New Lutheran Quote of the Day

No created thing can take His place and pull it off.  As created by Him, we can only derive our life and success from Him.  There is really no other alternative.  We are either in the fulfillment of His plan or we are that plan ruined.  While there is no escaping these facts, God is not a tyrant who makes slaves as do the other gods.  He allows the option of rejection.  If we persistently set ourselves to do without God, God finally says, "you shall have it as you want it then," which means hell.  The negative possibility is bound up in the fact that God is no idol.  He wants no slaves.  He is not that sort of person.  He wants sons and daughters, a family held together by the greatest of His gifts - love.  That is the sort of God He is.  --Dr. Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons, pp. 342.