Quote

All too often the church holds up a mirror reflecting back the society around it, rather than a window revealing a different way.

Philip Yancey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Philip Yancey
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: November 4
Author
Journalist
Publisher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Society
Rather
Reflecting
Often
Revealing
Around
Holds
Back
Mirror
Different
Mirrors
Way
Window
Church

More quotes by Philip Yancey

Image
Whoever desires to remain faithful to Jesus must communicate faith as he did, not by compelling assent but by presenting it as a true answer to basic thirst. Rather than looking back nostalgically on a time when Christians wielded more power, I suggest another approach: that we regard ourselves as subversives operating within the broader culture.
Philip Yancey
Image
Nature was one of the key forces that brought me back to God, for I wanted to know the Artist responsible for beauty such as I saw on grand scale in photos from space telescopes or on minute scale such as in the intricate designs on a butterfly wing.
Philip Yancey
Image
People want to go back to those old days, but it's probably not going to happen.
Philip Yancey
Image
Grace is free only because the giver himself has borne the cost.
Philip Yancey
Image
Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.
Philip Yancey
Image
One Harlem preacher likens us to the pink plastic spoons at Baskin Robbins: we give the world a foretaste of what lies ahead, the vision of the Biblical prophets. In a world gone astray we should be activity demonstrating here and now God's will for the planet.
Philip Yancey
Image
God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.
Philip Yancey
Image
... the approach of admitting our errors, besides being most true to a gospel of grace, is also most effective at expressing who we are. Propaganda turns people off humbly admitting mistakes disarms.
Philip Yancey
Image
Jesus reserved his hardest words for the hidden sins of hypocrisy, pride, greed and legalism.
Philip Yancey
Image
Release what is good.
Philip Yancey
Image
We grow up hungry for love, and in ways so deep as to remain unexpressed we long for our Maker to love us.
Philip Yancey
Image
Doubt always coexists with faith, for in the presence of certainty who would need faith at all?
Philip Yancey
Image
We can’t expect the nation to operate by Christian principles… but we can expect this of the church.
Philip Yancey
Image
I would far rather convey grace than explain it.
Philip Yancey
Image
Grace is heartfelt, tinged with love, a spillover gift of the God who extended undeserved favor toward us.
Philip Yancey
Image
There is an offense to the Gospel no matter how graciously we present it. It includes the message that God, not humanity, is the ultimate judge of right and wrong, and that the choices we make here have eternal consequences.
Philip Yancey
Image
I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God's family.
Philip Yancey
Image
As the books of Job, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk clearly show, God has a high threshold of tolerance for what appropriate to say in a prayer. God can handle my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need God's correction - but only by taking those feelings to God will I have the opportunity for correction and healing.
Philip Yancey
Image
God operates by different rules of time and space. And God's infinite greatness, which we would expect to diminish us, actually makes possible the very closeness that we desire. A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth. God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.
Philip Yancey
Image
If God doesn't want something for me, I shouldn't want it either. Spending time in meditative prayer, getting to know God, helps align my desires with God's.
Philip Yancey