Quotes About Acceptance

Novelist Reynolds Price said there is one sentence all humankind craves to hear: "The Maker of all things loves and wants me.

God's arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away.

What would it take for church to become known as a place where grace is "on tap

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

Grace is not about finishing last or first; it is about not counting.

God welcomes home anyone who will have him and, in fact, has made the first move already.

Then the question becomes, "How do we treat sinners?

unless we learn dependence we will never experience grace.

The first step in helping a suffering person (or in accepting our own pain) is to acknowledge that pain is valid, and worthy of a sympathetic response.

It takes no grace to relate to someone who looks, thinks, and acts just like me.

Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud.

We're all bastards but God loves us anyway.

If God's kingdom had a "No Oddballs Allowed" sign posted, none of us could get in.

C. S. Lewis once said that God sometimes shows grace by drawing us to himself while we kick and scream and pummel him with our fists. That is my story.

For Jesus, the person was more important than any category or label.

God already knows who we are; we are the ones who must find a way to come to terms with our true selves.

I fight the tentacular grip of ungrace in my own life. Although I may not perpetuate the strictness of my upbringing, I battle daily against pride, judgmentalism, and a feeling that I must somehow earn God's approval.

The only thing harder than forgiveness is the alternative.

a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.

the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?

You cannot earn God's acceptance by climbing; you must receive it as a gift.

How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?

grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.

grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and nothing I can do to make God love me less.