God's Plan

"[T]he essential teachings of Christianity is that God has a plan for man and the world. We are bound to believe that history is not a haphazard conglomeration of chance events which are going nowhere. We are bound to believe that there is some divine far off event to which the whole creation moves and that when that consummation comes Jesus Christ will be Judge and Lord of all. The Second Coming is not a matter for speculation and for illegitimate curiosity; it is a summons to make ourselves ready for that day when it comes" (William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 14).

Christian Witness

"The one basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died, and whose life we study and whose story we read. Jesus is not a figure in a book. He is a living presence, and the Christian is the man whose whole life is a witness to the fact that he knows and has met the Risen Lord" (William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 10-11).