If God, Then What?

The Hebrews really believed the world would be set free, just like people would be – and they expressed that redemption in incredibly physical terms.

It seemed strange that this man, who wrote nothing down, rejected violence and had just 120 disciples when he died – disciples who, for the first several centuries, were widely regarded as blasphemous, politically subversive oddballs – should have had such a global impact.

the universe’s Creator was best understood through a human being who loved people and made friends, who ate meals and went to parties, who told jokes and cried when sad things happened, who built community, told stories, hated arrogance, welcomed losers and criminals and children, got betrayed, confronted hypocrites, healed sick people, forgave sin

how do we know what God would do? You can’t prove someone can’t do something, just because you can’t think of a reason why they haven’t done it.

Tragedy and comedy, problem and solution, hope and despair, they’re all jumbled up together in the human condition.

‘the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?’

people now spread vicious gossip to millions over the internet rather than to dozens in the village square.)

the fact that a lot of oddballs believe something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

I love this subversive God and his upside-down empire of outcasts, prostitutes, slaves and lepers, where even the twelve disciples were made up of sceptics and terrorists and tax cheats and northern boaties who smelled of fish.