=> The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondageand distorted the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper. (17)

=> The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondageand distorted the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper. (17)

=> We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works — but our lives refute our faith.(18)

=> How could the gospel of Christ be truly called “Good News” if God is a righteous judge rewarding thegood and punishing the evil? Did Jesus really have to come to reveal that terrifying message? How could the revelation of God in Christ Jesus be accurately called “news” since the OT carried the same theme, or “good” with the threat of punishment hanging like a dark cloud over the valley of history?(21)

=> Morton Kelsey: “The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.” (24)

=> My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earnit or deserve it. (27)

=> If children are close to God, it is because they are incompetent, not because they are innocent. If theyreceive anything, it can only be as a gift. (28) Eph 2:8-9

=> Paul Tillich: “Simply accept the fact that you are accepted. If that happens to us, we experience grace.”(29) 2 Cor 12:9

=> Grace: Rom 5:20-21; 3:24; Titus 3:7; Gal 1:15; Eph 1:6; Titus 2:11; 1 Tim 1:14; Rom 5:2; 5:17; 5:15, 20-21, 6:1; 1 Cor 1:4; 2 Cor 6:1, 9:14, 4:15; Rom 11:5; Eph 2:5,7; 2 Tim 1:9; Acts 15:11; Gal 2:21, 5:4; Rom6:14, 4:4; Acts 20:24, 14:3, 20:32

=> We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowingJesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited. (45)

=> Philosopher Jacques Maritain said that the culmination of knowledge is not conceptual but experiential: I feel God. Such is the promise of the Scriptures: Be still and know (experience) that I am God. I mean that a living, loving God can and does make his presence felt, can and does speak to us in the silence of our hearts, can and does warm and caress us till we no longer doubt that He is near, that He is here. (46)

=> …the more fully we accept ourselves, the more successfully we begin to grow. Love is a far better stimulus than threat or pressure.(49)

=> Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only now that we are in the presence of God. (53)

=> AA: Don’t let yourself get hungry, angry, lonely, or tired or you will be very vulnerable for the first temptation relapse. H.A.L.T. (67)

=> Have you learned to fear this loving and gracious Father? “In love, there can be no fear, for fear is driven out by perfect love. Fear has to do with punishment and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love” 1 John 4:18. Have you learned to think of the Father as the judge, the spy, the disciplinarian, the punisher? If you think that way, you are wrong. (75)

=> The Father’s love is revealed in the Son’s. The Son has been given to us that we might give up fear. There is no fear in love. The Father sent the Son “that you might have life—life in all its fullness” (Jn 10:10). Is not the Son the Father’s unsurpassable sign of love and graciousness? Did henot come to show us the Father’s compassionate care for us? (“Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me” Jn 12:45). The Father is not justice and the Son love. The Father is justice and love; the Son is love and justice. Abba is not: our enemy; intent on trying and tempting and testing us; Abba does not prefer and promote suffering and pain. Jesus brings good news about the Father, not bad news….We have to be converted from the bad news to the good news about God. (76) [openness to God’s grace is “a little willingness” from ACIM]

=> For a moment allow me to sketch with broad strokes a biblical theology of divine agape…(99)

=> The hesed of Yahweh draws Israel into greater conficence. Justice says: “I owe you nothing, for you havebroken the contract.” But where justice ends, love begins , and reveals that God is not interested merely in the dividends of the covenant. He is looking into the eyes of Israel from His depths to hers. He sees through the smokescreen of deeds good and bad to Israel herself. She glances up uneasily, “Who? Me?” (101)

=> Yes, we feel guilt over sins, but healthy guilt is one which acknowledges the wrong done and feels remorse, but then is free to embrace the forgiveness that has been offered. Healthy guilt focuses on the realization that all has been forgiven, the wrong has been redeemed.(114) [even before being committed]

=> Christianity happens when men and women accept with unwavering trust that their sins have not only been forgiven but forgotten, washed away in the blood of the Lamb. (116)

=> Grace is the secret to being able to forgive ourselves. Trust it. (115)

=> The grace to let go and let God be God flows from trust in His boundless love. Only love empowers theleap in trust… (117)

=> In Christ Jesus freedom from fear empowers us to let go of the desire to appear good, so that we can movefreely in the mystery of who we really are. (147)

=> Living by grace inspires a growing consciousness that I am what I am in the sight of Jesus and nothingmore. (149)

=> Compassion for others is not a simple virtue because it avoids snap judgments—right or wrong, good orbad, hero or villain: it seeks truth in all its complexity. Usually we see other people not as they are, but as we are. A person, in a real sense, is what he or she sees. And seeing depends on our eyes. Jesus uses the metaphor of eyes more often than that of minds or wills. (151)

=> Gentleness toward ourselves constitutes the core of our gentleness with others. (153)

=> The gospel of grace announces: forgiveness precedes repentance. (181)

=> What is the nature of Ultimate Reality? Jesus responds that the Really Real is generous, forgiving, savinglove. (192)

=> If you reject and turn your back on Christianity, do so because you find the answers of Jesus incredible,blasphemous, or hopelessly hopeful. (193)

=> With all the goodwill in the world, you can’t make anything happen. Don’t force prayer. Simply relax inthe presence of the God you half believe in and ask for a touch of folly. (196)

=> Love has its own exigencies. It weighs and counts nothing but expects everything. Perhaps that explainsour reluctance to risk. We know only too well that the gospel of grace is an irresistible call to love the same way. No wonder to many of us elect to surrender our souls to rules rather than to living in union with love. (203)

=> Francis Schaeffer: True spirituality consists in living moment to moment by the grace of Jesus Christ.

=> C.S. Lewis: People need more to be reminded than to be instructed. (204)