More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
April 9 - July 3, 2024
“But what if His majesty is not as important to Him as His children are?”
How would He be just if He forgave arbitrarily? No, He cannot ‘just forgive us if He chooses.’ The penalty for my sins must be paid.” Rising from the ground and sitting on my heels, I recited the takbir.
“No,” I told myself. “There is no alternative. God is real, and He hears my prayers, even the little ones like wanting to know where my friends are.”
That day, I no longer just believed that God was real. I knew God was real. And I knew God cared for me.
Although our conversations focused on objective argumentation, as they should have, I came to realize that subjective knowledge can be far more powerful. I would never be able to convince anyone that I actually saw the streaks in the sky or that they actually led me to my friends. But I did not need to. It was a sign for me, and I went from being 99 percent sure that God exists to 100 percent certain.
Effective evangelism requires relationships. There are very few exceptions.
There were none that I knew who cared about me unconditionally. Since no Christian cared about me, I did not care about their message.
Effective evangelism requires relationships. There are very few exceptions.
Even though the gospel was his passion, he did not bombard me with his beliefs straightaway. The discussions arose much more naturally, after we became friends, and in the context of a life lived together. In fact, I was the one who brought it up.
“The words do matter, but they matter because they constitute a message. The message is paramount. That’s why the Bible can be translated. If the inspiration were tied to words themselves as opposed to their message, then we could never translate the Bible, and if we could never translate it, how could it be a book for all people?”
the main biographies about Alexander the Great were written around four hundred years after his death.40 If we are confident we know anything about Alexander, we should be exponentially more confident in what we know about Jesus.”
He had long before realized that people who wanted to avoid the truth usually succeeded.
“You see, the disciples went from being afraid of associating with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane to being willing to die for proclaiming him the Risen Lord. If Jesus had just barely survived the crucifixion, he would have come to them broken and on the verge of dying. That is not the kind of appearance that would inspire a total transformation and a disregard for death. That boldness was the ethos of the early Christian movement, and without it, there would be no Christianity.”
most scholars agree that they can be more assured of Jesus’ death by crucifixion than of anything else in his life.”
there are multiple non-Christian sources from the first century after Jesus who testify to Jesus’ death on the cross, and there are many more Christian sources that confirm it.
“Scholars are virtually unanimous: the death of Jesus on the cross is among the surest facts of history.”
I was like them, someone who was pursuing God and truth with all his heart and mind.
This is only one of the reasons why a strong friendship is critical. A surface-level relationship might snap under the tension of disagreement, but by living our lives together, we were forced to reconcile.
God is not forcing ‘some random person’ to suffer for our sins. He is paying for our sins Himself.
“A better analogy would be a son who has stolen from his father’s business. If after wasting the goods, the son returns to the father and sincerely seeks forgiveness, it is within the father’s right to forgive him. But not all would be settled yet; the accounts haven’t been balanced. Someone has to take the hit for the stolen goods. If the father wants, he has every right to pay for his son’s debt from his own account. That’s fair.”
“We are the son, and God is the father. We have incurred a debt against God, and we can’t pay Him back. So in His mercy, He pays our sins for us. The wages of our sin is death, and He died on our behalf, balancing the accounts.”
you’re still forgetting that this isn’t just any person. This is God! This was not like paying off trillions of dollars of debt with one dollar. This was paying trillions of dollars of debt with an infinite bank account! God’s life is worth more than all the other lives in the universe combined. His death more than paid for all the deaths that the rest of us deserve.”
Christianity teaches that sin is so destructive it shatters souls and destroys worlds. It’s like a cancer that slowly consumes everything. That’s why this world went from perfection in the garden of Eden to being the sick and depressing place it is today. Do you think God would allow any of that stuff in heaven? Of course He wouldn’t. If heaven is going to be a perfect place, by definition there can be no sinners in it. None at all.”
It was all connecting. Would I ever question why Abba loved me? He had loved me since I was born, the day he first spoke the adhan into my ear, not because of anything I did but because he was my father. I never doubted his love and generosity toward me, not because I had somehow earned his favor but because I was his son. Was this really how God loved me? Could God be that loving? Could He be that wonderful? Was this really how God loved me? Could God be that loving? Could He be that wonderful? It was as if I was meeting my Heavenly Father for the first time.
This is everything 🥹🙌🏼🫶🏼🩷 God’s love is unconditional. It doesn’t rely on our performance. The analogy helps it click for me: He’s like a father whose son has stolen from his business. He has the power, the ability, and the love to pay the debt from His own account and forgive us.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
when this is all done, people are going to remember how much we loved them and nothing else. And so Lord, I pray that I might be a reflection of You, God, and of Your love for Your children.”
this life is not purely physical, nor is it arbitrary. The spiritual realm is very real, and God’s perfect plan for our lives is full to the brim and overflowing with purpose. He is all about far exceeding our expectations.
