"The Reason for God" by Tim Keller

(Image: South Valley Church website, courtesy of Google Images)

My pastor lent me this book recently.

He must have been divinely led to do it, because it came at just the right time.

Here I am again at the start of a new year, feeling guilty for having backslided spiritually in the last year, for not spending enough time reading the Bible, praying and engaging with God, and for doing outwardly "good" and "worthwhile" things in my own strength and wisdom rather than His.

With the world's focus being once again on terrorism in new and terrifying forms, and two children being more and more susceptible to external influences, I need to turn inwardly and be reminded of the eternal truths that have been laid down in Scriptures.

“Religion operates on the principle “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” But the operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through what Christ has done—therefore I obey.” 

“In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints–why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth? Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining ourselves to live according to it?” 

“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”