“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.”

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.

It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.

Nothing can be known either of God or man until God has become man in Jesus Christ.

The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.

Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. We must not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.

Fruit is always the miraculous, the created; it is never the result of willing, but always a growth. The fruit of the Spirit is a gift of God, and only He can produce it. They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of Him on whom their life depends.

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.

I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.

Not everyone can wait: neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait. The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them.

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.

How would you expect to find community while you intentionally withdraw from it at some point? The disobedient cannot believe; only the obedient believe.

Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.

Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.

One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural.

Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!

The great Satyr and Tiger of Hyrcania presents a gift to those of the Ocean; A fleet’s chief will set out from Carmania, one who will take land at the Tyrren Phocaean.

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that god gave me to use. I’m happy with that.

He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.

The rich have no more of the kingdom of heaven than they have purchased of the poor by their alms.

Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.

For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.