“The cross was unjust because Jesus was on it, but it [was] entirely just because I am there too. Oh, the wisdom of God! When you come to the cross, what are you coming to? You are coming to the place of no condemnation — precisely because it is all condemnation” (Rules, p. 270).
Which Is Not Repentance
“More than one person has gone off to Hell dabbing at their sins, and sometimes picking at them” (Rules, p. 270).
Real Hope Then
“Nothing is dying but what has needed to die for a long time” (Rules, p. 267).
Your Best Casket Now
“We need our preachers to stop telling the skeletons to develop a positive mental attitude” (Rules, p. 266).
Context Matters
“For us, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ is a Christian school slogan for our track teams’ T-shirts. Paul was talking there (Phil. 4:13) about this profound death and resurrection cycle in his life, while we tend to think it is about jumping higher, running faster, hanging with cute girls afterward, …
Just About There
“When it comes to revivals, the reason why it always comes as such a surprise to us is simple. God — in order to keep the glory where it needs to be kept — makes sure that we are in such a bad way, in such a condition of hopelessness, that nobody expects a resurrection. …
Inevitable Improbabilities
“Any historical event, once it occurs, however unlikely, can be shown to have been inevitable by any competent historian. But reading the clues before it all happens is a different matter. And so we declare, with certainty, the inevitability of the highly improbable” (Rules, 264).
The Word First
“The world is not something that produces information. Information is something that produces the world (Rules, pp. 263-264).
Sour Grapes
“True patronage will often be dismissed as philistinism by those who didn’t make the cut” (Rules, p. 258).
Funding the Wrong Thing
“I would argue that more patrons are willing to be patrons than artists are willing to be artists. Responsible patrons are put off by the bohemian posturing. If they are not put off by it, then they are funding the decadence of intellectual rot. If they run across a little lord byron in skinny jeans, …