God in action, in colorful, kaleidoscopic imagery. God creating, still. God saving, still. And all of it going on at once – impossible to sort the items out, organize them alphabetically, and select what we want – a vast simultaneity in which we are caught up.”1

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus is the Way.

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the way we come to God. Jesus is the way God comes to us. And not first one and then the other but both at the same time. Not God's way to us on Sundays and our way to God on weekdays. It is a two-lane road. The road up and the road down are the same road.1

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way.

The most conspicuous element in these prayers is that God rules. Confidence coupled with humility develops out of this kind of praying. If God is in charge,
then I'm not. I live in the confidence that God is either doing it or allowing whatever is going on, and also in the confidence that I am included in his rule.
My participation is part of it.
How do we develop humility – being just who we are, no more and no less – brimming with energy, risking life, a person who runs, not plods, in the way of God's commandments? When we follow Jesus, that's what we do – and we pray prayers like this prayer, which gradually and steadily internalizes and embodies a robust confidence in God's rule and a relaxed acceptance of our humanity.

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus is the Way.

There is far more to following the way of Jesus than knowing right from wrong – the “Ten Commandments” sort of thing. And there is more to it than believing rightly, as outlined in the Apostles' Creed. Discernments need to be made continuously; conditions on the road are constantly changing; the weather can shift unannounced from quiet sunshine to noisy thunder and dangerous lightning. Even though I have the map I need and the basic survival essentials, circumstances arise and people show up that baffle me. Who do I listen to? Who do I trust?1

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus is the Way.

The times in which we live are not definitive for our lives. Without this large horizon of the gospel story, we run the risk of confining The Holy to what takes place in the sanctuary at a scheduled time.

After the cross everything was transformed, including perspectives on suffering. When we fail in our wilderness trials, we can point to Jesus' success in His. His victories are ours through faith, so His story becomes our own when we trust Him. Joy is not the opposite of suffering. It is deeper than suffering. Suffering is the relentless rain. Joy is the rock. Whether suffering is present or not, you can stand on joy.

Ed Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Light for the Path.

“Worship is a tricky word. It conjures up in our minds all kinds of formal ritualistic religious images. But worship, in its most basic biblical usage, is an identity that shapes activity. You are a worshiper, which is why you worship.
So what does it mean to be a worshiper? It means that you are a purpose-driven or value-driven being. There is something always laying claim to the rulership of your heart. There is something for which you are living. There is something of value to give shape to why you do what you do and say what you say in the situations and relationships of your daily life. There is something you look to for identity, meaning and purpose and an inner sense of well-being.”
~ Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm

We think idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods.

After the cross everything was transformed, including perspectives on suffering. When we fail in our wilderness trials, we can point to Jesus' success in His. His victories are ours through faith, so His story becomes our own when we trust Him. Joy is not the opposite of suffering. It is deeper than suffering. Suffering is the relentless rain. Joy is the rock. Whether suffering is present or not, you can stand on joy. Ed Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Light for the Path.

The fact that Jesus Christ came to earth to die in our place is God's resounding “I love you.” When you feel lost or confused, get to these words. Since His love is dependent on Himself rather than on you, you are not in danger of being unloved on those days when you feel utterly faithless. In fact, at those times His love will be even more surprising and precious, because you will remember that this extravagant love is undeserved and unearned.1 Ed Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Light for the Path.

Every call to worship is a call into the Real World. I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality. The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior. The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the Eucharist my basic food.1 Eugene Peterson, Take and Read.

“Our hearts are like that. We think we've learned about grace, set our idols aside, and reached a place where we're serving God not for what we're going to get from him, but for who he is. There's a certain sense in which we spend our entire lives thinking we've reached the bottom of our hearts and finding it is a false bottom. Mature Christians are not people who have completely hit the bedrock. I do not believe that is possible in this life. Rather, they are people who know how to keep drilling and are getting closer and closer.” ~ Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

“People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them. They don’t take long looks at anything, because they lack the courage.” ~ Flannery O’Connor

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars… and they pass by themselves without wondering.” ~ St. Augustine

The story in which God does his saving work arises among a people whose primary experience of God is his absence. We are made to face this at the very outset of Exodus when we realize that these people have been in Egyptian slavery for over 430 years. The experienced absence or silence of God for the over 400 years preceding the Exodus is a frequently overlooked but important element of the salvation story. Where was God all that time? Did not those covenantal words God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have any continuing validity? The absence of God is part of the story. It is neither exceptional nor preventable nor a judgment on the way we are living our lives. Whether the experience of the absence is measured in weeks, months, or years, for most of us it doesn’t fit into what is “normal” in our understanding of salvation. But it is normal. Jesus hanging on the cross used this prayer –“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”– at the very moment that he was completing the work of salvation. On Jesus’ lips this prayer validates the experience of the absence of God as integral to our participation in salvation. Understanding this is necessary, to keep us alert and attentive to the mystery of God whose ‘ways are past finding out,' to prevent us from reducing God Almighty to “god-at-my-beck-and-call”... Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

We are in on what God is doing, and we are in on it together. And here is how we are in on it: we become present to what God intends to do with and for us through worship, become present to the God who is present with us. There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We are all beginners, necessarily followers, because we don't know where we are going. The way of Jesus requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.1 Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus is the Way.

God is not a part of creation that can be studied and observed and managed. God is a person – a person to be worshiped or defied, believed or rejected, loved or hated, in time and place.1 Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

There is legitimate guilt that is removed through repentance and restitution, and then there is irremediable guilt:“I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself.” We all have idols: When idolatry is mapped onto the future – when our idols are threatened – it leads to paralyzing fear and anxiety. When it is mapped onto the past – when we fail our idols – it leads to irremediable guilt. When idolatry is mapped onto the present life – when our idols are blocked or removed by circumstances – it roils us with anger and despair. Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“When dark hours come, and when the darkest hour comes upon us, then let us hear the voice of Jesus Christ, which cries in our ears: victory is won!” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christus Victor

“Unless you believe, you will not understand.” ~ St. Augustine of Hippo

The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God.1 Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God: Book 19.

“And the people sang in all the ways of the City.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

“If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God. He who believes shall be saved. God has spoken!” ~ Saint Patrick

“Before I was humiliated, I was like a stone that lies in deep mud. And He who is mighty came, and in his compassion raised me up; He exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall.” ~ Saint Patrick

“These things which I have set out here in Latin are not my words, but the words of God and of apostles and prophets, who of course have never lied.” ~ Saint Patrick

“Roman Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a Protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbor, whereas righteousness by good doctrine only produces lovelessness and pride.” ~ Herman Bavinck, Certainty of Faith

“It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.” Tim Keller, The Reason for God.

“Vision is merely hope with a blueprint.” ~ Anonymous

“This is the courtesy of Deep Heaven: that when you mean well, He always takes you to have meant better than you knew. It will not be enough for always. He is very jealous. He will have you for no one but Himself in the end. But for tonight, it is enough.” ~ C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

“The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus at his baptism. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ. God looks at us, and says, ‘You are my dear, dear child; I’m delighted with you.’ Try reading that sentence slowly, with your own name at the start, and reflect quietly on God saying that to you, both at your baptism and every day since.” ~ N.T. Wright, Mark for Everyone

Often God doesn't give us the things that we have set our hearts on, precisely because we have set our hearts on them... In his grace, God is freeing you from the small confines of your little definition of what is good so that you can experience the huge and satisfying good that he has planned for you. Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble.

Keeping Lent is potentially dangerous, precisely because of this focus on the heart. After all, it is much easier to read a book on prayer than to spend time leisurely speaking with our heavenly Father. It is much easier to fast from certain foods than it is to turn from idols of the heart. It is much easier to write a check than to spend time in ministries of mercy. Consequently, Lent is easily trivialized. The point of Lent is not to give up chocolate; it's to give up sin! Craig Higgins, On Keeping A Holy Lent.

God's salvation does not come in response to a changed life. A changed life comes in response to the salvation, offered as a free gift. Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters.

There is only one place where stable and reliable hope can be found. There is only one place of rest for your heart and surety for your soul. There is only one reliable place to find your reason to get up in the morning and continue. There is only one source of motivation that is sturdy enough to weather the storms of life in a fallen world.... When you wait for the Lord, you can be hopeful even in weakness because you know that his grace is sufficient.1 Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble.

Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ... He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has – by what I call “good infection.” Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He used material things like bread and wine to put new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Trust in God isn't a thin hope in some not very sure outcome. Hope in God is rather a present investment in a future guarantee. What God says will be done. What God has promised will come to pass... No, you won't always understand what he is doing, and you will be tempted to think that he has gotten his timing wrong, but the more you entrust your life to him, the more you will experience his faithful grace again and again.” ~ Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm

“Then, quite sharply, it occurred to Jane that they never talked about Religion; they talked about God. They had no picture in their minds of some mist steaming upward: rather of strong, skillful hands thrust down to make, to mend, perhaps even to destroy.” ~ C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

The Trinity is a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality... The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

God is in absolute control over the world he made. What he wills happens. He won't lose any of the children he has chosen to be his own. When I'm in difficulty and I run to God, I'm running to the One who is in absolute control of every circumstance that appears to me to be out of control. 1 Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble.

“You and I are not in control of our lives; we are not the writers of our own stories. Our individual stories have been embedded in the story of Another... Your life no longer belongs to you. Your story is no longer just your story. You have been welcomed to the kingdom of another, and your life is part of the plan and purposes of that kingdom. Don't allow yourself to begin to think that you are in the center of your universe. Remember, you have been chosen to live for the glory of another, and when you do, you will reach levels of personal contentment and joy that aren't possible any other way.” ~ Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you're bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

Prayer finds its hope not in the qualifications of the one praying, but in the character and plan of the God who is hearing. He answers because of who he is. He answers because of what he is doing. He answers because he loves to see us come, and he loves to provide just the grace for that moment... He really does delight in hearing and answering his children. Your hope in prayer is never found in you; it is always found in him.1 Paul Tripp, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy.

“The heart breaks and breaks and lives by breaking. It is necessary to go through dark and deeper dark and not to turn.” ~ Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Every human being must live for something. Something must capture our imagin-ations, our heart's most fundamental allegiance and hope. But the Bible tells us, without the Holy Spirit's intervention, that object will never be God himself.1 Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters.

“God's grace isn't always comfortable because he isn't primarily working on our comfort; he's working on our character. With violent grace he will crush us because he loves us and is committed to our restoration, deliverance, and refinement. And that is something worth celebrating.” ~ Paul Tripp, Whiter than Snow

“If you are thirsty, come and drink. Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. “I'm dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the Lion.. “Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. “I make no promise,” said the Lion... “I daren't come and drink,” said Jill. “Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh, dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” “There is no other stream,” said the Lion. ~ C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

“You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst.” ~ William Langewiesche

Once there was a tree. And she loved a little boy. And every day the boy would come. He would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest. He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches. And when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade. And the boy loved the tree…very much. And the tree was happy. But time went by. And the boy grew older. And the tree was often alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said: “Come, Boy, climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be happy.” “I am too big to climb and play,” said the boy. “I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money. Can you give me some money?” “I’m sorry,” said the tree, “but I have no money. I have only leaves and apples. Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you’ll be happy.” And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away. And the tree was happy. But the boy stayed away for a long time... and the tree was sad. And then one day the boy came back and the tree shook with joy, and she said: “Come, Boy, climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and play in my shade and be happy.” “I am too old and sad to play,” said the boy. “I want a boat that will take me away from here. Can you give me a boat ?” “Cut down my trunk and make a boat,” said the tree. “Then you can sail away… and be happy.” And so the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away. And the tree was happy... But not really.... And after a long time the boy came back again. “I am sorry, Boy,” said the tree, “I wish that I could give you something—but I have nothing left. My apples are gone.” “My teeth are too weak for apples,” said the boy. “My branches are gone,” said the tree. “You cannot swing on them.” “I am too old to swing on branches,” said the boy. “My trunk is gone,” said the tree.“You cannot climb—” “I am too tired to climb,” said the boy. “I am sorry,” sighed the tree. “I wish that I could give you something… but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump.” “I don't need much now,” said the boy. “Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired.” “Well,” said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, “an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.” And the boy did. And the tree was happy. ~ Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree

“Ordinary time is not what biblical people endure or put up with or hurry through as we wait around for the end time and its rocket launch into eternity. It is a gift through which we participate in the present and daily work of God.” ~ Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

“Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We 'have all we want' is a terrible saying when 'all' does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St. Augustine says, 'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full – there's nowhere for Him to put it.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“I think, reader, that she was feeling the same thing that Despereaux had felt when he was faced with his father begging him for forgiveness. She was suddenly aware of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would never like the rat. But she knew now what she must do to save her own heart.” ~ Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

This “repentance” is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: It is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink of getting the gospel. If you follow through, it will change everything: how you relate to God, self, others, the world, your work, your sins, your virtue. It’s called the new birth because it’s so radical.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God

“The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin. This also creates a new dynamic for discipline and obedience. First, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed because we know we won't be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness. Second, it makes the law of God a thing of beauty instead of a burden. We can use it to delight and imitate the one who has saved us rather than to get his attention or procure his favor. We now run the race 'for the joy that is set before us' rather than 'for the fear that comes behind us.'” ~ Tim Keller, Introduction to Galatians

The world – heaven and earth, men and women, animals and birds – was made in the first place by God's Word. Prophets, arriving on the scene and finding that world in ruins, finding a world of moral rubble and spiritual disorder, take up the work of words again to rebuild what human disobedience and mistrust demolished...
To experience God's presence is to enter a far larger world of reality that our sensory experiences can point to but cannot describe – the realities of love and compassion, justice and faithfulness, sin and evil... and God. Mostly God. The realities that are Word-evoked are where most of the world's action takes place. There are no “mere words.”

Introduction to the Book of Micah

“Although the scribes could explain where the Messiah should be born, they remained quite unperturbed in Jerusalem. They did not accompany the Wise Men to seek him. Similarly we may be able to explain every article of our faith, yet remain spiritually motionless. The power that moved heaven and earth leaves us completely unmoved.
What a contrast! The three kings had only a rumor to go by. But it spurred them to set out on a long, hard journey. The scribes, meanwhile, were much better informed, much better versed. They had sat and studied the scriptures for years, like so many dons. But it didn’t make any difference. Who had the more truth? Those who followed a rumor, or those who remained sitting, satisfied with all their knowledge?”    
~ Søren Kierkegaard

“I don’t deny there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die.
I only say it is necessary to have another kind of priest, called poets,
to remind men that they are not dead yet.”         ~ G.K. Chesterton

“Weave in faith and God will find the thread.”
~ Author Unknown

“Where Christ is, cheerfulness will keep breaking in.”
~ Dorothy Sayers

Spiritual disciplines are basically forms of worship, and it is worship that is the final way to replace the idols of your heart. You cannot get relief simply by figuring out your idols intellectually. You have to actually get the peace that Jesus gives, and that only comes as you worship.1

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters.

true repentance involves “a total renovation of our imagination, our way of looking at things – what Jesus commanded in his no-nonsense imperative, 'Repent!' It is not optional; it is required.”1

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way.

“Never, in the midst of the good things of this world, have I felt quite at home in it. Never has it shown me things lovely or grand enough to satisfy me...
It may be that my dissatisfaction comes from not having eyes open enough, or keen enough, to see and understand what he has given; but it matters little whether the cause lies in the world or in myself, both being incomplete. GOD IS, and all is well. All that is needed to set the world right enough for me is that I care for God as he cares for me, that my will and desires keep time and harmony with his music.”
~ George MacDonald

The fact is that God has us exactly where he wants us. You and I are not in control of our lives; we are not the writers of our own stories. Our individual stories have been embedded in the story of Another.
~ Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm

Wonder is the only adequate launching pad for exploring a spirituality of creation, keeping us open-eyed, expectant, alive to life that is always more than we can account for... The sheer wonder of life, of creation, of this place where we find ourselves alive at this moment, requires a response, a “thank you.” In the ancient world, Plato observed that all philosophy begins in wonder.1

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

There is a sense in which we can be spectators to the narratives of our own lives, detached and gossipy. Prayer is a way in, a way to receive and deepen the meaning of the narrative. Prayer is the means by which holiness and health are grafted into the unfaithful parts, inserted into the empty parts.1

Eugene Peterson, Answering God

“I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions.
The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled. It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.”
~ Bono

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live
taking the form of a readiness to die. 'He that will lose his life, the same
shall save it,' is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes....
A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine
a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must
not  merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward and will not escape. He
must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape.
He must  seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life
like water, and yet drink death like wine.”
~ G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Anger is a useful diagnostic tool. When anger erupts in us, it is a signal that  something is wrong. Something isn't working right. There is evil or incompetence  or stupidity lurking about...

What anger fails to do, though, is tell us whether the wrong is outside us or inside  us. We usually begin by assuming that the wrong is outside us – our spouse or our  child or our God has done something wrong, and we are angry. But when we track  the anger carefully, we often find it leads to a wrong within ourselves.”

~ Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant

“We never know how much real faith we have until it is put to the test in some

fierce storm; and that is the reason why the Savior is on board. If you are ever to

be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, your strength will be born in

some storm.”

~ Anonymous

“Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.”

~ C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by  our sins, or our indifference; and it is therefore quite relentless in its  determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at  whatever cost to Him.”

~ C.S. Lewis

“Instead of genuine forgiveness, our generation has been taught the vague notion  of 'tolerance.' This is, at best, a low-grade parody of forgiveness. At worst, it's a  way of sweeping the real issues in human life under the carpet…

Forgiveness is  richer and higher and harder and more shocking than we usually  think. Jesus' message offers the genuine article, and insists that we should accept  no man-made substitutes.”

~ N. T. Wright, The Lord and His Prayer

“It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God  has already done in Christ Jesus.”

~ Oswald Chambers

My friend Meredith will be confirmed next week. She is terrified. She thinks she might run away. She says she would be less scared if she were getting married or being crowned the queen of England.

She says she is not having new doubts, just the same ones she has every Sunday, only magnified.“Every time I stand up to say the Creed, I wonder if I can say I believe these things,” she says.

I tell her what I told her two years ago when she told me she wasn't enough of a Christian to go to church. I told her, “Go to church for a while and one day you may look down and discover you've become a Christian.”

I tell her there is a Hasidic story. A student goes to his teacher and says, “Rabbi, how can I say 'I believe' when I pray, if I'm not sure I believe?”

His rabbi has an answer: “'I believe' is a prayer meaning, 'Oh, that I may believe!'”

~ Lauren Winner, Girl Meets God, p. 271]

“In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, almost  before they dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight and were in  the warm, blue world again.

And just as there are moments when simply to lie in bed and see the daylight  pouring through your window and to realize that 'it was only a dream: it wasn't  real,' is so heavenly that it was very nearly worth having the nightmare in order to  have the joy of waking, so they all felt when they came out of the dark. All at once  everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.”

~ C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“Where Christ is, cheerfulness will keep breaking in.”

~ Dorothy Sayers

“We must ask ourselves the hard questions as often as we dare. How will the world  change if we do not question it?”

~ Kate DiCamillo, The Magician's Elephant

“I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the centre of Christian morality is  not sexual morality. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme

vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the  least bad of all

sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in

the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the

pleasures of power, of hatred.

For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to

become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the

worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church

may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither...”

~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease – that is, to watch a girl  undress on the stage. Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a  theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting  the cover so as to let every one see; just before the lights went out, that it  contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that  country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not  anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally  queer about the state of the sex instinct among us?

One critic said that if he found a country in which such strip-tease acts with food  were popular, he would conclude that the people of that country were starving.  He meant, of course, to imply that such things as the strip-tease act resulted not  from sexual corruption but from sexual starvation. I agree with him that if, in  some strange land, we found that similar acts with mutton chops were popular,  one of the possible explanations which would occur to me would be famine.”

~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Instead of genuine forgiveness, our generation has been taught the vague notion  of 'tolerance.' This is, at best, a low-grade parody of forgiveness. At worst, it's a  way of sweeping the real issues in human life under the carpet…

Forgiveness is  richer and higher and harder and more shocking than we usually  think. Jesus' message offers the genuine article, and insists that we should accept  no man-made substitutes.”

~ N. T. Wright, The Lord and His Prayer

“The question is not, 'Can someone lead a good life without Christianity?'

The question is, 'Can I?'”

~ C.S. Lewis, Readings for Meditation and Reflection

These prophets learn their speech from God. Their words are God-grounded,
God-energized, God-passionate. As their words enter the language of our communities, men and women find themselves in the presence of God,
who enters the mess of human sin to rebuke and to renew.1

Eugene Peterson, The Message (Introduction to the Book of Micah).

“Jesus uses the work of mercy to show us the essence of the righteousness God  requires in our relationships … Christians are charged to meet physical and  economic needs among brethren. This is not optional. If a professing Christian  does not do so, “how can the love of God be in him?”
The striking truth is that the work of mercy is fundamental to being a Christian …  Mercy to the full range of human needs is such an essential mark of being a  Christian that it can be used as a test of true faith. Mercy is not optional or  additional to being a Christian. Rather, a life poured out in deeds of mercy is
the inevitable sign of true faith.”
~ Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy

Left to ourselves we turn God into an object, something we can deal with, some thing we can use to our benefit, whether that thing is a feeling or an idea or an image.

Eugene Peterson, The Message (Introduction to the Book of Micah).

The world – heaven and earth, men and women, animals and birds – was made in the first place by God's Word. Prophets, arriving on the scene and finding that world in ruins, finding a world of moral rubble and spiritual disorder, take up the work of words again to rebuild what human disobedience and mistrust demolished...
To experience God's presence is to enter a far larger world of reality, one that our sensory experiences can point to but cannot describe – the realities of love and compassion, justice and faithfulness, sin and evil... and God. Mostly God. The realities that are Word-evoked are where most of the world's action takes place.1

Eugene Peterson, The Message (Introduction to the Book of Micah).

“It isn't Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”
“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.
“Are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.
“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."
~ C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word “trust.” Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall.Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you?
If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don't actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why?
It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.1

Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p. 234

“Every call to worship is a call into the Real World… I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality.The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior.The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the Eucharist my basic food.The reality is that baptism, not Myers-Briggs, defines who I am.”
~ Eugene Peterson, Take and Read

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”
~ G.K. Chesterton

“God knows quite well how hard we find it to love Him more than anyone or anything else, and He won't be angry with us as long as we are trying.  And He will help us.”
~ C. S. Lewis, Letters to Children

“Confident hope breeds inward joy.  The man who knows that his hope of glory will never fail him because of the great love of God . . . that man will hear music at midnight.  His profoundest comfort will often be enjoyed in his deepest affliction, because then the love of God will specially be revealed in his heart by the Holy Ghost, whose name is 'the Comforter.'”
~ Charles Spurgeon

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.  The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.
The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“In this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is like that which in a better country is the End of ends.
Joy is the serious business of heaven.”
~ C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

“The reason God does not like being taken for granted is not only that it robs him of glory but it robs me of joy. One of the greatest discoveries I have ever made is that these two goals – God's goal to be glorified and my goal to be satisfied – are not at odds. That's the gospel.”
~ John Piper

Lord, as I read the psalms let me hear you singing.
As I read your words, let me hear you speaking.
As I reflect on each page, let me see your image.
And as I seek to put your precepts into practice,
Let my heart be filled with joy.
~ St. Gregory Nazianzus (AD. 329-89)