Faith is not simply a private matter, or something we practice once a week at church. Rather, it should have a contagious effect on the broader world. Jesus used these images to illustrate his kingdom...
Sinners.
They [Old Testament] taught me about Life with God: not how it is supposed to work, but how it actually does work.
The presence of another caring person doubles the amount of pain a person can endure,
The gospel of grace begins and ends with forgiveness. And people write songs with titles like Amazing Grace for one reason: grace is the only force in the universe powerful enough to break the chains...
The church works best as a separate force, a conscience to society that keeps itself at arm’s length from the state. The closer it gets, the less effectively it can challenge the surrounding culture a...
Playing off a short story by H. G. Wells, Simone Weil drew an analogy to a land of blind people in which scientists could devise a complete system of physics leaving out the concept of light. Weightle...
Over time Christians learned that the faith grows best from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.
On a small scale, person-to-person, Jesus encountered the kinds of suffering common to all of us. And how did he respond? Avoiding philosophical theories and theological lessons, he reached out with h...
Never do I see Jesus lecturing people on the need to accept blindness or lameness as an expression of God’s secret will; rather, he healed them.
My publisher conducted a website poll, and of the 678 respondents only 23 felt satisfied with the time they were spending in prayer. That
Jesus, who did not sin, also felt pain.
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 h...
In the presence of the Great Physician, my most appropriate contribution may be my wounds.
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...
I know Christians who yearn for God's older style of a power-worker who topples pharaohs, flattens Jericho's walls, and scorches the priests of Baal. I do not. I believe the kingdom now advances throu...
I do not know if that theory is correct, but I do know that singling out one behavior as sin and emphasizing it over others provides a convenient way of dodging our own need for grace. High-minded mor...
I can worry myself into a state of spiritual ennui over questions like What good does it do to pray if God already knows everything? Jesus silences such questions: he prayed, so should we.
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.
Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.