He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.
Gospel beliefs and experience create a bond between Christians that is stronger than any other connection, whether it be blood relationship or racial and national identity (Ephesians 2; 1 Peter 2:9–10...
God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed an...
Give each other the right to hold one another accountable.
Freedom, then, is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.
Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself.
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 particu...
Even if we accept responsibility for wrongdoing, we believe we can fix this. The most common way we try to do that is to apply the technology of morality. We believe that with hard work and/or fastidi...
El Señor del universo se identificó con los más excluidos y los más pequeños de la raza humana.
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 reaso...
Christians who don’t understand no condemnation only obey out of fear and duty. That is not nearly as powerful a motivation as love and gratitude. If
Christians don’t face adversity by stoically decreasing our love for the people and things of this world so much as by increasing our love and joy in God.
Christians do not claim that their faith gives them omniscience or absolute knowledge of reality. Only God has that. But they believe that the Christian account of things—creation, fall, redemption, a...
Charles Taylor explains why modern people are far more likely to lose their faith over suffering than those in times past. He says it is because, culturally, our belief and confidence in the powers of...
But really—everyone is Niggle. Everyone imagines accomplishing things, and everyone finds him- or herself largely incapable of producing them.
Augustine writes: We love God, therefore, for what He is in Himself, and [we love] ourselves and our neighbors for His sake. That
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...
Atheists and agnostics ask for this kind of proof for God, but are not alone in holding to strong rationalism. Many Christians claim that their arguments for faith are so strong that all who reject th...
At one level, the only reason you can know anything is because of God. God made your mind and your cognitive faculties. At another level, we can’t possibly know who God is unless he reveals it to us,...
Ask and you shall receive (Matt 7:7–8)—Ask with confidence and hope. Don’t be afraid that you will ask for the wrong thing. Of course you will! God tempers the outcome with his incomprehensible wisdom...