503 Quotes by Philip Yancey

We should feel dissonance; we are, after all, immortals trapped in mortal surroundings. We lack unity because long ago a gap fissured open between our mortal and immortal parts; theologians trace the fault line back to the Fall.

Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more . . . And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less

When Jesus came to earth, demons recognized him, the sick flocked to him, and sinners doused his feet and head with perfume. Meanwhile he offended pious Jews with their strict preconceptions of what God should be like. Their rejection makes me wonder, could religious types be doing just the reverse now? Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?

When I am tempted to complain about God's lack of presence, I remind myself that God has much more reason to complain about my lack of presence.

We need faith and the mind of the Lord Jesus to recognize something of lasting value in even our most ordinary tasks.

Curiously, the righteous Pharisees had little historical impact, save for a brief time in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. But Jesus' disciples - an ornery, undependable, and hopelessly flawed group of men - became drunk with the power of a gospel that offered free forgiveness to the worst sinners and traitors. Those men managed to change the world.

Christians are not perfect, by any means, but they can be people made fully alive.

Doubt always coexists with faith, for in the presence of certainty who would need faith at all?

Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us. Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, "Be good." Jesus' stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry, "Help!"