Renew: The Embrace of the Father
“Salvation is membership in the family of God…. The creation of a family with children is the reason for all of God’s activity. This is how he intends to show his glory…. Our sonship to God is the apex of creation and the goal of redemption…. The story of Paradise lost becoming Paradise regained is the story of God’s grace bringing us from alienation from him to membership in his family…. Our self-image, if it is to be biblical, will begin just here. God is my Father (the Christian’s self-image always begins with the knowledge of God and who he is!); I am one of his children (I know my real identity); his people are my brothers and sisters (I recognize the family to which I belong and have discovered my deepest ‘roots’).”
Sinclair Ferguson
“Idols are non-gods and as such are much more congenial to us than God, for we not only have the pleasure of making them, using our wonderful imaginations and skills in creative ways, but also of controlling them. They are gods with all the God taken out so that we can continue to be our own gods.”
Eugene Peterson
“Those who make idols become like them; so do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the LORD!”
Psalm 115:8