APOLOGETICS DEFINED

'Apologetics is in the business of trying to create for the reader of goodwill a kind of temporary, virtual body for faith; one they can borrow and try out, so that they may have a concrete inkling of what it might be like to assent, long before they do.'

Francis Spufford, 'C.S.Lewis as apologist' in True Stories & Other Essays, p.165.

NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME

'It avails nothing that a man is clever, learned, highly gifted, amiable, charitable, kind-hearted, and zealous about some sort of religion. All this will not his soul, if he does not draw near to God by Christ's atonement, and make use of God's own Son as his Mediator and Saviour. God is so holy that all men are guilty and debtors in his sight. Sin is so sinful that no mortal man can make satisfaction for it. There must be a mediator, a ransom-payer, a redeemer, between ourselves and God, or else we can never be saved. There is only one door, one bridge, one ladder, between earth and heaven, - the crucified Son of God. Whosoever will enter in by that door may be saved; but to him who refuses to use that door the Bible holds out no hope at all.'

JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John: Volume 3, p.67. 

WHAT KEEPS RELATIONSHIP GOING

'Delight without discipline eventually, inevitably dissipates. It runs out of steam. But when delight and discipline learn to dance, relationships thrive. They mature and endure.'

Pete Grieg, How to Pray: A simple guide for normal people, p.25.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A FIG-LEAF

'We're using social media in the same way that Adam and Eve used fig leaves.'
Simon Cozens, Looking Shame in the Eye: A path to understanding, grace and freedom, p.56.

DISTINTIVE CHRISTIANITY

'[Christians] dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all.'

Anonymous in 'The Epistle to Diognetus' from Adam Ramsey, Faithfully Present, p.149.

BLISS NOW IS JUST THE BASELINE

'How easily we forget that the highest pinnacles of bliss in this life are merely the baseline for the world to come.'

Adam Ramsey, Faithfully Present: Embracing the Limits of Where and When God Has You, p.85.

EQUALITY IS NOT SELF-EVIDENT

'It is not self-evident that we are equal. That is the whole problem.'

Elizabeth Oldfield, Fully Alive, p.135.

THE DIGNITY CHRISTIANITY GIVES US

'Scripture allows me to claim that I am more than an invisible node in the indistinguishable mass of humanity. It affirms my particularity, makes it possible for me to believe myself to be seen and known, with a specific part only I can play, but it also humbles me. I can only begin to make sense as part of something bigger, an organ in a living body, a daughter in a family.'

Elizabeth Oldfield, Fully Alive, p.134.

WHAT GOD LOOKS LIKE

'Do you want to know what God is like, the form in which God reveals himself? Look in the mirror; look at your friends; look at your spouse. Start here: a human being with eyes and ears, hands and feet, eating meals with friends. Walking to the store for a bottle of milk, hiking in the hills and picking wildflowers, catching fish and cooking them on a beach for breakfast with friends.'

Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, p.227.

OUR CULTURE AND SIN

'Our sinless society, which promised liberation from the psychological harm that externally imposed guilt brings, has begun to feel a bit suffocating. No one is really responsible for anything, but neither can anyone really be forgiven. Two seemingly incompatible moral universe have meshed in a toxic brew. On the one hand, the ways we hurt each other are simply social conditioning. We might be able to unpack the triggers through therapy, but it's a tragic project of entanglement in trauma. On the other, there are certain beliefs and identities that function like unforgiveable sins - and these will be unique to your tribe. Some days the whole worlds seems high on self-righteous rage, locating evil conveniently outside ourselves and our group. I regularly feel tempted to performatively avoid causing offence, signal my moral purity or publicly align myself with whoever is the right tribe that day. It doesn't leave much energy for actually becoming more loving or more just.'

Elizabeth Oldfield, Fully Alive: Tending to the soul in turbulent times, p.29.