When God forgives us for hitting Him with a club we should manage to put up with the pin pricks we get from our fellows.
Helmut ThielickeTell me how much you know of the sufferings of your fellowmen and I will tell you how much you have loved them.
Helmut ThielickeThe doubters are always more blessed than the mere fellow travelers in faith. For they are the only ones who fully learn that their Lord is stronger than any doubt and any hell of despair.
Helmut ThielickeA church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret, the nightclub and the toastmasters.
Helmut ThielickeJesus did not identify the person with his sin, but rather saw in this sin something alien, something that really did not belong to him, something that merely chained and mastered him and from which he would free him and bring him back to his real self. Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud.
Helmut ThielickeI don't believe that God is a fussy faultfinder in dealing with theological ideas. He who provides forgiveness for a sinful life will also surely be a generous judge of theological reflection. Even an orthodox theologian can be spiritually dead, while perhaps a heretic crawls on forbidden bypaths to the sources of life.
Helmut Thielicke