...all this talk about punishment and rewards, about justice and merit an deserts, can be wrongheaded and misleading.  We are not in some contest to rack up points.  We will not someday wait with bated breath to see what prize or pain is meted out by a great dispenser of trophies.  We cannot so trivialize life that we make of it a coliseum where we wage moral combat like spiritual gladiators, for a presiding Authority on high to save or damn according to our performance.  Where would be the purpose in all of that?  He might take the measure of our souls at any moment and deal with us accordingly, saving Himself, not to mention us, a great deal of trouble.

How much more meaningful is a life designed for spiritual formation, rather than spiritual evaluation.  All tests evaluate, and life is no exception.  But the most meaningful and productive tests are those that assess with an eye to improvement, that measure in order to remedy, and that improve and prepare us for the next stage in an upward process of advancement. For these reasons, all talk of heaven that operates in terms of earning rather than becoming is misguided.  Such ideas misconstrue the nature of God, His grace, and the salvation He offers.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 87

Our task is to school our appetites, not suppress them, to make them work in concert with a will that disciplines the spirit as much as the flesh.  For desire has both spiritual and bodily expression, and our life is a journey to purify both.  Along the way, we discipline and honor the body, even as we aspire to perfect the soul, finding in the end that the body and spirit, fitly framed together, do indeed provide the deepest joy.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 72

The narrative that develops is of a universal condemnation.  The entire human race is lost, fallen, damned, waiting and hoping for rescue, for salvation. 

Surely this is a perverse vision and a slander upon God.  It suggests His plan was derailed before it got off the ground, that He is a brilliant repairman but a poor designer. God's creation of the human race begins in catastrophe and is in need of salvaging. 

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 64

Life is not a lottery in which only the fortunate few born at the right time and place receive a winning ticket.  God's plan is wise enough, His love generous enough, that none will be left out.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 7

I do not believe the crucial issue is finally, "Will I be sitting in the correct pew when the archangel sounds his trump?"  Rather, I believe God sent me to earth to respond freely, with faith, to the conditions of a sometimes dark and difficult world.  My choices here can either promote ("save") or inhibit ("damn") my progress and well-being.  I believe my highest response to these conditions is to learn something about myself, to learn to love blindly, to serve my fellow beings, to acquire a kind of wisdom that is apparently best communicated through human experience.  I feel as though I am invited by a spirit above me to follow what light I am given, to live productively and authentically, with honor and vigor.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 256) A Thoughtful Faith