[Teal-colored slash ( / ) within quote indicates page break.]                    = Link to brief biographical notes and/or webliography.

Yaconelli, Mike.

Petty people are ugly people.  They are people who have lost their vision.  They are people who have turned their eyes away from what matters and focused, instead on what doesn't matter.  The result is that the rest of us are immobilized by their obsession with the insignificant.

In:  The Wittenburg Door, 12/84-1/85),

in:  Christianity Today. (Septermber 4, 1987), p. 43.

OBSESSIONS; PETTINESS; UGLINESS; VISION

19870902

Yancey, Philip.

For this reason, it can truly be said that the Jews invented history.  For them, history did not simply replay cycles of eternity; human actions on earth mattered, and those very responses created history.  The Sovreign Lord of history allows people to exert an influence on him, just as he exerts an influence on them.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 55.

ACTIONS; ETERNITY; GOD - INFLUENCE; GOD - SELF-LIMITATION; HISTORY - ORIGINS; JEWS; TIME (CYCLICAL)

20070524

We are born slathered in blood and bodily fluids, amid tears and cries of pain; we die in like manner; and in between birth and death we ask, Why?

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 69.

BIRTH; BLOOD; BODY FLUIDS; DEATH; PAIN; TEARS; WHY?

20070525

Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 99.

FAITH; GOD; JOB (BIBLE); PLEASURE

20070526

God has given ordinary men and woment the dignity of participating in the redemption of the cosmos.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 104.

COSMOS; CREATION, REDEMPTION OF; GOD; HUMAN DIGNITY; REDEMPTION

20070526

I come to the psalms not primarily as a student wanting to acquire knowledge, but rather as a fellow pilgrim wanting to acquire relationship.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 179.

BIBLE - THE PSALMS; KNOWLEDGE; PILGRIMS; PSALMS; RELATIONSHIPS; STUDENTS

20070602

On a different note, the psalms also teach how to adore and how to praise, activities that Americans perform with notorious awkwardness.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 194.

ADORATION; AMERICANS; AWKWARDNESS; PRAISE; PSALMS (BIBLE)

20070608

Unlike the Teacher, most modern writers blame God, or the lack of God, for the human condition.  Few instead perceive despair as a symptom of our humble need for God.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 258.

AUTHORS, MODERN; DESPAIR; ECCLESIASTES (BIBLE); GOD; HUMAN CONDITION; MAN, MODERN; NEEDS; TEACHER, THE

20070611

As C. S. Lewis and others remind us, mythic images serve as powerful carriers of truth.  When God really wanted to get through to his prophets, he gave them access to a cosmic point of view rich in mythic images.

The Bible Jesus Read.  (PR161, Walker Large Print, 2002), p. 300.

GOD - IMAGERY; IMAGES; MYTHS; PROPHETS, JEWISH; TRUTH; VIEWPOINTS

20070626

Yancey, Philip, cont'd

In this book I attempt to tell the story of Jesus, not my own story.  Inevitably, though, a search for Jesus turns out to be one's own search.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 25.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES; JESUS THE CHRIST - BIOGRAPHIES; SEARCHING

20050604

What can be less scary than a newborn with his limbs wrapped tight [sic] against his body?  In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 38.

CHRISTMAS; GOD - RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS; JESUS THE CHRIST; RELATIONSHIPS

20050617

In a heavy irony, attempts to compel morality tend to produce defiant subjects and tyrannical rulers who lose their / moral core.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), pp. 75-6.

DEFIANCE; LAWS - MORAL; MORALISM; MORALITY; TYRANTS

20050625

Along the way, I have also come to believe that the Beatitudes describe the present as well as the future.  They neatly contrast how to suceed in the kingdom of heaven as opposed to the kingdom of this world.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 113.

BEATITUDES; HEAVEN; SUCCESS

20050716

Grace is absolute, inflexible, all-encompassing.  It extends to the people who nailed Jesus to the cross:  "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" were among the last words Jesus spoke on earth.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 143.

FORGIVENESS; GRACE; JESUS THE CHRIST

20050716

Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have howhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 144.

FALL, THE; GRACE; IDEALS; SAFETY NETS

20050716

Grace was slippery, evanescent, hard to get my mind around.  Sin was concrete, visible, an easy target to pounce on.  Under law, I always knew where I ranked.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 152.

ABSTRACT CONCEPTS; CONCRETE CONCEPTS; GRACE; LAW; RANKING; SIN; TARGETS

20050716

God is not the unmoved Absolute, but rather the Loving One who draws near.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 161.

ABSOLUTE, UNMOVED; GOD - DEFINITIONS; LOVING ONE

20050723

Although faith may produce miracles, miracles do not necessarily produce faith.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 171.

FAITH; MIRACLES

20050730

A sign is not the same thing as proof; a sign is merely a marker for someone who is looking in the right direction.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 178.

DIRECTIONS; PROOFS; MARKERS; SIGNS - DEFINITIONS

20050730

Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering.  Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it.  In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 205.

CALVARY; FORCE; GOD; LOVE; POWER; SUFFERING; VULNERABILITY

20050806

But Jesus' message of the kingdom had little in common with the politics of polarization.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 244.

JESUS THE CHRIST - MESSAGE; POLARIZATION; POLITICS

20050820

Because of Jesus, however, I must adjust my instinctive notions about God.  (Perhaps that lay at the heart of his mission?)  Jesus reveals a God who comes in search of us, a God who makes room for our freedom even when it costs the Son's life, a God who is vulnerable.  Above all, Jesus reveals a God who is love.

The Jesus I Never Knew.  (HQ462, Zondervan, 1995), p. 267.

FREEDOM; GOD - IMAGES; JESUS THE CHRIST; LOVE; SEARCHING; VULNERABILITY

20050901

Yancey, Philip, cont'd

Moral force, to be sure, is a risky form of power.  Compared to the glaring reality of brute force, it may appear weak and ineffectual.  But it has its own method of conquering.

"The Pope's New Weapon";

in:  Christianity Today. (August 7, 1987), p. 56.

BRUTE FORCE; CONQUESTS; FORCE; MORALITY

19870805

Yancey, Philip, cont'd

Ever since, I have clung fiercely to the stance of a pilgrim, for that is all I am.  I have no religious sanction.

Soul Survivor.  (HQ504, Doubleday, 2001), p. 7.

AUTHORITY - RELIGIOUS; CHRISTIANITY; PILGRIMS; RELIGION

20070214

Yun-men.

If you want to get the plain truth, be not concerned with right and wrong.  Conflict between right and wrong is the sickness of the mind.

In:  Watts, Alan.  Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen. (City Light Books, 1959), p. 10.

MENTAL ILLNESSES; RIGHT & WRONG; TRUTH

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