Quotes from Adam Hamilton

I think that what happens for many Christians is, they accept their particular faith, they accept it to be true, and they stop examining it. Consequently, because it's already accepted to be true, they don't examine other people's faiths... That, I think, is not healthy for a person of any faith.

We don't need mandatory, non-sectarian prayers read over the loudspeaker to 'put God back in schools.' God never left the schools. God is still at work through the hundreds of thousands of gifted teachers and administrators, committed parents, and passionate volunteers who seek to help give our children 'a future with hope.'

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth As fun as the acronym is, the Bible is neither basic nor simply instructions for what to do before you die.

At the very least they teach us that God does not always answer our prayers, even when we offer those prayers in faith at times of real and pressing need. They also teach us that while God may not answer our prayers as we pray them, God does not abandon us. More than that, these accounts tell us that God works through the situations from which we have not been delivered as we asked.

Jesus consistently put people before rules.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." —ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Our desire for certainty, our need to be right, and our tendency to miss the point have conspired to keep Christians from experiencing unity, and instead have led to endless divisions within the Christian faith.

For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life. And his life isn't boring or purposeless or static. It's wild and exhilarating and unpredictable.

And when we feel forsaken, hopeless, and in despair, we pray to one who walked this path before us.

You don't magically become a new person as soon as you slip a ring on your finger.

God's most common way of answering prayers is through people. But for that to work, Christians must pay attention and listen, we must put ourselves in a position to see others' needs, and we must respond when God calls.

Charis, as Paul uses it, is an act of kindness, an expression of selfless love that is completely undeserved and is given without any expectation of repayment. We are never more like God than when we are giving selflessly to others. Because God created us to live in this way, we seldom feel more alive and joyful than when we are serving, blessing, and helping someone else. That is charis. It is grace.

The human authors and editors of the Old Testament brought their own experiences and presuppositions to the task of writing. We don't often think about this when we read the Bible.

The profound gift of Christmas is our salvation and forgiveness. The babe born in Bethlehem would give his life to save us from our sin.

The cross of Christ points us to the brokenness of humankind. But it also demonstrates the magnitude of God's love for us and offers peace with God and salvation through Jesus Christ. The salvation that you and I have received cost Jesus his life. It cost Mary her son.

WHAT WE GAIN FROM MINDFULNESS

Our Advent journey, preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, takes us to the cross, where we remember that the Child whose birth we celebrate would be tortured and killed, and that on that cross he gave his life that we might receive life. He bore our sins that

be free. God is the God of the second chance. And Jesus came to save us from our sins and from ourselves. What wondrous love is this!

The sweeping message of the Bible is not a promise that those who believe and do good will not suffer. Instead the Bible is largely a book about people who refused to let go of their faith in the face of suffering.

The minds of women are, in some degree, weaker than those of men, and are not so well able to comprehend a thing which is appreciable only by the intellect.

Note that this does not mean women and daughters were unloved.

God's Providence and Human Suffering

The worst thing is never the last thing.

God's blessings are not about ease and comfort, but rather about the joy of being a part of God's work, being used by God for God's purposes, and being accompanied by God's presence, particularly in the face of adversity.