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The Israelites must have wondered about this patriarch who was always in trouble. . . . This God does not align himself only with the obviously valued ones, the first-born. This oracle speaks about an inversion. It affirms that we are not fated to the way the world is presently organized. That is the premise of the ministry of Jesus: the poor, the mourning, the meek, the hungry . . . are the heirs to the kingdom (Matt. 5:3-7).
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Jesus Christ's salvation comes to us through his poverty, rejection, and weakness. And Christians are not saved by summoning up their strength and accomplishing great deeds but by admitting their weakness and need for a savior.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Yes, of course, believing in universal moral truths can be used to oppress others. But what if that absolute truth is a man who died for his enemies, who did not respond in violence with violence but forgave them? How could that story, if it is the center of your life, lead you to take up power and dominate others?
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Timothy J. Keller |
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we can conclude that a professed Christian who is not committed to a life of generosity and justice toward the poor and marginalized is, at the very least, a living contradiction of the Gospel of Christ, the Son of God, whose Father "executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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In a penetrating insight, Bauckham writes that belief in the story of salvation "also breaks the cycle by which the oppressed become oppressors in their turn."47 In the Old Testament the Israelites are constantly warned not to oppress immigrants and racial outsiders "because you were foreigners in Egypt" (Leviticus 19:33-34). The memory of their salvation from slavery not by their own power but by God's grace was to radically undermine thei..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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80b53f0
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The reason for this persistent story line in the Bible is not simply because the writers like underdogs. It is because the ultimate example of God's working in the world was Jesus Christ, the only founder of a major religion who died in disgrace, not surrounded by all of his loving disciples but abandoned by everybody whom he cared about, including his Father.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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A salvation earned by good works and moral effort would favor the more able, competent, accomplished, and privileged. But salvation by sheer grace favors the failed, the outsiders, the weak, because it goes only to those who know salvation must be by sheer grace.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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e25b220
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That is why even when we believe with all our minds that life is meaningless, we simply can't live that way. We know better.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Lord, when I forget the Gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others. I hear all criticism as a condemnation of my very being. But you have said that "there is now no condemnation" for me (Romans 8:1). You delight and sing over me (Zephaniah 3:14-17); you see me as a beauty (Colossians 1:22). Let me always remember that! Amen."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The lesson is that the medium is not the message, that we must not ignore uncomfortable truths just because they come through an unimpressive messenger.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Sit for thirty minutes and write down at least thirty things you learn from Mark 1:17," which reads, "'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will send you out to fish for people.'" Then she instructed us, "Don't think after ten minutes and four or five things written down that you've figured it out. Take the whole thirty minutes and try to get to thirty things observed."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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In 1961 the Russians put the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. Nikita Khrushchev was the Russian premier, and he said that when Gagarin went into space, the cosmonaut discovered that there was no God there. In response C. S. Lewis wrote an article, "The Seeing Eye." Lewis said if there is a God who created us, we could not discover him by going up into the air. God would not relate to human beings the way a man on the second floor relates..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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First, each side should accept that both religious belief and skepticism are on the rise. Atheist author Sam Harris and Religious Right leader Pat Robertson should each admit the fact that his particular tribe is strong and increasing in influence. This would eliminate the self-talk that is rampant in each camp, namely that it will soon be extinct, overrun by the opposition. Nothing like that is imminently possible. If we stopped saying suc..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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when you say, "Doctrine doesn't matter; what matters is that you live a good life," that is a doctrine. It is called the doctrine of salvation by your works rather than by grace. It assumes that you are not so bad that you need a Savior, that you are not so weak that you can't pull yourself together and live as you should. You are actually espousing a whole set of doctrines about the nature of God, humanity, and sin."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The Christian life begins not with high deeds and achievements but with the most simple and ordinary act of humble asking. Then the life and joy grow in us over the years through commonplace, almost boring practices. Daily obedience, reading and prayer, worship attendance, serving our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as our neighbors, depending on Jesus during times of suffering. And bit by bit our faith will grow, and the foundation ..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Could you explain to someone else how the gospel can (and should) transform our sense of identity? How much do you experience that transformed sense of identity? * In what ways has God's Word encouraged you or challenged you? Pray about it. * Pray that God would give you what you need to enable you to develop true gospel-humility and the freedom of self-forgetfulness.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The same year that Dawkins's The God Delusion was published, Francis Collins published The Language of God. Collins is an eminent research scientist and head of the Human Genome Project.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The church of Jesus Christ is therefore like the ocean. It is enormous and diverse. Like the ocean there are warm and clear spots and deadly cold spots, places you can enter easily without danger and places where it will immediately whisk you away and kill you. I realize how risky it is to tell my readers that they should seek out a church. I don't do it lightly, and I urge them to do so with the utmost care. But there is no alternative. Yo..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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the essence of sin is not [primarily] the violation of laws but a wrecked relationship with God, one another, and the whole created order. "All sins are attempts to fill voids," wrote Simone Weil."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Identity apart from God is inherently unstable.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Without socially shared discovered meaning we have no basis for saying to somebody else: "You need to stop doing that!" Created meanings cannot be the basis for a program of social justice. Martin"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counterfeit god is threatened in any way, our response is complete panic. We do not say, "What a shame, how difficult," but rather "This is the end! There's no hope!"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Created meaning is a less rational way to live life than doing so with discovered meaning.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Judges is the best book in the Old Testament for the understanding of renewal and revival, while Acts is the best place in the New Testament.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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the revival cycles in Judges become weaker and weaker as time goes on, while in Acts they grow wider and stronger. We need a true Savior, to which all human saviors point, through both their flaws and strengths.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Through faith in the cross we get a new foundation for an identity that both humbles us out of our egoism yet is so infallibly secure in love that we are enabled to embrace rather than exclude those who are different.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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There is no more proper response to really seeing God as he is--transcendent beyond all imagination--than to be still and adore.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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It needs to be said that faith-journeys are never simply intellectual exercises.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before, since we have seen his beauty, are joined to part no more."36"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Western secularity is not the absence of faith but a new set of beliefs about the universe.72
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the b..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Individuals are now "spiritual consumers" who will go to a church only if (and as long as) its worship and public speaking are immediately riveting and attractive. Therefore, ministers who can create powerful religious experiences and draw large numbers of people on the power of their personal appeal are rewarded with large, growing churches. That"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Could the observers of the crucifixion "clearly perceive" the ways of God? No--even though they were looking right at a wonder of grace. They saw only darkness and pain, and the categories of human reason are sure God cannot be working in and through that. So they called Jesus to "come down now from the cross," sneering, "He saved others . . . but he can't save himself." (Matt 27:42 NIV). But they did not realize he could save others only b..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Augustine believed that even when you seem to be enjoying something else, God is the actual source of your joy. The thing you love is from him and is lovely because it bears his signature. All joy is really found in God, and anything you do enjoy is derivative, because what you are really looking for is him, whether you know it or not. THE
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Timothy J. Keller |
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We hide from ourselves our self-centered capacity for acts of evil, but situations arise that act as a "potion," and out they come."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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God's reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life changing experience.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Deep humility. Examination: Have I looked down on anyone? Have I been too stung by criticism? Have I felt snubbed and ignored? Consider the free grace of Jesus until I sense (a) decreasing disdain, since I am a sinner too, and (b) decreasing pain over criticism, since I should not value human approval over God's love. In light of his grace, I can let go of the need to keep up a good image--it is too great a burden and is now unnecessary. I ..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Obedience flows out of faith; it is a consequence of saving faith, not a second condition for salvation.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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There is a surprise here. The great apostle does not want to visit simply so he can encourage them. He will visit so that they can encourage him, too--"that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith" (v 12)."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Religion is not the place where the problem of man's egotism is automatically solved. Rather, it is there that the ultimate battle between human pride and God's grace takes place. Insofar as human pride may win the battle, religion can and does become one of the instruments of human sin. But insofar as there the self does meet God and so can surrender to something beyond its own self-interest, religion may provide the one possibility for a ..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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For the first phase of American history, "hope was chiefly expressed through a Christian story that gave meaning to suffering and pleasure alike and promised deliverance from death." But then, under the influence of Enlightenment rationality, belief in God and the supernatural began to weaken among cultural elites. Instead of finding ultimate hope in the kingdom of God, Americans began to believe in the sacred calling of being the "greatest..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Verse 11 teaches us to use whatever gifts the Lord has graciously given us to make others stronger in their faith. Verse 12 teaches us to allow others to use the faith and gifts the Lord has given them to build us up.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Theodoret, a Syrian bishop in the fifth century, likened the gospel to a pepper: "A pepper outwardly seems to be cold ..."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The gospel's power is seen in its ability to completely change minds, hearts, life orientation, our understanding of everything
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Timothy J. Keller |