Joni Eareckson Tada Quotes - Page 5

God wants us to be a good example to others who are observing us.

I wished God were like He used to be, a few notches lower. I wanted Him to be lofty enough to help me but not so uncontrollable. I longed for His warm presence, times when He seemed more… safe.

We dare not think that God is absent or daydreaming. The do nothing God...He's not tucked away in some far corner of the universe, uncaring, unfeeling, unthinking, uninvolved. Count on it, God intrudes in glorious and myriad ways.

Some people tend to believe that I'm a strong believer, a strong Christian, but that's not true. I'm not a strong believer. I'm very weak.

Programs, systems and methods sit well in the ivory towers of monasteries or in the wooden arms of icons. Head knowledge comes from the pages of a theology text. But the invitation to know God - truly know Him - is always an invitation to suffer. Not to suffer alone, but to suffer with Him.

In the Christian faith, God really puts suffering front and center. He doesn't get squeamish about it.

Thankfully, God brought wise Christian friends alongside to help me discover life-transforming precepts in his Word.

Once the reader firmly grasps the truth of human exceptionalism under our Creator God, then the answers to confusing cultural issues begin to be clear.

Christianity isn't all that complicated ... it's Jesus.

If churches around the world would grasp the revolutionary truth that Christ's transforming power always comes through sacrifice and weakness, it would dramatically alter the landscape of the global church.

Now, most people who suffer realize that the Bible contains answers for their plight; they just don't know where to look.

Americans are nervous; Americans are restless; and what troubles me the most is that Americans are uncharacteristically pessimistic.

Suffering always prompts heart-wrenching questions: if God is good, why would He allow this pain in my life? Is God truly sovereign over accidents and birth anomalies, or does the devil set the world's agenda? How do I counsel people who are despairing of their condition?

Oh, my goodness, when you're a mother and you just give birth to a child with spina bifida and -- or Down's Syndrome or cerebral palsy, there's a bit of a shock you're going to have to go through, a bit of an adjustment curve.

There is this fine line between presenting to You all of my weakness and thinking that it can't be done. In Your strength, I find my own.

I was in every club and extra-curricular activity at high school, and I was in the National Honor Society.

Many good Christians are confused about complex social issues of our day, such as doctor-assisted death or medical research which uses stem cells from human embryos. They wonder, 'Why shouldn't science use discarded fetuses for research?' And if someone finds his medical condition intolerable and hopeless, 'why shouldn't he have the legal right to end his life?' Although the Bible does not address these issues in particular, it does provide guiding insights.

How can we bless at one moment and curse at another?

It always helps to know that other parents with special-needs children are surviving, and surviving well.

The problem of suffering is not about something but about someone.

The Bible is replete with commands to persevere, especially in the face of injustice.

The truths of the Bible are never just abstract concepts; they're always related to real people.