Quote

C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist.

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
Running
Grace
Unable
Away
Almost
Resist
Power
Politics
Runs
Come
Church
Temptation
Allures
Always
Religion
Confused
Allure
Christian
Rules
Lewis
History
Trade
Observed
Often
Crime
Crimes

More quotes by Philip Yancey

Image
Grace is heartfelt, tinged with love, a spillover gift of the God who extended undeserved favor toward us.
Philip Yancey
Image
Jesus reserved his hardest words for the hidden sins of hypocrisy, pride, greed and legalism.
Philip Yancey
Image
Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.
Philip Yancey
Image
Augustine started from God's grace and got it right, Pelagius started from human effort and got it wrong. Augustine passionately pursued God Pelagius methodically worked to please God.
Philip Yancey
Image
Some things just have to be believed to be seen.
Philip Yancey
Image
As a writer, I play with words all day long. I toy with them, listen for their overtones, crack them open, and try to stuff my thoughts inside.
Philip Yancey
Image
Parents learn the uses of power and its limits. They can insist on certain outward behavior but cannot change inner attitudes. They can require obedience but not goodness - and certainly not love.
Philip Yancey
Image
True healing, of deep connective tissue, takes place in community. Where is God when it hurts? Where God's people are.
Philip Yancey
Image
I begin with confession not in order to feel miserable, rather to call to mind a reality I often ignore. When I acknowledge where I stand before a perfect God, it restores the true state of the universe. Confession simply establishes the proper ground rules of creatures relating to their creator.
Philip Yancey
Image
Any discussion of how pain and suffering fit into God's scheme ultimately leads back to the cross.
Philip Yancey
Image
People want to go back to those old days, but it's probably not going to happen.
Philip Yancey
Image
I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God's family.
Philip Yancey
Image
In a nutshell, the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 tells the story of a God reckless with desire to get his family back.
Philip Yancey
Image
We should feel dissonance we are, after all, immortals trapped in mortal surroundings. We lack unity because long ago a gap fissured open between our mortal and immortal parts theologians trace the fault line back to the Fall.
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
Prayer is to the skeptic a delusion, a waste of time. To the believer it represents perhaps the most important use of time.
Philip Yancey
Image
God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.
Philip Yancey
Image
If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge.
Philip Yancey
Image
And perhaps, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit may be our very best defense against a materialist view of mankind here on earth.
Philip Yancey
Image
Doubt always coexists with faith, for in the presence of certainty who would need faith at all?
Philip Yancey