Erwin Lutzer Quotes

Satan exploits pain by making it the central focus of the man’s (or woman’s) thoughts and attitudes.

The work that God does in us when we wait is usually more important than the thing for which we wait!

There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.

Thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness in our pain is the indisputable proof that we believe God is a part of our pain.

Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and bea hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave towealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to havedone nothing and succeeded at it.

If there is one single reason why good people turn evil, it is because they fail to recognize God’s ownership over their kingdom, their vocation, their resources, their abilities, and above all their lives.

Prayer, desperate prayer, seems so simple, but it’s a step rarely taken by those in family conflict.

Keep in mind that when sin is viewed superficially, it is dealt with superficially.

God in His sovereign goodness often uses the painful and at times debilitating injury of a spear thrower to make us readier for His service. ... One thing you discover about spear throwers is that though it’s not necessary for them to be good, it’s essential for them to appear good.

Every time we love, we increase our capacity to be hurt.

History has to repeat itself,” said Woody Allen, “because nobody was listening the first time around.

to speak of unity and to minimize doctrinal differences is to sacrifice truth on the altar of wishful thinking.

Satan’s most successful weapon is fear.

Salvation is free, but as the seven churches in Revelation discovered, there is a cost to living authentic lives of holiness in a godless culture.

Unity, unless it is based on agreement regarding the content of the gospel, would not be worth the price.

Why does God command sinners to do what they cannot? "But God commands something which we cannot do, in order that we may know what we ought to ask of him." 4

Someone has said that people live their lives “crucified between two thieves—the regrets of yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow.

The unbelief and failure of man can never thwart the intended plan of God.

Each temptation leaves us better or worse; neutrality is impossible.

The mind is a target for satanic attack.

Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

In a sense, to speak of heaven as our home is not a figure of speech; heaven is our home.

Our sin is never a private matter. We cannot say, “It only hurts me.

Sinful habits are usually indicative of unresolved conflicts.

James wrote, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone

As children bring their broken toys, With tears for us to mend, I brought my broken dreams to God Because He was my friend. But then instead of leaving Him In peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help With ways that were my own. At last I snatched them back and cried, “How can you be so slow?” “My child,” He said, “What could I do? You never did let go.

If we think we can fight against this deceived culture by winning the war of ideas, we are mistaken. The best ideas do not win very often in a culture obsessed with empty utopian promises.

We have to emphasize to the gay community that opposition to same-sex marriages is not about hate, but about debate. Opposition to what some of us see as a devastating move that will further weaken the family and harm children--such opposition is not hateful. Morality is not bigotry. In their book The Homosexual Agenda, authors Alan Sears and Craig Osten give this illustration, which I've summarized: Imagine that you are standing at the bottom of a cliff and you are watching as someone on the ledge above you is walking backwards, and in a few steps he will surely fall over the precipice. You shout, warning him to stop, and before you know it, a crowd gathers around you, snapping your picture and accusing you of "hate speech." You are being warned to keep your prejudices to yourself. After all, who are you to tell someone where they can and can't walk? Who are you to say that someone can't walk backwards? You are dumbfounded, but there you are, the object of everyone's wrath.

God created us with emotions so that we might be able to enjoy Him and His creation. Often we have been tempted to consider our feelings as a bother, a hindrance to living a life of faith. Although it is true that as fallen creatures our emotions often lead us astray, we must remember that God gave us emotions so that we might live a well-balanced and wholesome life. After all, God Himself is an emotional Being who expresses, anger, pleasure, and compassion.

For black Americans…the more the federal government provides so-called “free” services and hand-outs paid for by taxpayers, the more blacks are incentivized to be dependent on the government. With this system, fewer blacks are likely to get an education, work hard for their families, and become entrepreneurs, professionals, and business leaders. With this system, fewer blacks will stand with pride and dignity. Again, look at our inner cities. Do you like what you see?26

Someone has said that “a Christianity without courage is cultural atheism.

There is no such thing as a harmless addition to the gospel.

In salvation, God both declares us guilty and pays our debt. Only he can satisfy his own requirements. A savior less than God would be disqualified; God must do it himself.

Satan never fears your good intentions. Only your obedience drives him to distraction.

Guilt is not God pushing us away from Him; it is God trying to put His arms around us.

you need to realize that Satan has no rights,

You simply cannot give in to all the desires of your body. You would be dead in less than a week if you did!

Temptation is His X-ray machine, revealing the hidden conflicts that need attention.

Temptation is not a sin; it is a call to battle.

And whatever God asks of you, He will give you the strength to do.

Finally, realize that your ultimate goal is not victory, but relationship with God Himself.

Clearly God does not shield us from circumstances where we are vulnerable to sin.

He allows us the luxury of difficult choices so that we can prove our love for Him. These are our opportunities to choose God rather than the world.

Temptation is God’s magnifying glass; it shows us how much work He has left to do in our lives.

First Peter 4:1 says, “So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too.

Whatever circumstances our pasts may hold, we can rise above them into a future shaped by God’s grace.

When you doubt God’s goodness, you hug sins tightly to your bosom, afraid that God will rob you of your crutch, your pastime, your pleasure.

La verdad se hace dura si no es suavizada por el amor y el amor se ablanda si no es fortalecido por la verdad

podemos contar con esto: sea lo que sea aquello por lo cual luchamos en esta tierra, es algo necesariamente temporal. Sin duda, este mundo y todo lo que hemos acumulado en él será eventualmente consumido.

If God is able to forget your past, why can’t you? When you confess your sins and ask forgiveness of them, God throws your sins into the depths of the sea, and then puts up a sign on the shore that reads, “No swimming.

Given the popular widespread misconceptions of Christianity, it is time we returned to the basics. If we don't, thousands of people who believe they are Christians will discover in the day of judgment that they were misled.

Don’t lose sight of the radicals’ goal: to delegitimize the Founding Fathers and America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. And, for that matter, delegitimize all of Western history and condemn those who brought us the civilization we enjoy today.

What this stranger—Jesus—did for them, He will do for us. He takes no dreams from us He does not return; He raises no hopes He does not fulfill; He gives us no longings that shall not be satisfied. The answer He gave these discouraged disciples becomes our answer too.

because the Muslim Arbitration Tribunals operate as tribunals under the United Kingdom’s Arbitration Act of 1996, their rulings are binding under UK law—even when their rulings are contrary to UK law.12 What’s more, these tribunals do not provide the legal safeguards many Western court systems have.

Here is a lesson for us. No decision can be considered good if eternity proves it to be bad. To put it another way, no decision in this life can ever be good unless it is good for eternity. Only a being who knows the future and the past can prescribe what is best for us. We make judgments in time; only God can reveal the judgments of eternity.

When her grandfather died, a seven-year-old girl at the Moody Church asked her father, “Can we ask Jesus to get a message to Grampa?” He was caught somewhat by surprise but realized that there was nothing in his theology that would cause him to say no. So he responded, “Yes, that might be possible; let’s tell Jesus what we want Grampa to know.

Someday there may be a cataclysmic reckoning, but we are paying for our sins right now. When God told Israel that disobedience would have severe consequences, He ended by saying, “Your sons and your daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand” (Deuteronomy 28:32).

Contrary to popular culture, love can say no. What we cannot do is let the world tell us [followers of Christ] where we should draw the line; the world should not tell us what we can do and can’t. Our cultural elites tell us that if we were ‘loving’ we would do what they think we should. But we derive our definition of love from God’s Word, not from the vicissitudes of the cultural currents.

Saul Alinsky, the Marxist radical, told his followers how to mask their real agenda. Speaking of the current political structure, he said, “They have the guns and therefore we are for peace and for reformation through the ballot. When we have the guns then it will be through the bullet.”5 Note the deception: For now, let us be in favor of peace and reformation until we are in power. Then we’ll abandon the ballot box in favor of the bullet.

Church growth experts tell us that most people seeking a new church care little about its doctrines. They're mostly interested in the facilities of the church, its nursery, and opportunities for friendship. . . .The experts tell us that today's church members will switch churches at a moment's notice if they think that their personal and relational needs will be better met elsewhere--even if the doctrine taught is at best, suspect. Thus some will opt for better facilities and architecture even at the expense of jeopardizing their own soul.

From the seventh to the tenth centuries, Muslims conquered “fully two-thirds of the Christian world.”8 Not until the eleventh century did Europe finally respond. So it was hundreds of years of unrelenting violence and persecution by Islamic armies that sparked the Crusades. Thomas F. Madden, among the world’s foremost authorities on the Crusades, explains, “The crusades were in every way a defensive war.”9 Today, there are many—even in the Western media—who perpetrate the notion that the Crusades were an unprovoked, imperialistic attack upon peaceful Muslims.

When abandoned babies were left out on the streets and back alleys, the Christians in North Africa organized baby runs and brought these babies to nursing mothers. The pagans were overwhelmed with the caring attitude of the Christians. Just as Peter predicted, unbelievers were led to faith in Christ and “glorified God” in the day of visitation. The excellencies of Christ are best revealed through the lives of those who are compassionate because they themselves are profoundly aware of their own shortcomings. The world can out entertain us; outnumber us; out finance us, but let it never be said that they can out-love us, for “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5).

..two forces kill old trees: the rot within that is caused by many diseases; and then of course, there are the storms and forest fires. There are plenty of diseases that create rot [in the church]: the hollowing out of Bible doctrine, the strife between members, and the lack of urgency. And failure to feel the weight of the momentous task we have been given. All of this is evidenced by the casualness of many Christians; their stinginess in giving; and their lack of vision beyond themselves. Add to that our self-righteousness and lack of transparency, and no wonder we are not having the impact we should. Then there is the unwillingness of churches to discipline members who have drifted from the faith and live in open rebellion.

CRT teaches that a person’s identity cannot be separated from the group to which they belong. If you are born white, you are labeled an oppressor regardless of your character or personal attitude; individuality is lost within the group you belong to. And if you are born white and you choose to defend yourself against the charge of racism, this only proves that indeed you are racist! Wealthy black Americans are not considered persons of privilege, but a white person born into abject poverty is considered a person of privilege. There is no room for individuality, kindness, forgiveness, or meaningful reconciliation. Even more importantly, in the purely secular application of CRT, redemption is viewed as separating a group from oppressors, not as the need to be freed from sin by the gospel of God’s saving grace. Salvation, in the radical view of CRT, is to gain power over your oppressors. Until the oppressed triumph over their oppressors, the conflict must continue. Pure Marx.

Although the US State Department has not officially designated the MB [Muslin Brotherhood] as a terrorist organization, Egypt did so in 2013; and in 2015, a British government review “concluded that membership of or links to it should be considered a possible indicator of extremism.” However, in 2003 the FBI uncovered the MB’s multifaceted plan to dominate America through immigration, intimidation, education, community centers, mosques, political legitimacy, and establishing ‘interfaith dialogue’ centers in our universities and colleges. A document confiscated by the FBI outlines a twelve-point strategy to establish an Islamic government on earth that is brought about by a flexible, long-term ‘cultural invasion’ of the West. Their own plans teach us that ‘the intrusion of Islam will erupt in multiple locations using mulciple means’. But near the top of this strategy is immigration. To be more specific, the first major point in their strategy states; ‘To expand the Muslin presence by birth rate, immigration and refusal to assimilate.’ This strategy transformed Indonesia from a Buddhist and Hindu country to the largest Muslin-dominated country in the world. As Europe has discovered, open borders for refugees may be viewed as a compassionate response to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, but it has long-term risks and consequences.

To overdo the sorrow aspect of the judgment seat of Christ is to make heaven into hell. To underdo the sorrow aspect is to make faithfulness inconsequential.

While watching movie clips from Hitler’s Germany, I couldn’t help but think how different it all would have been if the Christians had remembered that eternity is more important than time! It’s a lesson we need to remember even before persecution comes our way.

Listen to a Trusted Voice The chances that we would be deceived by propaganda would diminish significantly if we spent as much time reading our Bibles as we do following the news. Scripture is a lens through which we see the world more clearly. Our ultimate authority is not a top cable news network or other major media outlet. We must look first and foremost to the one voice we can trust, Jesus Christ. God instructs us, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). One of our pastors at The Moody Church was in the hospital with his wife for the birth of their first child. Suddenly, panic swept through the room when the baby’s shoulder was stuck in the birth canal. This young father became anxious. The doctor came over to him, looked him directly in the eyes, and said, “In a moment, this room will be filled with twenty people, and there will be a lot of buzz and activity. But just know this: We have been here before; we know what we are doing; and everything is going to be okay.” The father’s demeanor changed. Worry turned into hopeful anticipation. And yes, they knew what they were doing, and everything was okay. Their daughter arrived safe and sound. Today, when you don’t know who to trust in the cacophony of voices shouting for this point of view or another, listen to the voice that you know with certainty will always speak the truth. Before you turn to your smartphone in the morning, read God’s Word. Listen to His voice. “The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6). We are in a race, with people shouting all kinds of messages to us from the stands. And every runner seems to be headed in a different direction, arguing about where the finish line should be. We are distracted by varied opinions about who is in the race, who should win, and who will lose. Confusion runs rampant, and usually it’s the person who happens to have the loudest megaphone who is heard, though they may be shouting the wrong message. We need to remind ourselves that God knows the truth, and the closer we walk with Him, the more likely we will be kept from error. He assures us that in the end, “everything is going to be okay.

Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Study 1. This chapter identifies three necessary conditions you must accept if you want to say no to temptation and mean it. They include the belief that God is good, the understanding that you must accept full responsibility for your behavior, and the belief that deliverance is possible. Where are you right now with these conditions? What, if anything, is holding you back from fully believing these truths? Read the following verses and meditate on their application to your life: Luke 1:37; John 8:32; and Hebrews 3:12. Seek prayer from others for your perseverance against sin. 2. No doubt David spent time finding excuses for his sin with Bathsheba. For example, unexpected circumstances led him to notice her just when her husband was out of town. Couldn’t God have controlled those circumstances? But eventually, David came to realize the fault was entirely his own. He couldn’t blame anyone else. Read David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 with these questions in mind: What evidence is there that David finally took full responsibility for what he had done? What evidence is there that David realized that his sin was first against God and only secondarily a sin against others? Now read Romans 1:18-32. Trace the downward spiral of sin by asking, Why is this man responsible for his behavior? 3. What do you think is the most difficult behavioral problem to overcome? Why do you think we so often fail to tap God’s resources for help? 4. Which people in the Bible successfully resisted your particular temptation? Why do you think they were successful? Are there any people in your life right now who have successfully resisted this same temptation? If so, how can you gain their support and encouragement in your struggles? 5. Take a few moments now and thank God for the areas of your life in which you are already experiencing victory. Ask Him to help you remember those victories in times when you struggle with other areas of sin.

When Martin Luther said, “My conscience is held captive by the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant,” he broke with 1,000 years of religious oppression. Until then, it was unthinkable that a man could say his conscience superseded the pope or tradition.

ACTION STEP: Present yourself to God and ask Him to give you the faith to believe that you can experience genuine change in your attitude and behavior.

1. John 3:21 says, “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light.” Take inventory of your life: What is your most persistent temptation? Be honest. Why is it so difficult for you to say no to this temptation and yes to God? In what situations do you most often encounter this temptation? What do you hope to gain from conquering this troubling part of your life? 2. Read the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). List all the reasons He might have found it easy to give in to Satan’s suggestions. Speculate as to what the consequences of such acts would have been. Contrast His response with the way the Israelites acted when they were hungry (Exodus 16; Numbers 11). What can we learn from this contrast between the Son of Man and the children of Israel? 3. Before you read the next chapter, spend some quiet time in prayer with your own particular temptations or sins in mind. Ask God for wisdom in the following areas: a. to help you properly identify the cause of your defeat, and b. to understand that you have been given the grace that is necessary to overcome this habit or persistent sin. 4. If you are reading this book alone, ask God to reveal one or two other people with whom you might be able to share your struggles, or even invite to join you in your journey through this book. 5. Take a few moments right now to thank God for the good things He is already doing in your life and for what He will do in the days ahead—in particular, how He will show His strength and grace at the point of your weakness.

ACTION STEP: We cannot expect transformation of our attitudes and behavior until the barrier of resentment/anger is removed. Go to God and stay there as long as you need to, confessing all of your resentments and anger to Him. Be specific: name people, circumstances, etc., and let it all spill out. This may take some time, but do it!

Yes, what begins as information turns out to become the law of the land, and woe to those who dare to oppose the law! “Hate,” he said, was “more lasting than dislike.” If he portrayed the Germans as victims and the Jews as the victimizers, hatred would fuel his agenda.

What a special privilege it is to be called to represent Christ at this pivotal moment of history! We are called for such a time as this. And we must pray that our light might shine more brightly than ever in our darkening world.

Clearly, the sovereign God who knows all things and plans all things has prepared us for this moment. We are more ready than we realize to represent Christ in our fragmenting culture. We might not know exactly what to do, but we say with Jehoshaphat “our eyes are upon you.

a call to prayer accompanied by deep repentance. This is a Daniel moment when we call on God, confessing our sins and the sins of our churches and nation. We cannot move forward with words alone but with our deeds, our resolve, and a renewed dependence on God.

Secularists are not content to “live and let live.” They are not satisfied with pluralism and the exchange of ideas. They seek not just to be equal but to dominate. That which was at one time condemned must not simply be tolerated, it must be celebrated. And that which was at one time celebrated must be condemned. Only then will these crusaders see their vision of utopia come to pass. Their goal is the total capitulation of the culture to their point of view. Dissenting voices are shamed into either submission or silence.

The death of an infant, however, causes all of us to struggle with the will and purpose of God. It seems strange that God would grant the gift of life and then cause it to be snuffed out before it could blossom into a stage of usefulness. But we can be sure that there is a purpose in such a life, even if it is not immediately discernible. James Vernon McGee again says that when a shepherd seeks to lead his sheep to better grass up the winding, thorny mountain paths, he often finds that the sheep will not follow him. They fear the unknown ridges and the sharp rocks. The shepherd will then reach into the flock and take a little lamb on one arm and another on his other arm. Then he starts up the precipitous pathway. Soon the two mother sheep begin to follow, and afterward the entire flock. Thus they ascend the tortuous path to greener pastures. So it is with the Good Shepherd. Sometimes He reaches into the flock and takes a lamb to Himself. He uses the experience to lead His people, to lift them to new heights of commitment as they follow the little lamb all the way home.

church that has assimilated the world cannot be a vibrant witness to that world. To adopt prevailing cultural values hardly gives the world a reason to believe that we are a viable alternative to lives of brokenness, greed, and addiction. To quote Sider once more, “We divorce, though doing so is contrary to his commands. We are the richest people in human history and know that tens of millions of brothers and sisters in Christ live in grinding poverty, and we give only a pittance, and almost all of that goes to our local congregation. Only a tiny fraction of what we do give ever reaches poor Christians in other places. Christ died to create one new multicultural body of believers, yet we display more racism than liberal Christians who doubt his deity.”4

The British preacher F.B. Meyer (1847–1929) was traveling on a train when an anxious and angry woman recognized him and shared her burden with him. For years she had cared for a crippled daughter who brought great joy to her life. She made tea for her each morning, then left for work, knowing that in the evening the daughter would be there when she arrived home. But the daughter died, and the grieving mother was alone and miserable. Home was not “home” anymore. This was the advice Dr. Meyer gave her: “When you get home and put the key in the door, say aloud, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!’ and be ready to greet Him directly when you open the door. And as you light the fire, tell Him what happened during the day; if anybody has been kind, tell Him; if anybody has been unkind, tell Him, just as you would have told your daughter. At night stretch your hand out in the darkness and say, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!’” Some months later, Meyer was back in the neighborhood and met the woman again, but he did not recognize her. Her face radiated joy instead of announcing misery. “I did as you told me,” she said, “and it has made all the difference in my life, and now I feel I know Him.”2 Contact with the beautiful Shepherd brings beauty into our scarred lives.

God has many children, but no grandchildren.

Las mejores inversiones son aquellas que son seguras y permanentes; si somos sabios, invertiremos nuestro tiempo preparándonos para aquello que es infinito. ¿Qué es la vida, sino una preparación para la eternidad?

God wants us to develop a passion for Him that is greater than our passion to sin!

There is a difference between tears of hope and tears of hopelessness.” —Erwin Lutzer

search for answers, blaming the economy, drugs, and guns.

Even in America this is a problem. In the summer of 2011, Middle East Quarterly published the results of an intensive four-year study on “sharia-adherence and the promotion of violent, jihadist literature in U.S. mosques.”14 The results? A stunning 81 percent carried jihad hate literature—with 51 percent carrying texts “rated as severely advocating violence,” and 30 percent carrying texts “rated as moderately advocating violence.”15 Especially disturbing was the discovery that “mosques with this literature were not merely repositories but incubators for the messaging of this material.”16 And fully 58 percent of the mosques “invited guest imams known to promote violent jihad.”17

Grace, freely given, does not provide us license to sin. Rather, it should motivate us to give ourselves without reservation to the One who loves us so freely, so deeply. Whenever you sin, God wants you to come back into fellowship immediately. Learn your lessons, but within His forgiveness, not outside of it.

Although there are many differences between America and post–World War I Germany, history has some economic lessons to teach us. Remember that after World War I, Germany was saddled with huge debts the nation chose to pay through the printing of money, and more money. Not everyone was hurt as a result of this strategy; businesses with huge debts paid them off with essentially worthless pieces of paper. The result, of course, was rapid inflation until the mark became worthless, and many people’s savings were wiped out. The resulting economic collapse paved the way for a strong leader who promised to end the madness, and thus Hitler rose to power.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that democracy always collapses over bad fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. We can be glad when the government helps the truly needy. But when elections are won or lost depending on which candidate promises the greatest “largesse,” then we know that democracy is failing us.

Only eternal values can give meaning to temporal ones. Time must be the servant of eternity.

As the late Charles Colson put it, “Our place is on our knees, in the streets helping people in need, winning our neighbors and colleagues to a Christian worldview by speaking the truth in love. We will win the cultural war one house, one block at a time, as God’s people are trained and equipped by the church and then go out and live their faith in the world.” Never before in American history has it been so important to become an active part of a network of other believers for worship, encouragement, instruction, and prayer. Bible studies, prayer groups, and discipleship training of believers to be change-agents in their world. The day of the casual Christian is over. No longer is it possible to drift along, hoping that no tough choices will have to be made. At this point in American history, any moral and spiritual progress will have to be won at great cost. The darker the night, the more important every candle becomes.

No nation has turned away from so much light in order to choose darkness. No nation has squandered as many opportunities as we have. We can only call on God for mercy, and if it pleases Him He will come to our aid. We certainly cannot expect a revival simply because we do not want to face the harassment that well might come to us all. But if we humble ourselves, weeping for this nation, God may yet intervene and restore decency to this crazed world. Most of all, we should pray that millions would be converted and belong to God forever. People change their minds only when God changes their hearts.

Even as I write these words, our ticking national debt clock tells us that we are increasing our debt by 3 billion dollars a day. We hear repeatedly that the 16 trillion dollars we owe nationally is “unsustainable”; that is to say, we cannot continue along this path of spending without drastic and long-term consequences. Our politicians have not yet learned that we cannot borrow our way into prosperity and survive.

In his book Where Was God? Erwin Lutzer writes, Often the same people who ask where God was following a disaster thanklessly refuse to worship and honor Him for years of peace and calmness. They disregard God in good times, yet think He is obligated to provide help when bad times come. They believe the God they dishonor when they are well should heal them when they are sick; the God they ignore when they are wealthy should rescue them from impending poverty; and the God they refuse to worship when the earth is still should rescue them when it begins to shake. We must admit that God owes us nothing. Before we charge God with not caring, we must thank Him for those times when His care is very evident. We are ever surrounded by undeserved blessings. Even in His silence, He blesses us.

Me han contado que en el estado de Indiana hay un cementerio, en el cual existe una antigua tumba con el siguiente epitafio: Detente un momento, extraño que pasas por aquí. Tal como tú estás ahora, así también yo estuve. Tal como yo estoy ahora, así también estarás. Prepárate entonces para la muerte y sígueme. Un desconocido que pasaba por allí, leyó aquellas palabras y escribió debajo esta respuesta: Con

Our first word to the homosexual community is that we ourselves need to repent.

First, there is no place that we must go that He has not been; He has gone before us, in death and resurrection. He does not expect us to enter a dark room that He Himself has not first entered. Our Lord goes ahead of us and promises us that we shall “see him as he is.

He is as much with us as He was with Mary. We, like her, have to understand that Christ’s presence is not dependent on the location of His physical body. She had to be weaned from the notion that physical contact superseded the spiritual connection.

He is among us even when we cannot see Him and when our grief distorts reality. There are many tears in our hearts that never reach our eyes. There are times of darkness and betrayal that make us wonder how we can live another day. As for God, He seems far away, uninterested, and absent.