Worship empowers serving; serving expresses worship. Godliness requires a disciplined balance between the two. Those who can maintain service without regular personal and corporate worship are serving in the flesh. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been serving that way or how well others think they serve, they are not striving according to God’s power, as Paul did, but their own… At the same time, one measure of the authenticity of worship (again, both personal and corporate) is whether it results in a desire to serve… Therefore, we must maintain that to be Godly, we should discipline ourselves for both worship and service. To engage in one without the other is, in reality, to experience neither.
— Donald Whitney (b. 1954), Theologe, Pastor und Autor
Topics: Service & Love of Neighbour, Growth & Character, Discipleship
Occasions: For Reflection
Donald Whitney
Donald Whitney (* 1954) ist ein US-amerikanischer reformiert-baptistischer Theologe, Pastor und Hochschullehrer, der über viele Jahre am Southern und Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary lehrte. Er steht für eine biblisch begründete Frömmigkeitspraxis und wurde vor allem durch seine Schriften über geistliche Disziplinen wie Schriftbetrachtung, Gebet und Fasten bekannt. Bibellesern vermittelt er praktische Anleitungen, wie biblische Texte – insbesondere die Psalmen – als direkte Struktur und Orientierung für das persönliche Gebet dienen können.
All quotes by Donald Whitney (93)
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa
Prayer does not equip us for greater works – prayer is the greater work.
Oswald Chambers
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
There are two ways to do good: to give and to forgive.
Augustine of Hippo
The world consists of nothing but opportunities for love.
Søren Kierkegaard
We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love.
Mother Teresa
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner
Etty Hillesum