May 22nd, 2007

"Whether considering business, politics, family, or education, the big fish eats the little ones. Laws and regulations do limit excessive abuse; however, they only mark the space in which the war is waged. They don't eliminate the war."
- Miroslav Volf "Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace" (p 14)

"Shouldn't the giver deprive us of gifts - at least, future gifts - if we can't even recognize them as gifts and instead claim them as our own well-earned possessions? A human giver might see it that way. But God acts differently. God continues to give, refusing to make giving dependant on our receiving things rightly. Indeed, since our very existence is a result of God's grace, if God were to stop giving, we would stop existing."
- Miroslav Volf "Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace" (p 36)

"The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it."
- Martin Luther "Luther's Works" (31:57)