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Theologian Hart goes on to note a secret irony hidden in the arguments of the skeptics: "They would never have occurred to consciences that had not in some profound way been shaped by the moral universe of a Christian culture."
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Philip Yancey |
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26e62ef
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When we make condescending judgments, or proclaim lofty words that don't translate into action, or simply speak without first listening, we fail to love -- and thus deter a thirsty world from Living Water. The good news about God's grace goes unheard.
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Philip Yancey |
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b84fe0d
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Modern humanity does not perceive the world as worth God dying for. We Christians must demonstrate it.
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Philip Yancey |
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2a16425
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The church of my own childhood, as well as that of my present and my future, comprises deeply flawed human beings struggling toward an unattainable ideal.
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Philip Yancey |
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e21c84d
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Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.
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Philip Yancey |
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601fabc
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The phrase "the body of Christ," expresses well what we are called to do: to represent in flesh what Christ is like, especially to those in need. The"
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Philip Yancey |
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1a5d87a
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I used to feel spiritually inferior because I had not experienced the more spectacular manifestations of the Spirit and could not point to any bona fide "miracles" in my life. Increasingly, though, I have come to see that what I value may differ greatly from what God values. Jesus, often reluctant to perform miracles, considered it progress when he departed earth and entrusted the mission to his flawed disciples. Like a proud parent, God se..
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humanity
god-s-power
miracles
god-s-will
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Philip Yancey |
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not
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Philip Yancey |
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the healthiest body is the one that feels the pain of its weakest parts. In
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Philip Yancey |
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5dea75e
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Humility is the real Christian virtue," says Nouwen. "When we come to realize that . . . only God saves, then we are free to serve, then we can live truly humble lives."
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Philip Yancey |
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d4f2631
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A lo largo de toda la Biblia, en especial en los libros de los profetas, vemos a Dios debatirse en un conflicto interno. Por una parte, amaba apasionadamente a las personas que habia creado; por otra, sentia el terrible impulso de destruir al Mal que la esclavizaba. En la cruz, Dios resolvio ese conflicto interno, porque en ella su Hijo absorbio la fuerza destructiva para transformarla en amor. Citas
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Philip Yancey |
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2e1b541
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suffering can serve as instruments to teach us the value of dependence, and unless we learn dependence we will never experience grace. The apostle Paul gave the Corinthians an
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Philip Yancey |
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4557876
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Jesus used small things to describe his kingdom: a sprinkling of yeast that causes the whole loaf to rise, a pinch of salt that preserves a slab of meat, the smallest seed in the garden that grows into a great bush in which the birds of the air come to nest. Practices that used to be common--human sacrifice, slavery, duels to the death, child labor, exploitation of women, racial apartheid, debtors' prisons, the killing of the elderly and in..
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Philip Yancey |
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575bf95
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The uncommitted share many of our core values, but if we do not live out those values in a compelling way, we will not awaken a thirst for their ultimate Source.
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Philip Yancey |
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605b6d8
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Suffering can never ultimately be meaningless, because God has shared it.
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Philip Yancey |
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e627d3a
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As a writer I have received my share of mixed reviews. Even so, as I read through stacks of vituperative letters, I got a strong sense for why the world does not automatically associate the word "grace" with evangelical Christians. Noxious"
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Philip Yancey |
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aaf7314
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Be careful," warned Nietzsche, "lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon." I"
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Philip Yancey |
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30e33ac
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I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis once said that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. Those
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Philip Yancey |
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b3a223f
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What would it take for church to become known as a place where grace is "on tap"
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Philip Yancey |
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732a689
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Dorothy Day used to say that we should live in such a way that our lives wouldn't make much sense if the gospel were not true.
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Philip Yancey |
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f36d134
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As Dorothy Day put it, "I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least."
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Philip Yancey |
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927834d
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Jesus says in effect, 'Do you want to know what it feels like to be God? When one of those two-legged humans pays attention to me, it feels like I just reclaimed my most valuable possession, which I had given up for lost.' To God himself, it feels like the discovery of a lifetime.
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Philip Yancey |
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10e61c1
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God welcomes home anyone who will have him and, in fact, has made the first move already.
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Philip Yancey |
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0fb26bf
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Rather than looking back nostalgically on a time when Christians wielded more power, I suggest another approach: that we regard ourselves as subversives operating within the broader culture.
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Philip Yancey |
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Over time Christians learned that the faith grows best from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.
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Philip Yancey |
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f8745a8
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God does some of God's best work with people who are truly, seriously lost.
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Philip Yancey |
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682c663
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As the priest in Harold Frederic's novel The Damnation of Theron Ware cynically concludes, There must always be a church. If one did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. It is needed, first and foremost, as a police force. It is needed, secondly, so to speak, as a fire insurance. . . . . It furnishes the best obtainable social machinery for marrying off one's daughters, getting to know the right people, patching up quarrels, and s..
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Philip Yancey |
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eca38f1
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In a letter to his brother, C. S. Lewis mentioned that he prayed every night for the people he was most tempted to hate, with Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini heading the list. In another letter he wrote that as he prayed for them, he meditated on how his own cruelty might have blossomed into something like theirs. He remembered that Christ died for them as much as for him, and that he himself was not "so different from these ghastly creatures..
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Philip Yancey |
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From such experiments Christians have learned that the gospel grows best from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.
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Philip Yancey |
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780ec83
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Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
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Philip Yancey |
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8ae504a
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Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson performed a rather bizarre experiment on ants that may supplement Paul's illustration (Rom 6:1-14). After noticing that it took ants a few days to recognize one of their crumpled nestmates as having died, he determined that ants identified death by clues of smell, not visually. As the ant's body began to decompose, other ants would infallibly carry it out of the nest to a refuse pile. After many tries, Wil..
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Philip Yancey |
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923072e
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Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission, say something similar: "God has a plan to fight injustice, and that plan is us -- his people. There is no Plan B."
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Philip Yancey |
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556a7a4
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But those of us who follow his conducting through early movements will, with renewed strength, someday burst into song.
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Philip Yancey |
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2041b2b
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Christians behave like spies, living in one world while our deepest allegiance belongs to another.
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Philip Yancey |
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7f1e249
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When I pray, coincidences happen," said Archbishop William Temple; "when I don't, they don't."
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Philip Yancey |
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We cannot make Him visible to us, but we can make ourselves visible to Him," said Abraham Joshua Heschel"
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Philip Yancey |
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412c092
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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Audacious longing, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind--these are all a drive toward [loving the One] who rings our heart like a bell. --ABRAHAM HESCHEL
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Philip Yancey |
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2ff0e6a
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The presence of another caring person doubles the amount of pain a person can endure,
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Philip Yancey |
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0ade3b0
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I am forced to reexamine. Thomas Merton's words about the Bible in general apply to the Old Testament in particular: There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible--until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves... Have we ceased to question the book and be questioned by it? Have we ceased to fight it? Then perhaps our reading is no longer serious. For most people, the understanding of the Bible is,..
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Philip Yancey |
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3bc9c78
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He who cannot forgive another breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself. GEORGE HERBERT
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Philip Yancey |
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c09da7f
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The reason we fear to go out after dark is not that we may be set upon by bands of evangelicals and forced to read the New Testament, but that we may be set upon by gangs of feral young people who have been taught that nothing is superior to their own needs or feelings.
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Philip Yancey |
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6327810
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Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.
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Philip Yancey |
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67c8447
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For Jesus, the person was more important than any category or label.
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Philip Yancey |
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7f3c3e4
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The law did not encourage obedience, rather it magnified disobedience. Law merely indicated the sickness; grace brought about the cure.
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Philip Yancey |