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Philip Yancey

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Famous Philip Yancey Quotes

“Jesus gave us a model for the work of the church at the Last Supper. While his disciples kept proposing more organization - Hey, let's elect officers, establish hierarchy, set standards of professionalism - Jesus quietly picked up a towel and basin of water and began to wash their feet.”

LastsJesusWaterChurchFeetModelsStandardsOrganizationHeyOfficersDiscipleHierarchyProfessionalismSupperTowelsLast Supper
Book:Church: Why Bother?: My Personal Pilgrimage
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“Jesus is the best clue we have as to what God is like and He is consistently gracious and merciful, especially to those who are failures. He is harsh to uptight, judgmental people, but merciful and gracious to the failures. He seems to draw out the smallest kernel of faith in each person that He's with. So, I presume that that's the way God is going to judge humanity.”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“When Jesus came to earth, demons recognized him, the sick flocked to him, and sinners doused his feet and head with perfume. Meanwhile he offended pious Jews with their strict preconceptions of what God should be like. Their rejection makes me wonder, could religious types be doing just the reverse now? Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?”

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Book:The Jesus I Never Knew Study Guide
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“Jesus never tried to hide his loneliness and dependence on other people. He chose his disciples not as servants but as friends. He shared moments of joy and grief with them, and asked for them in times of need. They became his family, his substitute mother and brothers and sisters. They gave up everything for him, as he had given up everything for them. He loved them, plain and simple.”

PeopleNeedsMomentsJoyMotherJesusGivenSimpleGriefLonelinessBrotherServantSubstitutesDiscipleDependenceBrothers And SistersGiven UpGave UpTime Of NeedPlain And SimpleDependence On OthersJoy And GriefShared Moments
Author:Philip Yancey
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“The camera follows a young woman as she makes her way through the stands to an area set aside for repentance and conversion. But Jesus' stories imply that far more may be going on out there: beyond that stadium scene, in a place concealed from all camera lenses, a great party has erupted, a gigantic celebration in the unseen world.”

WorldWayMayStoriesYoungJesusPartySceneAreasCamerasConversionRepentanceCelebrationYoung WomenUnseenLensesConcealedStadiumsCamera LensesGreat Party
Book:Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud
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“Curiously, the righteous Pharisees had little historical impact, save for a brief time in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. But Jesus' disciples - an ornery, undependable, and hopelessly flawed group of men - became drunk with the power of a gospel that offered free forgiveness to the worst sinners and traitors. Those men managed to change the world.”

MenWorldLittlesJesusGroupsWorstImpactHistoricalCornersDrunkChanging The WorldEmpiresSinnerRighteousDiscipleFlawedTraitorRoman EmpirePhariseesOrnery
Book:Grace Notes
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“Faith is not simply a private matter, or something we practice once a week at church. Rather, it should have a contagious effect on the broader world. Jesus used these images to illustrate His kingdom.: a sprinkle of yeast causing the whole loaf to rise, a pinch of salt preserving a slab of meat, the smallest seed in the garden growing into a great tree in which birds of the air come to nest.”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“Jesus represents a point of common ground an esteemed rabbi to the Jew, a god to the Hindu, an enlightened one to the Buddhist, a great prophet to the Muslim. Even to the New Age guru, Jesus is the pinnacle of God-consciousness. At the same time, Jesus is the divider. None but Christians see Him as a member of the Godhead on an exclusive mission to repair the broken world.”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“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.”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“Having spent time around "sinners" and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the sinners, who arrested Jesus.”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“In the move The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a magical life of luxury with a thousand eunuch servants at his command. "What happens when you do wrong?" his brother asks. "When I do wrong, someone else is punished," the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten. In Christian theology, Jesus reversed that ancient pattern: when the servants erred, the King was punished. Grace is free only because the giver himself has borned the cost.”

ChildrenHappensChristianLastsMovingYoungAsksJesusReligiousBoysBreakGraceBrotherKingsCostThousandAncientPatternsChinaTheologyCommandLuxuryServantBeatenGiverEmperorJarsYoung ChildrenChristian TheologyEunuchsMagical Life
Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?
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“Charles Williams has said of the Lord's Prayer, "No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word 'as' in that clause." What makes the 'as' so terrifying? The fact that Jesus plainly links our forgiven-ness by the Father with our forgiving-ness of fellow human beings. Jesus' next remark could not be more explicit: 'If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.'”

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Book:What's So Amazing about Grace?
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“I once heard a theologian remark that in the Gospels people approached Jesus with a question 183 times whereas he replied with a direct answer only three times. Instead, he responded with a different question, a story, or some other indirection. Evidently Jesus wants us to work out answers on our own, using the principles that he taught and lived.”

PeopleWantDifferentStoriesThreeJesusAnswersPrinciplesHeardTaughtDirectWork OutTheologianThree TimesWant URemarks
Book:Prayer Participant's Guide: Six Sessions on Our Relationship with God
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“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)”

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Author:Philip Yancey
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“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.”

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