VANCE HAVNER'S HUMOR

(Some more good sayings of Vance Havner, compiled by W. F. Bell. This time humorous).

We looked recently at the man Vance Havner (1901-1986) and some of his powerful insights into the gospel and related truths. Here we look at a few things with humor in them. But remember, when Havner used humor it was not like worldly people do. For Havner, to speak with humor was to put across a spiritual message. You don't have to read him long before noticing the special gift he had for this. Christ is still central.

IMPROVING OLD ADAM
"We are trying to make the gospel acceptable to man as he is. The church becomes an Old Adam Improvement Society. The rich young ruler would be gladly received today, with no questions asked and no sacrifice required."

ABSENT OR PRESENT?
"Some church members tell us that they will be absent in body but present in spirit -- one has a spooky feeling of preaching to ghosts! Then there are those who are present in body but absent in spirit. I'm not sure which crowd I'd rather preach to."

WHOOPING, HOLLERING, MISGUIDED
"Rip Van Winkle slept through a revolution. When he fell asleep, George III was ruler of America. When he woke up, George Washington was President of the United States. Rip didn't know what had happened. He started whooping it up for the King and almost got into trouble. He was hollering for the wrong George! Not a few misguided souls are doing just that today."

IDEAL ENVIRONMENT?
"Ideal environment does not guarantee perfect performance. After all, Adam was in Paradise when he fell! The New Testament was not written on vacation; much of it was penned in jail. Paul was not resting at a pleasure resort when he wrote the Epistles. The Pilgrim's Progress was not put together in a villa on the French Riviera."

MYSTICS OR MISTAKES?
"Some of the old mystics were really mistakes. They tried to be more saintly by hiding in caves. Living in a hole never made anybody holier."

TOUGH HIDES, SOFT HEARTS
"A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. His problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart."

GOD'S HOOT OWL
"Better to be God's hoot owl than the devil's mocking bird."

DUMB DOGS
"The Bible speaks of false prophets as 'dumb dogs, they cannot bark' (Isaiah 56:10). That is one D. D. degree I don't want."

OLD BERT
"On the farm of my boyhood days, we had an old horse named Bert. I observed that Bert never seemed enthusiastic when we started out in the morning, for he knew that a hard day's work lay ahead. But, believe it or not, in the late afternoon, when by all odds Bert should have been tired, he climbed the old hill back to the barn with amazing alacrity. I have often reflected that if an old horse knows when he is headed home and joyfully treads his way at sundown, should not we pilgrims of earth, who seek a City (Hebrews 11:10,14), walk liveliest when we near the other side?"

"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." Hebrews 13:12-14

"How sad shall be the days in store,
When voice and vision come no more."
Often quoted by Havner