Philip Yancey Quotes

126 Sourced Quotes

There is but one true Giver in the universe; all else are debtors.

Philip Yancey
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.

Philip Yancey
Our confused society badly needs a community of contrast, a counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist living a different way. Unlike popular culture, we will lavish attention on the least "deserving" in direct opposition to our celebrity culture's emphasis on success, wealth, and beauty.

Philip Yancey
Christianity is not a purely intellectual, internal faith. It can only be lived in community.

Philip Yancey
Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near

Philip Yancey
Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us. Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, "Be good." Jesus' stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry, "Help!"

Philip Yancey
Only in prayer can we learn to love God with all our heart, mind and soul.

Philip Yancey
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.

Philip Yancey
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.

Philip Yancey
The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.

Philip Yancey
The approach of admitting our errors, besides being most true to a gospel of grace, is also most effective at expressing who we are. Propaganda turns people off; humbly admitting mistakes disarms.

Philip Yancey
God formed an alliance based on the world as it is, full of flaws, whereas prayer calls God to account for the world as it should be.

Philip Yancey
Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: You become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?

Philip Yancey
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.

Philip Yancey
Across time and generations, books carry the thoughts and feelings, the essence, of the human spirit.

Philip Yancey
Jesus tended to honor the losers of this world, not the winners. Our modern culture extravagantly rewards beauty, athletic skill, wealth, and artistic achievement, qualities which seemed to impress Jesus not at all.

Philip Yancey
Christ bears the wounds of the church, his body, just as he bore the wounds of crucifixion. I sometimes wonder which have hurt worse.

Philip Yancey
We whine about things we have little control over; we lament what we believe ought to be changed.

Philip Yancey
When I am tempted to complain about God's lack of presence, I remind myself that God has much more reason to complain about my lack of presence.

Philip Yancey
Our best efforts at changing society will fall short unless the church can teach the world how to love.

Philip Yancey
Life with God is an individual matter, and general formulas do not easily apply.

Philip Yancey
The issue is not whether I agree with someone but rather how I treat someone with whom I profoundly disagree. We Christians are called to use the "weapons of grace," which means treating even our opponents with love and respect.

Philip Yancey
A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to watch out for me.

Philip Yancey
By focusing too myopically on what we want God to do on our behalf, we may miss the significance of what he has already done.

Philip Yancey
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)

Philip Yancey
We deserve punishment and get forgiveness; we deserve God's wrath and get God's love.

Philip Yancey
I fell in love. It felt exactly like a fall, a head-over-heels tumble into a state of unbearable lightness. The earth tilted on its axis. I did not believe in romantic love at the time, thinking it a human construct, an invention of fourteenth century Italian poets. I was as unprepared for love as I had been for goodness and beauty. Suddenly, my heart seemed swollen, too large for my chest.

Philip Yancey
If God consistently sent lightning bolts in response to bad doctrine, our planet would sparkle nightly like a Christmas tree.

Philip Yancey
As the books of Job, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk clearly show, God has a high threshold of tolerance for what appropriate to say in a prayer. God can "handle" my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need God's correction - but only by taking those feelings to God will I have the opportunity for correction and healing.

Philip Yancey
Pain narrows vision. The most private of sensations, it forces us to think of ourselves and little else.

Philip Yancey