Quotations for November, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Feast of All Saints
The true Christian religion is not a set of doctrines about Christ, neither is it a rule of life based upon the teaching and example of Christ. It is not even an earnest and sincere endeavor to live according to the mind and spirit of Christ. It is life, and that life is the life of Christ. It is a continuation of the life of the risen Lord in His Body which is the Church, and in the sanctified believer. “Christ liveth in me” is the essence of the Christian religion as set forth in the New Testament. It is not a system but a Presence: the Spirit of Christ indwelling the spirit of man.
... Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932), The Way to Pentecost, Hodder and Stoughton, 1932, p. 54
(see the book; see also Gal. 2:20; John 14:19-20; 17:20-21; 2 Cor. 4:10-11; 13:5; Eph. 3:16-17; Col. 1:27; 1 Thess. 5:10; Rev. 3:20; more at Bible, Body of Christ, Christ, Church, Life, Man, Religion, Spirit)
Monday, November 2, 2015
Feast of All Souls
Come to church! You can do that of your own free will. You can leave your home on a Sunday morning and come to hear the sermon. If you will not, you are of your own free will excluding yourself from the place where faith is a possibility.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 65 
(see the book; see also Acts 5:19-21; John 1:40-41; Acts 16:14-15; Rom. 16:3-5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phlmn. 1:1-2; more at Church, Faith, Free will, Home, Sermon)
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
I must take heed what I say: but the apostle saith, “God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Such we are in the sight of God the Father, as is the very Son of God himself. Let it be counted folly, or frenzy, or fury, whatsoever, it is our comfort, and our wisdom; we care for no knowledge in the world but this, that man hath sinned, and God hath suffered; that God hath made himself the son of man, and that men are made the righteousness of God.
... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600), The Work of Mr. Richard Hooker, v.III, London: W. Clarke, 1821, p. 341
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 2:14; Matt. 11:25; 1 Cor. 1:18-25; 2:6-8; 3:18-20; 2 Cor. 5:21; more at Father, Folly, God, Knowledge, Man, Righteousness, Sight, Son, Wisdom)
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Jesus has also been accused of being ineffective, in a political sense, and of having done little to right social injustices. But it is clear from the Sermon on the Mount that he was deeply concerned that his disciples should be both the “salt” and the “light” of secular society; he endorsed the authority of those Old Testament prophets who vehemently rebuked social injustice; and he consistently identified himself with the poor and weak, with social outcasts and those who were regarded as morally disreputable... It is true that he did not lead a rebellion against Rome, seek to free slaves, or introduce a social revolution. He had come for a particular purpose, which was far more important than any of these things—and from that purpose nothing could or did deflect him. [Continued tomorrow]
... J. N. D. Anderson (1908-1994), Christianity: the Witness of History, Tyndale Press, 1969, p. 50-51
(see the book; see also Matt. 5:13-16; Lev. 2:13; Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5; more at Bible, Disciple, Jesus, Prophet, Purpose, Social)
Thursday, November 5, 2015
[Continued from yesterday] [Christ] was primarily concerned to change men as men rather than the political regime under which they lived; to transform their attitude rather than their circumstances; to treat the sickness of their hearts rather than the problems of their environment. But he laid down in a single pregnant sentence man’s duty both to God and to the State when he said: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s;” and it is certainly not his fault that the Christian church has been so slow, down the centuries, in applying to one after another of the world’s social evils the principle he emphasized so strongly, that we must love our neighbours as ourselves.
... J. N. D. Anderson (1908-1994), Christianity: the Witness of History, Tyndale Press, 1969, p. 51
(see the book; see also Luke 20:20-26; Matt. 22:16-22; Mark 12:13-17; more at Attitudes, Church, Duty, Evil, God, Love, Sickness, Social)
Friday, November 6, 2015
Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Knowledge of God can be fully given to man only in a Person, never in a doctrine... Faith is not the holding of correct doctrines, but personal fellowship with the living God.
... William Temple (1881-1944), Nature, Man and God, London: Macmillan, 1934, 1949, p. 321-322
(see the book; see also Gen. 5:24; 6:9; Ex. 29:45; 33:14-17; Zech. 2:10; Mark 9:37; John 14:23; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 John 1:5-7; Rev. 3:20; more at Faith, Fellowship, God, Knowing God, Man)
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739
One chief cause of the amount of unbelief in the world is, that those who have seen something of the glory of Christ, set themselves to theorize concerning him rather than to obey him. In teaching men, they have not taught them Christ, but taught them about Christ. More eager after credible theory than after doing the truth, they have speculated in a condition of heart in which it was impossible they should understand; they have presumed to explain a Christ whom years and years of obedience could alone have made them able to comprehend.
... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Justice”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, pp. 135-136
(see the book; see also John 14:21; Ps. 62:12; 111:10; 119:100; 143:10; Matt. 7:24; 13:13-15; Mark 9:24; John 13:17; 14:15; Rom. 14:23; 1 Cor. 1:23-24; Eph. 4:17-18; Col. 1:9; Heb. 13:16; Jas. 1:22-25; 2 John 1:9; more at Action, Christ, Glory, Obedience, Teach, Truth, Unbelief)
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
H. J. Blackham, formerly director of the British Humanist Association, posed the great problem to his own position as “the pointlessness of it all.” How can one escape from the “unyielding despair” of Bertrand Russell, the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the absurdity of Jean-Paul Sartre if at the foundations of our existence there is nothing but blind chance. There is, indeed, a certain bleakness to humanism, for God has been removed and nothing comparable has yet been found to take his place.It is easy for believers to forget this, sustained as they are by such powerful symbols of hope: the love of the Father, the plan of salvation, the coming of the kingdom, and everlasting life. But they must not allow themselves to forget it for the sake of those who lack these supports and are searching for these foundations. Christians who have been converted early in their lives and never go through the experience of existential darkness before entering into the light of God’s coming kingdom have much to learn about these feelings of despair and doubt.
... Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010), Reason Enough, Exeter: Paternoster, 1980, p. 24-25
(see the book; see also Isa. 9:1-2; Ps. 107:10-14; Isa. 42:6-7; 60:1-3; Matt. 4:15-16; Luke 2:30-32; 1 Pet. 3:15-16; more at Conversion, Darkness, Despair, Doubt, Forget, God, Hope, Kingdom, Light, Love, Philosophy, Salvation)
Monday, November 9, 2015
Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
The grandest fact under heaven is this—that Christ by his precious blood does actually put away sin, and that God, for Christ’s sake, dealing with men on terms of divine mercy, forgives the guilty and justifies them, not according to anything that he sees in them or foresees will be in them, but according to the riches of his mercy which lie in his own heart.
... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), All of Grace, New York: R. Carter, 1886, p. 22
(see the book; see also Eph. 1:7-8; Ps. 25:7; 103:10; Matt. 1:21; 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Gal. 1:3-5; 1 Tim. 1:15; more at Blood, Christ, Forgiveness, Guilt, Heaven, Mercy, Sin)
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461
For a compassionate man nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.This compassion is authority because it does not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries between languages and countries, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the large world where they can see every human face is the face of a neighbor. Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility of man to forgive his brother, because forgiveness is only real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friends and the sins of his enemy in his own heart.
... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society [1979], New York: Doubleday, 2013, p. 41
(see the book; see also Pr. 19:17; Matt. 9:36; Rom. 12:15; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 4:15; 5:2; 13:3; 1 Pet. 3:8; 1 John 3:17; more at Compassion, Country, Enemy, Fear, Forgiveness, Heart, Neighbor, Poverty, Weakness)
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397
There has not only been an objective, public act of divine self-disclosure in the crucifixion of God’s own Son, but there must also be a private work of God, by his Spirit, in the mind and heart of the individual. That is what distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, the “mature” from the people of this age and the rulers of this age. If we “see” the truth of the gospel, therefore, it has nothing to do with our brilliance or insight; it has to do with the Spirit of God. If we should express unqualified gratitude to God for the gift of his Son, we should express no less gratitude to God for the gift of the Spirit who enables us to grasp the gospel of his Son...Unless the Spirit enlightens us, God’s thoughts will remain deeply alien to us.
... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), The Cross and Christian Ministry: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians, Baker Book, 2004, p. 52,61
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 2:8-10,14; Matt. 11:25-27; 13:11; 16:17; Luke 10:21; Eph. 3:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:12; more at Crucifixion, Gifts, God, Gospel, Gratitude, Heart, Holy Spirit, Insight, Revelation, Son)
Thursday, November 12, 2015
It is a complete misunderstanding of the Gospel if we find the substance of it in the moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Lofty as that teaching is, the speaker’s claims are still more commanding... Christ’s Person, not his teaching, is the message of the Gospel. If we know anything for certain about Jesus of Nazareth, it is that he steadily claimed to be the Son of God, the redeemer of mankind, and the ruler of the world to come, and by that claim the Gospel stands or falls.
... Henry M. Gwatkin (1844-1916), Early Church History to A.D. 312, v. I, London: Macmillan, 1912, p. 54
(see the book; see also Matt. 5:21-22,27-28,31-39,43-44; 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 6:26-27; more at Gospel, Jesus, Knowledge, Man, Morality, Redemption, Son, World)
Friday, November 13, 2015
Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Many years ago, when I was an object of much contempt and derision in this University, I strolled forth one day buffeted and afflicted with my little Testament in my hand. I prayed earnestly to my God, that He would comfort me with some cordial from his word, and that on opening the book I might find some text which should sustain me... The first text which caught my eye was this, “They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his Cross.” You know Simon is the same name as Simeon. What a word of instruction was here—what a blessed hint for my encouragement! To have the Cross laid upon me, that I might bear it after Jesus—what a privilege! It was enough. Now I could leap and sing for joy as one whom Jesus was honouring with a participation in His sufferings.
... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, Pittsburgh: R. Carter, 1847, p. 395
(see the book; see also Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 14:27; 23:26; 2 Cor. 1:5; 4:10; Phil. 3:10-11; Col. 1:24; more at Affliction, Bible, Blessing, Comfort, Cross, Jesus, Prayer)
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
In an age when comfort and convenience are unspoken articles of our modern bill of rights, the Christian faith is not a license to entitlement, a prescription for an easy-going spirituality, or a how-to manual for self-improvement. The cross of Jesus runs crosswise to all our human ways of thinking. A rediscovery of the hard and the unpopular themes of the gospel will therefore be such a rediscovery of the whole gospel that the result may lead to reformation and revival.
... Os Guinness (b. 1941), Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, Baker Books, 2003, p. 100
(see the book; see also Mark 10:20-21; Matt. 7:13-14; 18:2-3; 19:20-21; Luke 13:23-24; 18:21-22; more at Comfort, Cross, Gospel, Jesus, Reformation, Way)
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
I thirst, Thou wounded Lamb of God, To wash me in Thy cleansing blood, To dwell within Thy wounds; then pain Is sweet, and life or death is gain.
Take my poor heart, and let it be For ever closed to all but Thee! Seal Thou my breast, and let me wear That pledge of love for ever there.
How blest are they who still abide Close shelter’d in Thy bleeding side; Who life and strength from thence derive, And by Thee move, and in Thee live!
What are our works but sin and death, Till Thou Thy quick’ning Spirit breathe? Thou giv’st the power Thy grace to move— O wondrous grace! O boundless love!
Hence our hearts melt, our eyes o’erflow, Our words are lost: nor will we know, Nor will we think of aught, beside “My Lord, my Love is crucified.”
... Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) & John Wesley (1703-1791), The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, v. I, Charles Wesley, London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868, p. 265-266
(see the book; see also Heb. 9:14; Ps. 51:2,7,10; John 15:4; Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 1:22-23; 2:2; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:21; Heb. 10:22; more at Blood, Death, Grace, Lamb, Life, Love, Power, Spirit, Strength)
Monday, November 16, 2015
Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Can you be Holy without accomplishing the end for which you are created? Can you be Divine unless you be Holy? Can you accomplish the end for which you were created, unless you be Righteous? Can you then be Righteous, unless you be just in rendering to Things their due esteem? All things were made to be yours, and you were made to prize them according to their value: which is your office and duty, the end for which you were created, and the means whereby you enjoy. The end for which you were created, is that by prizing all that God hath done, you may enjoy yourself and Him in Blessedness.
... Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674), Centuries of Meditations, edited and published by Bertram Dobell, in London, 1908, p. 8-9
(see the book; see also 1 Pet. 1:8-9; Matt. 5:48; Rom. 1:16-17; 11:16; 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 2:21-22; Tit. 3:4-7; more at Achievement, Blessing, Duty, God, Holiness, Justice, Righteousness)
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
I have read of many wicked Popes; but the worst Pope I ever met with, is Pope Self.
... John Newton (1725-1807), Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, Richard Cecil, ed., London: Hatchard, 1808, p. 265
(see the book; see also Gal. 6:3; Matt. 19:21-22; Luke 6:32-34; 18:10-14; Rom. 12:3,16; 14:15; 15:1-3; 1 Cor. 3:18; 8:2; 10:24; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 6:2; Phil. 2:4,21; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; 1 John 3:17; more at Evil, Self, Selfish)
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement... It is easy to laugh at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.
... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Letter to the Hebrews, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955, p. 137-38
(see the book; see also Heb.10:25; Job 4:4; Rom. 12:7-8; 14:19; 15:2; 1 Cor. 14:3; Eph. 4:29; 1 Thess. 4:18; 5:11; more at Appreciation, Blessing, Cheer, Discouragement, Duty, Encouragement, Laughter, Praise)
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
If you love Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment, then you will not only speak of compassion, but act with it. Compassion means seeing your friend and your enemy in equal need, and helping both equally. It demands that you seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner, and comfort him and offer him your help. Herein lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devil much distress.
... Mechthild of Magdeburg (ca. 1212-ca. 1282), Meditations, p. 143
(see the book; see also Luke 6:31; Ps. 35:12-13; Matt. 5:43-45; 10:42; Luke 6:27-28; 10:33; Rom. 12:12; 1 Cor. 12:26; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 13:3; 1 John 3:17; 4:20; more at Action, Comfort, Compassion, Enemy, Fear, Friend, Jesus, Judgment, Need, Prisoner)
Friday, November 20, 2015
Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.
... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Perfection [1726], London: W. Baynes, 1807, p. 273
(see the book; see also Mark 9:50; Isa. 1:15-17; 29:13; Matt. 5:13; 15:17-20; 23:25-26; Luke 6:45-46; 14:34-35; Rom. 8:26-27; Tit. 1:15; more at Heart, Life, Prayer)
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Do not be afraid of silence in your prayer time. It may be that you are meant to listen, not to speak. So wait before the Lord. Wait in stillness. Wait as David waited when he “sat before the Lord.” And in that stillness, assurance will come to you. You will know that you are heard; you will know that your Lord ponders the voice of your humble desires; you will hear quiet words spoken to you yourself, perhaps to your grateful surprise and refreshment.
... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Thou Givest...They Gather: Truths Gleaned from the Word of God, CLC Publications, 2010, p. 27
(see the book; see also Lam. 3:25-26; 2 Sam. 7:18; Ps. 27:14; 37:7; 40:1; 86:6; Matt. 6:7-8; Mark 9:5-7; Heb. 10:36-37; more at Assurance, God, Listening, Prayer, Silence)
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
I am beginning to feel that we need a preliminary act of submission not only toward possible future afflictions but also toward possible future blessings. I know it sounds fantastic; but think it over. It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at that moment, we expected some other good.
... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1964, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 26
(see the book; see also Matt. 16:22-23; Ps. 84:11; Matt. 7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13; Acts 1:6-7; Rom. 8:28; more at Action, Affliction, Blessing, Future, God, Goodness, Submission)
Monday, November 23, 2015
Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.
... Karl Barth (1886-1968)
(see also Acts 4:31; Judg. 16:28; 1 Sam. 8:6; Dan. 6:10; Jon. 2:1; Matt. 26:42; Luke 5:16; Jas. 5:14; more at Beginning, Prayer, World)
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
The Universal Presence is a fact. God is here. The whole universe is alive with His life. And He is no strange or foreign God, but the familiar Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose love has for these thousands of years enfolded the sinful race of men. And always He is trying to get our attention, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us. We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 67
(see the book; see also Ps. 139:7-10; 34:18; 63:8; 73:23; 90:16; Isa. 6:3; Jer. 23:23-24; Hab. 2:14; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:18; Jas. 4:8; more at Christ, Father, God, Jesus, Knowledge, Life, Omnipresence, Universe)
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
There is a healthy ferment of mind in which one struggles through chaos and darkness, by means of a few clues and threads of light—and—of one great bright pathway, which I find more and more to be the only escape from infinite confusion and aberration, the only explanation of a thousand human mysteries—I mean the Incarnation of our Lord—the fact that there really is—a God-Man!
... Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), Daily Thoughts: Selected from the Writings of Charles Kingsley by His Wife, London: Macmillan and Company, 1888, p. 291
(see the book; see also John 1:14; Deut. 4:35; Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16; John 20:27; Eph. 5:8-10; 1 Pet. 2:9; more at Darkness, Incarnation, Light, Struggle)
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Commemoration of Isaac Watts, Hymnwriter, 1748
Thanksgiving (U.S.)
What shall I render to my God, For all his kindness shown? My feet shall visit thine abode, My songs address thy throne.
Among the saints who fill thine house, My off’ring shall be paid; There shall my zeal perform the vows, My soul in anguish made.
How much is mercy thy delight, Thou ever blessed God! How dear thy servants in thy sight! How precious is their blood!
Now I am thine, for ever thine, Nor shall my purpose move; Thy hand hath loos’d my bonds of pain,And bound me with thy love.
... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Psalms of David Imitated [1719], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, p. 230
(see the book; see also Ps. 116:12-19; Joel 2:32; Jon. 2:9; Luke 12:4; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13; 12:1; Heb. 13:15; more at Blessing, Bondage, God, Kindness, Love, Mercy, Pain, Saint, Zeal)
Friday, November 27, 2015
God knows our heart better than we ever can. He is the only one who can separate the true from the false; he alone can purify the motives of the heart. But he does not come uninvited. If chambers of our heart have never experienced the healing touch, perhaps it is because we have not welcomed the divine scrutiny.
... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Streams of Living Water, Harper San Francisco, 1998, p. 87
(see the book; see also 1 Sam. 16:7; Ps. 26:2; 139:23; Isa. 55:8-9; Luke 16:15; Rev. 3:20; more at Experience, God, Heart, Knowledge, Purity, Truth)
Saturday, November 28, 2015
In the New Testament, ministry was a function, not a status. When we talk of the Christian ministry today, we instinctively think of a man ordained to the ‘ministry’ of Word and Sacrament. The New Testament knows nothing of any such distinction. All Christians are called to serve Christ, all are called to ministry, diakonia. The word is applied to Jesus, to Paul, as well as to administrative helpers at Ephesus and Philippi. It is used both of apostles praying and teaching, and of assistants serving tables. Jesus made it plain that he was fulfilling the role of the Servant of the Lord, and that his followers were called to carry out that same pattern of service... The Christian ministry is coextensive with the Christian Church.
... Michael Green (1930-2019), “Mission and Ministry”, E. M. B. Green, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, P. 68-69
(see the book; see also Matt. 4:11; 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 22:26-27; John 12:26; 1 Pet. 4:10-11; more at Call, Christ, Church, Minister, Ordination, Service)
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Advent I
What a contrast! The three kings had only a rumor to go by. But it moved them to make that long journey. The scribes were much better informed. They sat and studied the Scriptures like so many dons, but it did not make them move. Who had the more truth? The three kings who followed a rumor, or the scribes who remained sitting with all their knowledge?
... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Meditations from Kierkegaard, Westminster Press, 1955, p. 38
(see the book; see also Matt. 2:1-6; Ps. 72:9-12; Isa. 60:1-3; Matt. 2:9-12; Mark 5:36; John 5:39-40; more at Journey, Knowledge, Scripture, Truth)
Monday, November 30, 2015
Feast of Andrew the Apostle
We know God fully only in Jesus Christ. Now Jesus Christ is free, and this—but only this—enables us to speak with complete assurance of the freedom of God. The Gospels clearly show that Christ is the only free man. Free, he chose to keep the law. Free, he chose to live out the will of God. Free, he chose the incarnation. Free, he chose to die. Note the emphasis on choice. Choice is the most tangible expression of freedom.
... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Ethics of Freedom, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976, p. 51
(see the book; see also John 10:17-18, Ps. 51:12; Isa. 61:1-3; John 8:32-36; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 5:1,13; ; more at Assurance, Choices, Christ, Death, Freedom, God, Incarnation, Jesus, Law, Will of God)
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