Dennis Swanberg - The Man Code: Unlock the Secret

We'll wrap things up with a collection of timely, practical, thought-provoking quotations from noted Christian men. By the way, if you haven't already done so, you should probably start jotting down favorite quotations in a place where you can review them often.

Knowledge is horizontal.
Wisdom is vertical; it comes down from above.

BILLY GRAHAM

The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace,
humility, and love. And, the root of it is faith
in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God.

J. I. PACKER

The more wisdom enters our hearts,
the more we will be able to trust our hearts
in difficult situations.

JOHN ELDREDGE

The man who prays ceases to be a fool.

OSWALD CHAMBERS

If you lack knowledge, go to school.
If you lack wisdom, get on your knees.

VANCE HAVNER

Every time you make a choice, you are turning
the central part of you, the part that chooses, into
something a little different from what it was before.

C. S. LEWIS

Good and evil both increase at compound interest.
That is why the little decisions you and I make every day
are of such infinite importance.

C. S. LEWIS

Every day, I find countless opportunities to decide
whether I will obey God and demonstrate my love
for him or try to please myself or the world system.
God is waiting for my choices.

BILL BRIGHT

Life is a series of choices between the bad, the good,
and the best. Everything depends on how we choose.

VANCE HAVNER

Successful people make right decisions early
and manage those decisions daily.

JOHN MAXWELL

God sometimes permits us to experience humiliating
defeats in order to test our faith and to reveal
to us what's really going on in our hearts.

WARREN WIERSBE

You've got problems; I've got problems;
all God's children have got problems.
The question is how are you going to deal with them?

JOHN MAXWELL

Life will be made or broken at the place
where we meet and deal with obstacles.

E. STANLEY JONES

When you fall and skin your knees and skin your heart,
he'll pick you up.

CHARLES STANLEY

Only the man who follows the command of
Jesus single-mindedly and unresistingly
lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy,
and under its gentle pressure receives the power
to persevere in the right way.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

The first essential for a happy home is love.

BILLY GRAHAM

A family is a place where principles are hammered and
honed on the anvil of everyday living.

CHARLES SWINDOLL

The only true source of meaning in life is found
in love for God and his son Jesus Christ,
and love for mankind, beginning with our own families.

JAMES DOBSON

Every Christian family ought to be, as it were,
a little church, consecrated to Christ,
and wholly influenced and governed by his rules.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

The family circle is the supreme conductor
of Christianity.

HENRY DRUMMOND

When God wants to accomplish something,
he calls dedicated men and women to challenge
his people and lead the way.

WARREN WIERSBE

People who inspire others are those who see
invisible bridges at the end of dead-end streets.

CHARLES SWINDOLL

The great illusion of leadership is to think that
others can be led out of the desert by someone
who has never been there.

HENRI NOUWEN

You can never separate a leader's actions
from his character.

JOHN MAXWELL

Nothing speaks louder or more powerfully
than a life of integrity.

CHARLES SWINDOLL

You can judge how far you have risen in the scale
of life by asking one question: How wisely and how deeply
do I care? To be Christianized is to be sensitized.
Christians are people who care.

E. STANLEY JONES

In Jesus, the service of God and the service
of the least of the brethren were one.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than
seeing Jesus. Christian service, in its purest form,
is nothing more than imitating him who we see.
To see his Majesty and to imitate him:
that is the sum of Christianity.

MAX LUCADO

You were created to add to life on earth,
not just take from it.

RICK WARREN

Have thy tools ready; God will find thee work.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

The people whom I have seen succeed best in life have
always been cheerful and hopeful people who went
about their business with a smile on their faces.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

It is a remarkable thing that some of the most optimistic
and enthusiastic people you will meet are those
who have been through intense suffering.

WARREN WIERSBE

The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of
the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality,
and of hope. Where others have resigned, it enables
a man to hold his head high, to claim the future
for himself, and not abandon it to his enemy.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

The popular idea of faith is of a certain obstinate
optimism: the hope, tenaciously held in the face of
trouble, that the universe is fundamentally
friendly and things may get better.

J. I. PACKER

Great hopes make great men.

THOMAS FULLER

Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never
dreams that he will not stand by us.

OSWALD CHAMBERS

Faith does not eliminate problems.
Faith keeps you in a trusting relationship with God
in the midst of your problems.

HENRY BLACKABY

Trusting God doesn't change our circumstances.
Perfect trust in him changes us.

CHARLES SWINDOLL

God is God. He knows what he is doing.
When you can't trace his hand, trust his heart.

MAX LUCADO

Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment;
trust in money and you may have it taken from you,
but trust in God, and you are never to be
confounded in time or eternity.

D. L. MOODY

If we only believe and ask,
a full measure of God's grace is available to any of us.

CHARLES SWINDOLL

Grace comes from the heart of a gracious God who wants
to stun you and overwhelm you with a gift you don't
deservesalvation, adoption, a spiritual ability to use
in kingdom service, answered prayer, the church,
his presence, his wisdom, his guidance, his love.

BILL HYBELS

We are here to be living monuments to God's grace.

OSWALD CHAMBERS

Sin made us poor, but grace makes us rich.

WARREN WIERSBE

The cross was heavy, the blood was real, and the price
was extravagant. It would have bankrupted you or me,
so he paid it for us. Call it simple. Call it a gift.
But don't call it easy. Call it what it is. Call it grace.

MAX LUCADO

A NOTE FROM RON SMITH

In 2005, Dennis Swanberg and I sat down in a coffee shop at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville to discuss one of Dennis's ideas. Because I've been his manager for over a decade, and because Dennis has produced numerous videos, has hosted a cable television show, and has written several books, this brainstorming session was nothing new. Over the years, Swan and I have talked about hundreds of concepts, but this one was different. When Dennis began to share his thoughts, I could see that he was gripped by a level of passiona sense of excitement and possibilitylike I had never seen before.