Quotes from Philip Graham Ryken

If the opening chapters of Genesis portray God as a creative artist, then it only stands to reason that the people he made in his image will also be artists. Art is an imaginative activity, and in the act of creating, we reflect the mind of our Maker.

The true sons of Abraham are not identified biologically, but Christologically.

What we think has a strong influence on what we feel. John

No one cares how much we know unless they also know how much we care.

God has high standard for art, and obviously he does not and cannot endorse the content of work that is pornographic or propagandistic, or that violates his character in some other way.

Rather than giving in to meaninglessness and despair, Christian artists know that there is a way out. Thus they create images of grace, awakening a desire for the new heavens and the new earth by anticipating the possibilities of redemption in Christ.

Martin Luther said, "A Christian is not someone who has no sin or feels no sin; he is someone to whom, because of his faith in Christ, God does not impute his sin.

Why does God call people to be artists? Because he is an Artist, and we are made in his image. When we first meet the God of the Bible, he is busy making things and calling them good. Thus it is only natural for him to take some of the people that he has made, call them to be artists, and hold them to an aesthetic standard.

Art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart. Its artifacts embody the ideas and desires of the coming generation. This means that what is happening in the arts today is prophetic of what will happen in our culture tomorrow. It also means that when Christians abandon the artistic community, we lose a significant opportunity to coniniu- nicate Christ to our culture.

The Christian worldview is liturgical as well as cerebral; it culminates with an everlasting crescendo of praise.

When a mind is in love with Jesus, this is what it sees: a world full of the wonders he has made.

We belong to Jesus Christ, because we have all been baptized into His body. Now the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual unity that overcomes our differences, enabling us to live together in a caring community that stands out like a city on a hill.