Spiritual Quote of the Day (Scott Dudley, on Why Jesus ‘Wants Us to Love Him and be Loved by Him’)

“Power cannot generate love. Power can generate obedience, fear, awe, grudging submission — but not love. The God who comes to us in Jesus doesn’t want grudging submission; he wants us to love him and be loved by him. He wants relationship, including friendship, and so he came in vulnerability, not in power.”— Scott Dudley, senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash., quoted by Peter Wehner, “Why Jesus Loved Friendship,” The New York Times, Dec. 24, 2022