship and awe. There is an inner part of God that remains hidden and veiled behind the radiance of his shimmering glory. It’s a part of Him that is tucked so deep within the blinding brilliance of His presence that unless all that is great and magnificent is stripped away, no one can ever know this inner part of God. In Christ, God became nothing so He could have real intimacy with you.…

God became something a little lower than you in order to lift you up!…

Jesus Christ is God not boasting!

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 66.

One of the statements I hear the most from people when I inquire about their relationship with God is this: “God has me in a wilderness.” It’s as though God has left them on top of the refrigerator like an avocado waiting to ripen.… They see themselves as being in a perpetual state of incompletion, and they honestly believe that God not only endorses this idea but He also participates in it. This mentality goes against the basic theology of scripture. In New Testament times, if you were a Christian you were in the Promised Land, not the wilderness. Make no mistake about it; God will not put you in the wilderness!… Though you are a work in progress, He has already declared you completed! By one sacrifice He has made you perfect forever.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 87-8.

The notion that God would have us put ourselves down to make Him bigger is completely wrong. In fact, from His perspective, it’s heartbreaking. You’ll hear this taking place in worship services across the country. How many of us believe He gets a rise out of our demeaning ourselves? Who do we think He is? What father enjoys this? We’re literally telling Him that what Jesus accomplished on the cross wasn’t worth spit. We didn’t get it; we’re still scum. We deny the very righteousness He freely gave us and choose to proclaim its ineffectiveness in our lives. And we do it in a sense of worship, no less. This is catastrophic! Believe it or not, when you reject someone’s compliment and “give God all the glory,” He doesn’t receive an ounce of glory.… God’s heart desires that all his glory be upon his children. He is not in competition with us; He is our greatest promoter.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 102.

When you truly love someone unconditionally with all that’s in you, that flame of love inside your heart is God… When you love, He is already living inside you! God. Is. Love… The fire of God is love!…

I have watched parents cry out to God for wisdom and rearing their children. They have lost sight of what to do next. They beg God to lead them to a scripture or a Christian book that will give them the answers they seek. God’s response goes something like this: “Consult the flame.” If you look to the flame of love you have in your heart for your child and consul it, you will know how to act and react. Try it. Discipline will become precise and Godly every time. The flame reveals the inner parts of your child’s heart to you. It shows you exactly what to do in every situation. The problems come because most of us get angry and frustrated and we hide from it. We forget that we love our children…

Husbands and wives pray for wisdom in their marriages. They struggle to the point of divorce because nothing comes. God’s response: “consult the flame.” Look at that spouse you love so much and remember… Christians tell me every day of the week that reading the Bible has become mundane and boring for them. They’ve tried switching translations in an effort to mix the words up a bit, but eventually they find themselves right back where they started. God’s response to this one is also to consult the flame. All scripture must be seen in light of the flame. Without it, it will be dark in your hands. It’s not the Bible that makes the flame come to life; it’s the flame that makes the Bible come to life.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 205.

We say things like “God wants you to give Him your life,” and it doesn’t even sound bad to us anymore. Over time it actually begins to sound beautiful. We even encourage others to give their lives to Christ because we are certain that this is what God wants. Christ came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. He never asks you to give him your life. It’s your heart He is after. Only an envious God would give you life and then require you to give it back to him. He gave it to you, and He wants you to enjoy it to the fullest.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 51.

God is not in competition for your love. I am always mystified when I hear people boastfully say, “I love God more than my wife.” The only way to love God more than your spouse is to love God through your spouse. Your husband or wife would be the direct recipient of the love.…

The God who is love loves it when we love.… God is never in competition with your love for people! Any time you love a person, you are not far from God. Your love for people is the evidence that God is living inside you.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 54.

I know pastors who spend six hours a day reading and studying their Bibles.… But when it comes to people, they’re indifferent. They could take them or leave them. These men think they know God’s heart because they have read and studied his book and spent hours in prayer, but what they don’t know is that they’re being grossly deceived. They don’t know Him from Adam! I also know people who read their Bibles about five minutes a week and pray even less. They secretly kick themselves for it, and they’re afraid to approach God because their religion has made them so aware of their sin. However, they happen to love people with all their hearts. These folks have an intimacy with God that’s irreplaceable. They know Him fully because they love and know his children.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 202-3.

We believe that the closer we get to godliness, the fewer needs we will have. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. There’s nothing more heartwarming to a father than to express his love when asked for something He longs to provide for his children… He not only loves it when you ask, but He waits with expectation for you to ask because your asking fulfills his desire to provide for the one He loves. Any time you admit your helplessness, God is inspired the same way I am with my children. Your vulnerability shakes Him at the deepest, most inner part of his heart. Jesus told the people that He came not for those who didn’t need Him, but for those who did. The thing that compels Him to come was needs. Helplessness was the fuel that drove Jesus to do what He did.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 77.

Becoming Christlike is not a process in which we train ourselves to “impersonate” Jesus. Becoming Christlike is the process by which we allow the same essence that motivated and drove Jesus to also drive us in life. It’s the essence of Christ – His character, not His personality or mannerisms.

Elvis impersonators do what they do at a steep price. Many literally lose themselves in the process of trying to become Elvis-like. The sad thing is that none of them has an ounce of Elvis in them. If they did, they certainly wouldn’t be impersonating him in Las Vegas. They would be leading a whole new revolution and inspiring a generation to think for themselves. To be Elvis-like is not to look, dress, act, and sound like Elvis Presley. The inner workings of the heart made him who he was.

People like John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix were “Elvis-like,” in my opinion. Though they never looked or sounded like Elvis, they had the heart and drive of a revolutionary. This is essentially what being Christlike is about: being driven by the same power that drove Christ, namely love.

Darin Hufford

The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 104.