Politics deals with externals: borders, wealth, crimes. Authentic forgiveness deals with the evil in a persons heart, something for which politics has no cure. Virulent evil (racism, ethnic hatred) spreads through society like an airborne disease, one cough infects a whole busload. When moments of grace do occur, the world must pause, fall silent, and acknowledge that indeed forgiveness offers a kind of cure. There will be no escape from wars, from hunger, from misery, from rancid discrimination, from denial of human rights, if our hearts aren't changed.
Philip YanceyI have yet to find any support in the Bible for an attitude of smugness: Ah, they deserve their punishment; watch them squirm.
Philip YanceyIf your church conveys that spirit of condescension or judgment, it's likely not a place where grace is on tap.
Philip YanceyThe surgery of life hurts. It helps me, though, to know that the surgeon himself, the Wounded Surgeon, has felt every stab of pain and every sorrow.
Philip Yancey