Quotes from Philip Yancey

He learned, like every good novelist, that human behaviour can neither be explained nor predicted, only rendered.

The kingdom of suffering is a democracy, and we all stand in it or alongside it with nothing but our naked humanity.

God is the ultimate judge of hypocrisy in the church, I decided; I would leave such judgment in God's capable hands. I began to relax and grow softer, more forgiving of others. After all, who has a perfect spouse, or perfect parents or children? We do not give up on the institution of family because of its imperfections—why give up on the church?

Throughout the Bible, in fact, God shows a marked preference for "real" people over "good" people.

Stanley Hauerwas, named "America's best theologian" by Time magazine, summed up the problem: "I have come to think that the challenge confronting Christians is not that we do not believe what we say, though that can be a problem, but that what we say we believe does not seem to make any difference for either the church or the world." When a poll of college students asked

How differently will I relate to the uncommitted if I view them not as evil or unsaved but rather as lost.

We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not "What did I get out of it?" but rather "Was God pleased with what happened?

The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God.

Any Greek scholar will tell you the word blessed is far too sedate and beatific to carry the percussive force Jesus intended. The Greek word conveys something like a short cry of joy, Oh, you lucky person!

Taken as a whole, the Bible clearly puts the emphasis on what pleases God—the point of worship, after all. To worship, says Walter Wink, is to remember Who owns the house.

Jesus, who said little about how believers should behave when we gather together and much about how we can affect the world around us.

We may be abominations, but we are still God's pride and joy. All of us in the church need "grace-healed eyes" to see the potential in others for the same grace that God has so lavishly bestowed on us.