Tuttle-actions and Tuttle-isms

A student took the time to jot down and share some great quotes of Dr. Robert Tuttle, beloved professor at the Florida Dunnam Campus. The quotes are affectionately called:

Tuttle-actions

1. Kneeling, taking your hand, placing it on his head, and asking you to pray for him
2. The always surprising "kiss on the cheek" to his male colleagues
3. Surprising the preacher by asking her/him to "Say that again"
4. Having theological conversations seated on the floor in a hallway with a cup of coffee
5. Dancing into chapel during the opening songs
6. Continuing to clap in chapel after everyone else is done
7. You always know not to sit in the front row in his class unless you want him in your face - I mean literally in your face. I don't think he has any personal space.
8. Bob was affirming the worship music of Dawn Smith. He was going on and on about how he could just kiss her feet (b/c that's how awesome it was to him). He then proceeds to say "I would even suck on her toes, because that's how great it is."

Tuttle-isms

1. “I really don’t need anything, I just want to look at you.”
2. "It's a mistake to fear the enemies of God." (from Joshua's, Caleb's and the others spying of the promised land who returned with a bad report)
3. "God is a stickler for details in times of transition." (from the fella who steadied the Ark when it was about to fall of the cart, and he died)
4. "Serves you right!" (what Tuttle always says whenever something good happens to you)
5. “How’s your soul?” or “Do you love the Lord?” (when abruptly stopping people in the hallways)
6. “Is everyone in here saved?” (what he asks after entering a room)
7. "Can you come back later; I'm not here right now." (the story goes, a student stood in the doorway of Bob's office.  When Bob realized someone was there, he looked up, and said to the student…)
8. “God has a lot more invested in you than you do.”
9. “Lord, give me eyes to see and love others as though they were my own children.”
10. “I don't know what I'm talking about.”
11. "Make sure no one gets saved 'til I get there!"
12. "You're a sinner son, probably the worst of all! As sweet as you are." (and the whole time, he'd be holding the hand of that person.)
13.  “You can't know what the bible means until you first know what it meant.”
14. “If you ask a 4 to 8 year old to pray for rain, he/she goes inside to get an umbrella.”
15. “I hope He blesses your socks off!”
16. “Can we talk?”
17. “I am a tongue talkin’ Methodist! You're not going to hold that against me are you?”
18.  “You'll get a knee jerk." (if you were placed in a situation beyond your comfort zone)
19. "You put the pressure on by taking the pressure off."
20. “I went to bed in black and white and woke up in technicolor. I wanted to eat grass because it was my favorite color” (part of his "saved" story)
21. “If you get singled out, you get picked off.”
22. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, bad news, good news.”
23. “We may both be wrong but we can't both be right.”
24. “The core of the Gospel: Jesus is Lord.”
25. “Truth has never changed to accommodate what I believe truth to be.”
26. “I assume the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone, everywhere.”
27. “Everyone the world over has a need to measure up to some kind of law.”
28. “Tell me about yourself.”
29. “God loved before God created. God redeemed before God created.”
30. “Sin is that which separates us from God, ourselves, and those around us.”
31. “You're a joy to my soul.”
32. “Get over it.”
33. “God, make me sensitive to opportunities for ministry.”
34. “God takes the initiative in the drama of rescue.”
35. “We should rejoice just as much when God closes doors as when God opens doors.”
36. “Most people are not accustomed to being listened to as though they have something interesting to say.”
37. “There ain’t no justice in this world but there'll be plenty in the next.”
38. “You don't have to die to go to Hell.”
39. “God is no respecter of persons.”
40. “If you can't say no your yes is meaningless.”
41. “Try to turn your back on sin by turning your back on sin. It'll eat your lunch. The minute your mind goes rote you will be having thoughts in the middle of the Lord's prayer.”
42. “It's easy not to sin right now because you're looking at me. But, I do things in front of God that I would never do in front of you.”
43. “Don't go in with all the answers before you know what the questions are.”
44. “What is freedom for some is bondage for others.”
45. “Ask God to take away the deep seated resentments. We can't give it away. If we could give it away, we wouldn't need God.”
46. “Sometimes, I have to lower the history tapes so I can hear the voice of God.”
47. “God doesn't have to imagine how we hurt when he hurt. He has been here. The suffering didn't begin on the cross; it began in the manger.”
48. “Don't give me a Jesus with a fifth gear.”
49. “If someone is hungry, what are you going to do? Unless you are a brick, you're going to feed them.” ("brick" is used in a variety of circumstances)
50. “Your sphere of influence includes those who most easily relate to your ministry.”
51. “I wouldn't change a minute of my past. I wouldn't live it again, but I wouldn't change it. It is apart of who I am.”
52. “I meet people all the time who make 4 times as much as me. Within 30 minutes, they all want to be me.”