The Rest of the Story
Evangelism is not simply a matter of bringing individuals to personal faith, though of course that remains central to the whole enterprise. It is a matter of confronting the world with the good, but deeply disturbing, news of a different way of living, … the way of love.
—N. T. Wright inFor All God’s Worth
Bleak Satisfaction
We are disgusted by the things that we desire, and we desire what disgusts us.
—New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in a speech (Newsweek, Oct. 24, 1994)
No Home Here
Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.
—Elisabeth Elliot inKeep a Quiet Heart
Eternity’s View
A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
—D. Elton Trueblood; posted on A.Word.A.Day e-mail (July 19, 1998)
Abundance Means Reliance
Material affluence in no respect lessens my need to rely on God. Actually, it increases it. I am in greater spiritual danger when I have plenty than when I have nothing. Hence the almost greater need of the wealthy to cry to God for mercy that they may not fail to trust him.
—C. Stacey Woods inSome Ways of God
The Whole Truth
To worship God in spirit and in truth means to worship God as we should worship him. … To worship God in truth is to recognise him for what he is and to recognise ourselves for what we are.
—Brother Lawrence inThe Practice of the Presence of God
Wrong Cure
Religion was [once] a set of obligations owed to God. Today people regard religion as a species of therapy; a dimension of individual self-consciousness, individual meaning and reaffirmation. Religion is about what God owes them.
—Edward Norman in theSpectator(July 4, 1998)
Respect What God Has Made
God treat[s] His Creation with integrity: each thing in its own order, each thing the way He made it. … If God treats the tree like a tree, the machine like a machine and the man like a man, shouldn’t I, as a fellow-creature, treat the machine like a machine, the man like a man, the plant like a plant—each thing in integrity in its own order? And for the highest reason: because I love God—I love the One who has made it! Loving the Lover who has made it, I should have respect for the thing He has made.
—Francis Schaeffer inPollution and the Death of Man
God’s Great Gift
You, eternal Trinity, are the craftsman; and I your handiwork have come to know that you are in love with the beauty of what you have made, since you made of me a new creation in the blood of your Son.
O abyss! O eternal Godhead! O deep sea! What more could you have given me than the gift of your very self?
—Saint Catherine of Sienna inTeachings of the Christian Mystics
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