God's Outrageous Claims Quotes

“God won’t force you to become something he never designed you to be. He created you. God wants to take your personality, your temperament, your talents, your experiences and give you a new character, new attitudes, new abilities, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit so you can reach your full potential.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“I’ve noticed that two prayers in particular are among the riskiest a person can pray. [...]

“God, open my eyes to who you really are, and then I’ll open my life to you.” [...]

“God, here I am, fully submitted to you; use me as you have never used me before.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“To use a popular illustration, all other religions are spelled “D-O.” That is, they are based on people doing something, through their struggling and striving, to somehow earn the good favor of God. [...]

By contrast, Christianity is spelled “D-O-N-E,” because it’s based on what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“[...] the upside is too great and the downside too scary not to pursue authentic relationships. But how do we begin? Casual friendships are easy, but deeper relationships can be much more challenging to initiate and cultivate. On top of that, a lot of people have let their friendship-building skills atrophy over time, if they ever possessed them at all.

So let’s start here and now. Let’s stop waiting for friendships to just happen. The time has come to shelve our loneliness and, as outlandish as it sounds, get extremely intentional about building some relationships. With the Bible providing our guidance, let’s get back to basics.

What are the ingredients in a friendship that’s rich and real, caring and enduring, intimate and mutually fulfilling? I’ve found that there are at least five that are essential in developing ongoing, secure, and satisfying friendships: affinity, acceptance, authenticity, assistance, and affirmation.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“Just as certain people are more susceptible to particular diseases, some temperaments —especially those that tend to be melancholy or contemplative — are more vulnerable to questions and doubts.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“An authentic relationship means telling the truth about how we feel — and that’s the kind of relationship God wants with us.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“[...] most Christians think that doubt is the opposite of faith, but it isn’t. The opposite of faith is unbelief, and that’s an extremely important distinction to understand.

Said Os Guinness in his classic book In Two Minds , “Doubt comes from a word meaning ‘two.’ To believe is to be ‘in one mind’ about accepting something as true; to disbelieve is to be ‘in one mind’ about rejecting it. To doubt is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at once and so to be ‘in two minds.’ "

Guinness pointed out that in the Bible, unbelief refers to a willful refusal to believe or a deliberate decision to disobey God. But to doubt is something different.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“[...] you are the sum total of all the life experiences you’ve gone through. You may wish you had chosen another path, but you didn’t. You’ve been shaped by the many choices you’ve made, both the smart ones and the dumb ones. And here God is saying that he can take the raw material of who you are right now and customize a future of hope for you.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“[....] some people need more than just a good listener. These individuals are magnets for guilt. They have a deep-seated habit of blaming themselves for anything bad that happens in their general vicinity, whether they deserve it or not. They’re the type who gets robbed in Central Park and feels terrible because they didn’t have a second watch to give the mugger! Often this mind-set is part of a pattern that started early in life when they were raised by critical parents who were never satisfied with anything they did.

Just as God often decides to work through a skilled surgeon to heal someone of physical disease, sometimes God chooses to work through pastors and Christian counselors”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“People who have difficulty forgiving themselves for their past transgressions usually make one of two mistakes: they imagine their wrongdoing as being so big that it outstrips God’s power to forgive, or they picture God’s forgiveness as being too small to cover them. On either count, they’re simply mistaken.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“My mistakes didn’t destroy the image of God that was inscribed in me, so my errors can’t eliminate the reason why I have value in his eyes.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You

“Researchers have gathered a wealth of data lately suggesting that chronic anger is so damaging to the body that it ranks with — or even exceeds — cigarette smoking, obesity, and a high-fat diet as a powerful risk factor for early death.”
― Lee Strobel, God's Outrageous Claims: Discover What They Mean for You