“When Jesus assumed human nature, He did so first as a single cell. The eternal Word of the eternal Father, the who spoke the heavens and earth into existence, took on a body that was the size of the period at the end of this sentence.”
Photo Negative
“Too many Christian parents, because they’ve got their shoes laced way too tight and because they want to be good, conservative, Bible-believing, Reformed types, give their kids a garden of no with the occasional, intermittent, and very reluctant ‘Yeah, okay, I guess so this time. Don’t let it go to your head.’ That is not how God is. And since we are supposed to imitate our Father in heaven, we are supposed to be openhanded.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 87
High Defiance
“Though we call it a silent night, this suckling child was actually the deafening shout of God’s defiance. The principalities and powers, the thrones and dominations, were all going to come to nothing.”
Far Better
“But the secret of the gospel is that grace works better than works do . . . Works are frustrating and impotent. Works collapse under any weight you try to put on them. That’s the issue. Works don’t work. But grace liberates. Grace sets you free to work.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 85
Or So It Would Seem
“The time to train your kids is when they’re kids.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 84
Because That’s Not Like Him
“We need to be done with leaders who want to be like Jesus, only not so bloody.”
The Bonding Agent
“Biblical masculinity is cultural gluten. Without it the cookie just crumbles to pieces in your hand, and is tasteless on top of that. Or someone at the organic equivalent of DuPont comes up with an artificial bonding agent that either doesn’t work or turns the cookie into an all-natural shower tile.”
The Custody Battle
“Biblical child-rearing is a gigantic custody battle between the state and Christ.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 80
Different Kinds of Special Effects
“In such a movie, a petite woman can throw five 300-pound guys around like they were made of balsa wood. All she has to do is have the director on her side. But that’s not the way it works in the real world. If your daughter buys into it, at some point she is going to be thirty-eight, owner of her own company, very lonely, and wondering where all the good men have gone. It turns out they didn’t want to be married to a girl boss.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 78
Liberty is a Religious Value
“So I don’t want liberty for secularists because secularism is true—it isn’t. Secularism is an opium dream, complete with flashing eyes and floating hair. I want liberty for secularists because Jesus is Lord. Because Jesus is Lord, the right of fallen sinners to wield coercive power must be strictly limited. One of the toughest lessons for sinners to learn is the necessity of leaving other sinners alone.”