21 August 2011

generous justice

FINALLY finished Tim Keller's small book Generous Justice. I recommend it, it's quite good. Okay, it's really good and really convicting.
A couple of passages:
Pages 95-96... Fasting should be a symbol of a pervasive change across the whole face of one's life. People changed by grace should go, as it were, on a permanent fast. Self-indulgence and materialism should be given up and replaced by a sacrificial lifestyle of giving to those in need.
Pages 102-103... To the degree that the gospel shapes your self-image, you will identify with those in need. You will see their tattered clothes and think: "All my righteousness is a filthy rag, but in Christ we can be clothed in his robes of righteousness." When you come upon those who are economically poor, you cannot say to them, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" because you certainly did not do that spiritually. Jesus intervened for you.
Page 108... [Quote from M'Cheyne] If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Pages 122-123... The gospel makes us all like Abraham, who left his home culture but never "arrived" in another one.
Page 139... Evangelism is the most basic and radical ministry possible to a human being. This is true not because the spiritual is more important than the physical, but because the eternal is more important than the temporal... If there is a God, and if life with him for eternity is based on having a saving relationship with him, then the most loving thing anyone can do for one's neighbor is help him or her to a saving faith in that God.
Page 160... The implication of James 1:17 is that God scatters gifts of wisdom, goodness, justice, and beauty across all the human race, regardless of people's beliefs. Christians see all skill in science, scholarship, crafts, government, art, and jurisprudence as being from God.

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