To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved
is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.
It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.
If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.
Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts... It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them.
Tolerance isn't about not having beliefs. It's about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.
God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows.
The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.
When you listen and read one thinker, you become a clone… two thinkers, you become confused… ten thinkers, you’ll begin developing your own voice… two or three hundred thinkers, you become wise and develop your voice.
Reason can get you to probability, but only commitment can get you to certainty.
Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.