“Sara appropriated the blessing of the promise through faith. Her faith consisted precisely of this — “she judged him faithful who had promised.” So this then is faith; faith is the natural response to the perceived faithfulness of God. Faith is “judging Him faithful” . . . A man with wobbly faith can get on …
And Five Yards from the Boat Too
“As soon as we begin to look at ourselves walking on water, we find that we are looking at ourselves not walking on water” (From To You and Your Children, p. 194).
A Larger Consistency
“A good border collie does not just decide (for the sake of doctrinal consistency) that he will always nip at a sheep’s left hind leg. He alternates, and does so with a larger purpose in view” (Against the Church, p. 206).
Because That’s How It Works
“If we learn to scatter more fragments of grace, a second glance might reveal them all to have become diamonds the moment they left our hands” (Against the Church, p. 204).
When the Heart is Gone
“So let us try to forget the word evangelical as a demographic description. Let us try to forget the word liturgical as a description of the boring church you grew up in. Let us try to forget the word doctrine as it was handled by that great nineteenth-century divine, the Rev. Dr. Snodgood, in three …
Floating Lazily Away from the Pulpit
“But the Spirit will fall. The thunderhead will roll in. And when it happens, the work of regeneration will be a gully washer, and lots of ecclesiastics will be pretty upset. But many more of them will be soaked through, and it will become increasingly harder to preach our little floating dust cloud sermons” (Against …
Not Going to Mess Around
“The Spirit, when He moves, will not be like a little zephyr, stirring the gauzy curtains of our theological library. His moving will be more like a massive thunderhead, silver on the top and utterly black on the bottom, coming in from the west, and looking to soak absolutely everybody” (Against the Church, p. 202).
Intention Unmediated
“The distinction between the two was the love of God for Jacob and the hatred of God for Esau — the distinction was in God’s intention, and God’s intention is not mediated. The intention drives the mediation, not the other way around . . . The fact that the gift of faith is not inexorably …
When God Gives the Increase
“The Spirit’s work does not come through the means (the sermon, the sacrament) like water through a garden hose. Rather, the Spirit’s anointing is given on account of the means . . . He meets us where He promised He would, in the Word and in the sacrament” (Against the Church, p. 193).
Lots of Potential
“When the surgeon is gone from the hospital, his instruments are lined up in the drawer, full of potential” (Against the Church, p. 192).