Martha Beck Quotes

The uninitiated have real questions and valid concerns over how the things of God appear to them.

I think everybody goes through things in their life where they're like, 'This does not make any sense,' or 'I don't understand why this is happening,' but that's part of the journey of faith.

Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge.

The standpoint of the man who relies on religious experience for capturing Reality must always remain individual and incommunicable.

In theater or movies you see either 'I'm religious' or 'I'm an atheist.' I've never seen too much discussion of 'I believe there's a higher power but I'm hesitant to reach out to him because I don't know if I'm worthy of his attention.'

I write about everything, but I just - how faith filters through all that and colors your opinion of other people and life and all that.

The word 'religion' is only a label. What lies behind that, the most important thing of all, is the word 'faith'. You either have faith, or you don't have faith, or you have degrees of faith - and if you have degrees of faith, then you become agnostic. You're kind of in-between, or you're on the fence.

We will see the presence of angels and we will see an intensification of miracles around the world.

'Presence of God' is really that understanding that sometimes when you step out of your own shoes and just open your ears and listen to what's going on around you, you get answers to the questions you were asking.

The sad pattern of lack of trust in God has persisted since the Creation.

When the Soul that is sprung from God's Word and Will is entered into its own desire to will of itself, it will run in mere uncertainty till it return to its Original again.

I wish I could help everyone to understand this one simple fact: we believe in God because of things we know with our heart and mind, not because of things we do not know. Our spiritual experiences are sometimes too sacred to explain in worldly terms, but that doesn't mean they are not real.

God endorses the confusion and even outrage that we feel when mysterious things happen.

I've had many uncanny experiences. I think it's hard to be alive and not have them. But I don't know if I can decide what that means or what they are.

I knew all of the childhood prayers I uttered on my knees at the side of my bed. Many years of Sunday-school attendance had etched certain Psalms and rote prayers into the fibers of my brain. However, somewhere deep inside of me, I had the secret belief that I did not know how to pray, and that frightened me.

I don't want to be thought of as somebody who's spiritually ambiguous, but the reality is there's unknown things happening. I'm not ready to point at what they are or what the reason is, but I know they exist.

My thoughts about God are vague and abstract. My connection with the energy of the universe is shaky.

The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing.

If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God.

But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

I grew up in the church and had always questioned what they were telling me.

Faith accepts no commands. It accepts only what comes to it by way of reasoned conviction.

In this quest to seek and find God in all things there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions—that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt.

Wisdom and good works have been brought in perfect succession from age to age by the messengers of God. They come on one age through the prophet called Buddha in the region of India, in another through Zoroaster in the land of Persia, and in yet another through Jesus in the land of the West.

Do I know there is a God? Some days I don't.