Quotes from Philip Yancey

The sufferings of Jesus show us that pain comes to us not as punishment but rather as a testing ground for faith that transcends pain. In truth, pain redeemed impresses me more than pain removed.

we should live in such a way that our lives wouldn't make much sense if the gospel were not true.

As Paul Tournier said, "Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either.

A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth. God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.

It makes all the difference in the world whether I view my neighbor as a potential convert or as someone whom God already loves.

The past must be remembered before it can be overcome.

What counts is the way a person reacts in the face of suffering.

simple availability is the most powerful force we can contribute to help calm the fears of others. Instinctively, I shrink back from people who are in pain.

But those of us who follow his conducting through early movements will, with renewed strength, someday burst into song.

La resistencia no es solo la capacidad para soportar algo difícil, sino también la capacidad para convertirlo en algo glorioso».

What counts is the way a person reacts in the face of suffering. That is the real test of the person: What is our personal attitude to life and its changes and chances?

Because of our failure to live out our beliefs, our own lack of moral clarity, and our meddling with partisan politics, Western culture no longer looks to Christianity as its moral source.

Modern humanity does not perceive the world as worth God dying for. We Christians must demonstrate it.

Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it

We understand God best, Dorothy Sayers suggests, by thinking of God as a creative artist. Imagine God as an engineer or watchmaker or immovable force, and you will go astray. God's image shines through us most clearly in the act of creation-comprising the three stages of Idea, Expression, and Recognition-and by reproducing this act we may begin to grasp, by analogy, the Trinity.

In a sense, Job must replay the original test of the garden of Eden, with the bar raised higher. Living in paradise, Adam and Eve faced a best-case scenario for trusting God, who asked so little of them and showered down blessings. In a living hell, Job faces the worst-case scenario: God asks so much, while curses rain down on him.

One reason the broader world does not look to Christianity for guidance is that we Christians have not spoken with a credible voice.

Apart from the requirement that we be authentic before God, there is no prescribed way to pray. Each of us presents a unique mix of personality, outlook, training, gifts, and weaknesses, as well as a unique history with church and with God. As Roberta Bondi says, "If you are praying, you are already 'doing it right.

When I pray, coincidences happen," said Archbishop William Temple; "when I don't, they don't.

It is not the same as optimism or wishful thinking, for these imply a denial of reality.

Jesus did not mix his spirituality with politics.

There's a cardinal rule in book publishing that applies equally to brain surgery and auto mechanics: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Since people are still buying the original Where Is God When It Hurts?

Revelation 12 presents Christmas from a cosmic perspective, adding a new set of images to the familiar scenes of manger and shepherds and the slaughter of the innocents.

The young church was nourished spiritually by apostles who set down their beliefs and messages in a series of letters. The first 13 such letters (Romans through Philemon) were written by the apostle Paul, who led the advance of Christianity through the non-Jewish world.