Quotes from Philip Yancey

many such episodes it became clear that religion allied too closely to the state leads to the abuse of power. Christian experiments with church-state blending, whether in Geneva under Calvin or in Spain and Latin America under the Inquisition, may have worked for a time but inevitably provoked a backlash against the church, such as that seen in secular Europe today.*

What seems like sacrifice becomes instead a kind of nourishment because dispensing grace enriches the giver as well as the receiver.

I leave in God's hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.

until recently no one could know that the little blob of light marked the presence of another galaxy, one twice the size of the Milky Way and home to half a trillion stars. Or that these next-door neighbors were but two of 100 billion galaxies likewise swarming with stars.

I do not get to know God, then do God's will; I get to know God by doing that will.

Let me see them as thirsty people, I pray, and teach me how best to present the Living Water.

The essence of Christian faith has come to us in story form, the story of a God who will go to any lengths to get his family back.

The church works best as a force of resistance, a conscience to society that keeps itself at arm's length from the state. The closer it gets, the less effectively it can challenge the surrounding culture and the more perilously it risks losing its central message.

At the end of her story she said simply, "As I look back, this is what matters. I have loved and been loved, and all the rest is just background music.

I'm simply amazed at how God worked in response to my prayers. I see a softening in my niece's husband, an agnostic. I see transformation in the members of my small group, and spiritual awakenings in my neighbors. I see growth in my own marriage.

Our faith rests not just on Jesus' example but on his resurrection.

Love, too, is why I believe. At the end of life, what else matters?