Conservative evangelicals don't want government support for our faith, because we believe God created all consciences free and a state-coerced act of worship isn't acceptable to God. Moreover, we believe the gospel isn't in need of state endorsement or assistance. Wall Street may need government bailouts but the Damascus Road never does.
Interpretation
True faith should come freely, without government influence or coercion.
This quote emphasizes the belief that authentic religious faith should arise from individual conscience and conviction rather than being imposed or supported by governmental authority. It suggests that genuine worship and belief in the gospel do not require external validation or assistance, contrasting the needs of financial institutions with the innate and autonomous nature of spiritual faith.
In practice
During a sermon, to discuss the importance of personal faith without government influence.
For too long, we’ve called unbelievers to “invite Jesus into your life.” Jesus doesn’t want to be in your life. Your life is a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life. And his life isn’t boring or purposeless or static. It’s wild and exhilarating and unpredictable.
When we adopt—and when we encourage a culture of adoption in our churches and communities—we’re picturing something that’s true about our God. We, like Jesus, see what our Father is doing and do likewise (John 5:19). And what our Father is doing, it turns out, is fighting for orphans, making them sons and daughters.
Ultimately, the transgender question is about more than just sex. It's about what it means to be human.
As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.
Am I the woman I think I am, the woman I want to be? More importantly, am I the woman the Savior needs me to be?
If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.
If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
Four years ago in speaking of a Jewish nation one ran the risk of being regarded ridiculous. Today he makes himself ridiculous who denies the existence of a Jewish nation.
You have forgotten the One who doesn't care about ownership, who doesn't try to turn a profit from every human exchange.
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