Quote 1118
If you look at some of the most historic portraits in the Christian tradition, you will see a skull within the painting. This was known as memento mori, the memory of death, which was intended to motivate the subject of the painting to make the most of the time given to him. That skull on my desk is not a morbid decoration or a macabre ornament from a dark holiday. It is a constant reminder of mortality as essential to the human condition, and an impetus to be aware that every passing day removes one tick from the column marked Future and adds one to the column marked Past. 
Albert Mohler
The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (p. 200)2.7K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
God is most beautifully praised when His people hear His Word, love His Word, and obey His Word.
Are we seriously to believe that human personhood is a matter of mere location, inside or outside the womb?http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/09/16/thrown-over-the-fence-infanticide-canadian-style/
the decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church. No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other.
Years ago I heard the story of an old preacher who told a group of younger preachers to remember that they would die. "They are going to put you in a box," he said, "and put the box in the ground, and throw dirt on your face, and then go back to the church and eat potato salad." That says it perfectly. Life goes on. If we transfer the convictions successfully, all will be well. If not, our stewardship is in danger . . . or in vain.The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (p. 200)
You can divide all leaders into those who merely hold an office or position and those who hold great convictions. Life is too short to give much attention to leaders who stand for little or nothing, leaders who are looking for the next program or riding the latest leadership fad, trying on idea after idea but driven by no deep convictions.The Conviction to Lead, 25
Liberal theology is a succession of rescue attempts for the reputation of Christianity.http://t4g.org/media/2012/04/inerrancy-panel-v/
Christians need to remember that the sufficiency of Scripture gives us a comprehensive worldview that equips us to wrestle with even the most challenging ethical dilemmas of our time.
We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality, but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the moral authority to insist upon it; we want moral community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot have on the terms that we want it.
hire on the basis of conviction. This is essential, and yet this is where many leaders subvert their own leadership. We are all easily (and often rightly) impressed with expertise and ability, but these cannot compensate for a lack of conviction. When it comes to hiring leaders who will have a role in directing the work, conviction is nonnegotiable. You cannot possibly lead with conviction if you entrust the future of your organization to people who do not share those convictions. This is how great movements die - they begin with clarity and end with confusion, or worse.The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (p. 203-204)
As Theo Hobson describes it, for a full moral reversal to take place three conditions must be met. The first is this: what was condemned must be celebrated. The second is that what was celebrated must now be condemned. And thirdly, those who will not join in the celebration will be condemned.
Young Americans, and that includes young Christians, face some very real challenges in moving toward full adulthood, and there is no question that economic factors play a part. But even secular observers understand that a shift in marriage points to an underlying shift in morality. The blunt fact is that previous generations of young adults, facing even greater economic challenges, still found their way to adulthood and marriage.http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/problem-delaying-marriage/
Awareness of our mortality changes everything. We know that our leadership, no matter our age, is a temporary stewardship. We are creatures made for a specific time and a specific opportunity and a unique stewardship of influence, life, and energy. This knowledge limits our pride and temptation to hubris, for we live with the constant awareness that everything we have built can be undone when we are gone. We have a limited opportunity to make a difference, and to make it last. Leadership, in other words, is perishable.The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (p. 200)
We know that character matters when we hire a baby-sitter. How can it not matter when we are calling a leader?The Conviction to Lead (p. 82).
When a denomination begins to consider doctrine divisive, theology troublesome, and convictions inconvenient, consider that denomination on its way to a well-deserved death.
We must assume a context of spiritual confusion, and this is often now a hostile confusion.
Large numbers of Americans...profess belief in God but live like atheists.
I sympathize with every human heart wishing to know the one true and living God. But I believe there's only one way that can happen: through Jesus Christ. And the gospel is about repenting to sin not celebrating it.
But there are many who consider themselves fully conservative and fully orthodox who never preach many texts of scripture, who never remotlely come into contact with many doctrinal truths. Because they recoil on how to present them in an age which considers them crude and ugly and unclean. and when you buy into that logic. Guess what? You're a liberal. (Video Interview)
Try to imagine a majority Christian country where Muslims are not basically completely free to enjoy religious liberty. But, on the other hand, try to imagine a majority Muslim country where Christians are actually given the same rite, and true religious freedom. The Briefing Dec 16, 2010. (4:45)
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