Confronting the sinner about a sin is an act of love. It is akin to a doctor telling a patient about a cancer diagnosis. The news is bad but necessary for opening the doorway to healing. Similarly, addressing sin opens the doorway to repentance and restoration.
J.I. Packer — Communion between God and man
Communion between God and man is the end to which both creation and redemption are the means; it is the goal to which both theology and preaching must ever point; it is the essence of true religion; it is, indeed, the definition of Christianity.
Albert Einstein on God’s existence
We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library, whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues...The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend...That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God.
H. Richard Niebuhr – on theological liberalism being naïvely optimistic.
A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
What Can We Learn about Life and the Afterlife from Lazarus and the Rich Man?
The parable of Lazarus and the rich man reminds us that what we do in the present counts for all eternity, and such is especially true when it comes to our stewardship of what God has given to us. Compassion and generosity are virtues that are to be cultivated for people bound for glory. But beware of being consumed by greed and gluttony to the extent that one would disregard divine revelation and even disbelieve calls to repent from the one who has risen from the dead.
