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Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey Quotes

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Philip Yancey (born 1949) is one of the most influential contemporary Christian authors in the United States. He is widely known for his profound explorations of faith, suffering, and grace, blending personal experience, theological reflection, and literary narrative. His bestselling books, including Where Is God When It Hurts?, What's So Amazing About Grace?, and The Jesus I Never Knew, have sold over 15 million copies worldwide and been translated into dozens of languages. Yancey served as an editor for Christianity Today and has written for numerous publications. His honest, thoughtful, and accessible writing style has deeply impacted millions of readers, inviting both believers and skeptics to engage with the complexities of faith.

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Famous Philip Yancey Quotes

“Homeless people bear God's image too.”

People Bears Homeless Homeless People

Book:Church: Why Bother?: My Personal Pilgrimage

Source: Church: Why Bother?: My Personal Pilgrimage

“I do not get to know God and then do His will. I get to know Him by doing His will.”

Knows Knowing God

Book:Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

Source: Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

“Someone asked the Swiss physician & author Paul Tournier how he helped his patients get rid of their fears. He replied, 'I don't. Everything that's worthwhile in life is scary. Choosing a school, choosing a career, getting married, having kids--all those things are scary. If it is not fearful, it is not worthwhile.'”

Ifs Kids School Life Is Careers Married Patient Scary Fearful Worthwhile Physicians Getting Married Swiss Having Kids

Book:Where Is God When it Hurts/What's So Amazing About Grace?

Source: Where Is God When it Hurts/What's So Amazing About Grace?

“No one ever converted to Christianity because they lost the argument.”

Christian Religion Choices Lost Religious Christianity Argument Arguing Converting

Author:Philip Yancey

“Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: You become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?”

Ifs Thinking Persons Important Self Father Saws Wife Theory Mirrors Glasses Life Changing Etc Boss God's Love Sociologists Important Person Most Important Person

Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing about Grace?

“Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.”

Mean Grace Infinite

Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing about Grace?

“True faith does not so much attempt to manipulate God to do our will as it does to position us to do his will.”

Doe Position Manipulate True Faith

Book:Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

“By focusing too myopically on what we want God to do on our behalf, we may miss the significance of what he has already done.”

Want May Done Missing Significance Behalf

Book:Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

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

Way Different Church Window Mirrors Different Ways Revealing Reflecting Reflecting Back

Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing about Grace?

“We are all trophies of God's grace, some more dramatically than others; Jesus came for the sick and not the well, for the sinner and not the righteous. He came to redeem and transform, to make all things new. May you go forth more committed than ever to nourish the souls who you touch, those tender lives who have sustained the enormous assaults of the universe. (pp.88)”

Wells May Soul Universe Jesus Grace All Things Sick Committed Enormous Sinner Righteous Assault Trophies God's Grace All Things New

Author:Philip Yancey

“Whatever else we may say about it, the atonement fulfills the Jewish principle that only one who has been hurt can forgive. At Calvary, God chose to be hurt.”

May Has Beens Hurt Principles Forgiving Atonement Calvary Been Hurt

Book:Grace Notes

Source: Grace Notes

“Christ bears the wounds of the church, his body, just as he bore the wounds of crucifixion. I sometimes wonder which have hurt worse.”

Sometimes Body Christ Hurt Church Wonder Bears Wounds Bores Crucifixion

Book:The Jesus I Never Knew Study Guide

Source: The Jesus I Never Knew Study Guide

“Whatever else it is, the kingdom of God is decidedly not a call to violent revolution.”

Revolution Violent Kingdoms Kingdom Of God Violent Revolution

Book:The Jesus I Never Knew Study Guide

Source: The Jesus I Never Knew Study Guide

“Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down; it must grow internally, from the bottom up.”

Grows Goodness Bottom Top Down

Book:The Jesus I Never Knew

Source: The Jesus I Never Knew

“Doubt always coexists with faith, for in the presence of certainty who would need faith at all?”

Needs Doubt Certainty Coexist

Book:Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

Source: Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

“The problem of pain meets its match in the scandal of grace.”

Problem Pain Grace Scandal

Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing about Grace?

“Whenever faith seems an entitlement, or a measuring rod, we cast our lots with the Pharisees and grace softly slips away.”

Seems Grace Casts Slips Entitlement Measuring Pharisees

Book:Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church

Source: Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church

“Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics he could not convince and sinners he could not convert. Forgiveness of sins requires an act of will on the receiver's part, and some who heard Jesus' strongest words about grace and forgiveness turned away unrepentant.”

Source: The Jesus I Never Knew Participant's Guide: Six Sessions on the Life of Christ

“Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.”

World Broken Agents Midst Hostile Intervention Broken World

Author:Philip Yancey

“The things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us the grace to labour for', as Sir Thomas More expressed it. The inner voice of prayer expresses itself naturally in action, just as the inner voice of my brain guides all my bodily actions.”

Giving Action Voice Prayer Brain Lord Grace Praying Guides Labour Inner Voice

Author:Philip Yancey

“I doubt God keeps track of how many arguments we win; God may indeed keep track of how well we love.”

Wells May Winning Doubt Argument Track

Author:Philip Yancey

“He (Job) did not seek the Giver because of His gifts; when all gifts were removed he still sought the Giver.”

Stills God Jobs Giver

Book:Where Is God When It Hurts?

Source: Where Is God When It Hurts?

About the Author

Born: 1949
Known for: Author
Quotes: 272

Related Topics

Grace Jesus World People Christian Prayer Ifs Church Way Doe

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

What's So Amazing about Grace?Related source material

Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks AloudRelated source material

Grace NotesRelated source material

The Jesus I Never KnewRelated source material

The Jesus I Never Knew Study GuideRelated source material

Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?Related source material

Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?Related source material

Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne's DevotionsRelated source material

Reaching for the Invisible God Study GuideRelated source material

Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the ChurchRelated source material

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