Lewis B. Smedes Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“God does not give us salvation because we believe. Our believing is only the normal way of receiving the salvation he freely gives.”

“The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator of pain. Both are stuck on the escalator as long as parity is demanded, and the escalator never stops.”

“When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it.”

“God is not a doormat, nor should anyone else be a doormat.”

“Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wrong they do.”

“The lies we tell ourselves are the most subtle of all lies.”

“We are anxious in the face of our unchangeable past; we long to recreate segments of our private histories, but we are stuck with them.”

“Nothing enables us to forgive like knowing in our hearts that we have been forgiven.”

“At the cross, God was punishing Jesus for the sins of the world. God's justice required a penalty from sinners, and in his unspeakable love, he paid the penalty himself in the person of his crucified Son.”

“No doubt, corporate CEOs who lie to their shareholders and politicians who lie to their public know and believe intellectually that lying is immoral. Why then do they lie? They lie to others because they first lie to themselves.”