"divine conspiracy"

"My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him. In his case, quite frankly, presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profoud ignorance."

"... The practical irrelevance of actual obedience to Christ accounts for the weakened effect of Christianity in the world today, with its increasing tendency to emphasize political and social action as the primary way to serve God. It also accounts for the practical irrelevance of Christian faith to individual character development and overall personal sanity and well-being... Why bother with discipleship, it is widely thought, or, for that matter, with a conversational relationship with God? Let us get on with what we have to do."

"Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here, and it also is the basis of humanity's enduring response to Jesus."

"For all of the talk of 'new birth' among conservative Christians, there is almost a total lack of understanding of what that new birth is in practical terms and of how it relates to forgiveness and imputed or transmitted righteousness."

"To [God's} eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God's direct knowledge and control... It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he continually rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found evey visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us."

"The abundance of his love and generosity is inseperable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness."