Quotes from John Ortberg Jr.

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who doubts sometimes, has written that the reason so many babies keep being born is that God loves stories. Why

He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Etty spent her last days giving hope and care, "with a kind word for everyone she met on the way." Her final words were written on a postcard and thrown off Wagon No. 12, the railroad car she rode to what she knew would be her death in Auschwitz. "We left camp singing," she wrote. The Nazis took control of her possessions, her mobility, her work, her family, her body, and finally her life, yet she believed that they did not truly take anything at all.

Dostoyevsky, who was a believer, wrote that the "death of a single infant calls into question the existence of God."1

I remember how at night I didn't have slow, sweet talks, but merely rushed the children to bed so I could have more time to myself.

The character of the faith that allows us to be transformed by suffering and darkness is not doubt-free certainty; rather, it is tenacious obedience.

C. S. Lewis wrote that in prayer we must "lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

The boat is safe, secure, and comfortable. On the other hand, the water is rough. The waves are high. The wind is strong. There's a storm out there. And if you get out of the boat—whatever your boat might happen to be—there's a good chance you might sink.

The kind of assignments God gives in the Bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because he wants to demonstrate his nature, his strength, his provision, and his kindness to his people and to a watching world. This is the only way the world will come to know him.

It was around Clifford's era that Thomas Huxley coined the term agnostic, which did not exist before the nineteenth century. Agnostics, Huxley said, "totally refuse to commit" to either denying or affirming the supernatural.

Earth's crammed with Heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes — The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Consider the sense of fulfillment in the leaders of a company that is expanding, achieving its mission, giving vocational opportunities to men and women who yesterday didn't have any. They are watching the miracle

But a philosopher named William James responded that sometimes Clifford's advice is bad strategy. He said doubt is the wrong alternative when three conditions are met: when we have live options, when the stakes are momentous, and when we must make a choice.3

can be "sitting at Jesus feet" when I'm kneeling in prayer or negotiating a contract or fixing my kids lunch or watching a movie. All it requires is my asking him to be my teacher and companion in this moment.

hope and dreams, but has now plateaued, where affections have cooled and intimacy has faded. Rather than name the problem, face their pain, and ask for help, the couple resign themselves to a life of mediocrity, living together as intimate strangers.

Watch a marriage that was begun with hope and dreams, but has now plateaued, where affections have cooled and intimacy has faded. Rather than name the problem, face their pain, and ask for help, the couple resign themselves to a life of mediocrity, living together as intimate strangers. See a middle-aged man who spends

Theologian Lesslie Newbigin writes that we live in an age that favors doubt over faith.4 We often speak of "blind faith" and "honest doubt.