Quotations for May, 2016
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Feast of Philip & James, Apostles
Every other creature in nature is simply itself, without this discord which is our constant lot. That is why we can study everything else in nature much more surely than we can study ourselves. With ourselves, all we have to go on is an occasional glimpse of some small part of the truth, and we must be content with that, knowing that we are truly known by Him who alone knows us.
... Paul Tournier (1898-1986), The Meaning of Persons, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 83 
(see the book; see also Pr. 1:7; Ps. 71:6; 111:10; Pr. 9:10; Isa. 49:5; Jer. 1:5; Gal. 1:15-17; more at Contentment, Discord, Faith, Knowing God, Nature, Truth)
Monday, May 2, 2016
Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373
I am persuaded that some have scarce any better or more forcible argument to satisfy their own minds that they are in the right in religion, than the inclination they find in themselves to hate and persecute them whom they suppose to be in the wrong.
... John Owen (1616-1683), “Indulgence and Toleration Considered” [1667], in Works of John Owen, v. XIII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 538
(see the book; see also Rom. 14:1-4; Isa. 40:11; Eze. 34:4; Rom. 14:21; 15:1,7; Zech. 11:16; Matt. 14:31; 18:6; more at Argument, Hatred, Persecution, Religion, Wrong)
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
[Christ] tells us plainly, and without any qualifications, that we are involved in a war in which there is no room for neutrals. Yet people attempt to evade His statement.Generally speaking, these are the very people who are the quickest in laying the blame upon God for all the sorrow and sin in the world. They argue that He could prevent it. They excuse their own do-nothing attitude by making of evil’s apparent predominance a ground for doubt of His loving purpose. It never seems to occur to them to look for the cause in mankind.
... Hugh Redwood (1883-1963), Live Coals, New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1935, p. 120
(see the book; see also Matt. 10:41-42; 12:30; 26:3-4; Mark 9:40-42; Acts 23:6; Eph. 1:4; more at Argument, Attitudes, Christ, Doubt, Evil, God, People, Sin, Sorrow, War)
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
You go to your saint and find God working and manifest in him. He got near to God by some saint of his that went before him, or that stood beside him, in whom he saw the divine presence. That saint again lighted his fire at some flame before him; and so the power of the sainthoods animates and fills the world.
... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1878, p. 122
(see the book; see also Phil. 4:8-9; 1 Cor. 10:31-33; 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 4:1-8; more at Fire, God, Historical, Power, Saint, Work)
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Ascension
The Christian Mission is what the New Testament calls a ‘mystery’. It is what St. Paul calls the mystery—a secret hidden within God even before the creation of the world, but now made known to men and women of faith, whereby all nations are to be gathered up and presented to God through Jesus Christ. This gathering up takes place in the Church, the mystical Body of Christ. The mystery has been unfolded according to a divine plan; prepared by the vocation of the Jewish people; and substantially realized by the mission of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who by His Ascension introduced human nature for all eternity into the sphere of the life of the Divine Trinity: and this plan is to be accomplished among the various peoples of the world, during the time between Pentecost and the Second Coming. [Continued tomorrow]
... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 11
(see the book; see also Eph. 3:8-11; Matt. 13:11; Rom. 16:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:7-10; Col. 1:26-29; more at Ascension, Bible, Body of Christ, Incarnation, Mission, Mystic, Nation, Trinity)
Friday, May 6, 2016
[Continued from yesterday]The Christian Mission is thus anchored in dogma, is a result of what ordinary Christians believe. It is God’s plan, God’s activity; but because God became man and took up manhood into Himself, it is God’s will embodied in active obedience on the part of the Christian individual, the Christian group within the Church, and the Christian Church as a whole—we are all involved in it, all of us, in our various callings.
... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 11
(see the book; see also Eph. 3:12; Rom. 5:1-2; Heb. 4:14-16; 10:19-22; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; more at Body of Christ, Church, Dogma, Mission, Obedience)
Saturday, May 7, 2016
A really patient servant of God is as ready to bear inglorious troubles as those which are honorable. A brave man can easily bear with contempt, slander, and false accusations from an evil world; but to bear such injustice at the hands of good men, of friends and relations, is a great test of patience.
... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, III.iii, p. 137
(see the book; see also Rom. 15:2-3; Ps. 119:86; Matt. 5:10-12; Rom. 5:7-8; Jas. 5:10-11; 1 Pet. 2:19-21; more at Bearing, God, Man, Patience, Trial, Weakness)
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
Commemoration of Dallas Willard, Teacher, Spiritual Writer, 2013
This is our Lord’s will, that our prayer and our trust be both alike large. For if we do not trust as much as we pray, we fail in full worship to our Lord in our prayer; and also we hinder and hurt ourselves. The reason is that we do not know truly that our Lord is the ground from which our prayer springeth; nor do we know that it is given us by his grace and his love. If we knew this, it would make us trust to have of our Lord’s gifts all that we desire. For I am sure that no man asketh mercy and grace with sincerity, without mercy and grace being given to him first.
... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love, Grace Harriet Warrack, ed., Methuen, 1901, ch. XLII
(see the book; see also Luke 11:11-13; Ps. 4:5; 73:26; 142:5; Pr. 3:5; Lam. 3:24; Matt. 7:7-11; John 4:10; 7:37-39; 14:13; 16:23-24; Jas. 1:5; 1 John 5:14-15; more at Grace, Love, Prayer, Sincerity, Trust, Will of God, Worship)
Monday, May 9, 2016
Here is the great truth that, only when we see things in the light of God, do we see things as they are. It is only when we see things in the light of God that we see what things are really important, and what things are not. Things which seem vastly important, things like ambition, and prestige, and money and gain, lose all their value and importance when they are seen in the light of God. Pleasures and habits and social customs which seem permissible enough, are seen for the dangerous things they are when they are seen in the light of God. Things which seem evils, hardship, toil, discipline, unpopularity, even persecution, are seen in their glory when they are seen in the light of God.
... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Revelation of John, v. II, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961, p. 276
(see the book; see also Rev. 22:5; Ps. 36:10; Isa. 60:19-20; Matt. 25:31-32; Rom. 5:17; 8:18-19; 1 Pet. 1:3-4; 1 John 3:2; more at Ambition, Attitudes, Danger, Discipline, Evil, Glory, God, Light, Money, Persecution, Sight, Truth)
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
What is the relation of a secular, this-worldly unification of mankind to the biblical promise of the summing up of all things in Christ? Is it a total contradiction of it? Is it some sort of a reflection of it? or perhaps a devil’s parody of it? Or has it nothing to do with it at all? Perhaps there will be many Christians to whom it would not occur to pose the question whether the process of secularization has anything to do with the biblical understanding of the goal of history. The Bible, for them, belongs to a religious world which is not admitted to belong to the world of secular events—the world in which we are when we read the daily newspaper. But this is to read the Bible wrongly. Whatever else it may be, the Bible is a secular book dealing with the sort of events which a news editor accepts for publication in a daily newspaper; it is concerned with secular events, wars, revolutions, enslavements and liberations, migrants and refugees, famines and epidemics and all the rest. It deals with events which happened and tells a story which can be checked... We miss this because we do not sufficiently treat the Bible as a whole. When we do this, we see at once that the Bible—whatever be the variety of material which it contains: poetry, prayers, legislation, genealogy, and all the rest—is in its main design a universal history. It is an interpretation of human history as a whole, beginning with a saga of creation and ending with a vision of the gathering together of all the nations and the consummation of God’s purpose for mankind. The Bible is an outline of world history.
... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Honest Religion for Secular Man, London: SCM Press, 1966, p. 19-20
(see the book; see also Eph. 1:7-10; 2 Sam. 7:15-17; Isa. 11:1-4; Dan. 7:13-14; Zech. 12:8; Luke 1:31-33; Rom. 8:17-18; 1 Cor. 15:22-24; 2 Thess. 1:6-7; more at Bible, Christ, God, Historical, Promise, Purpose, Understanding, Unity, World)
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
To us, our denomination is a source of pride: we feel an intimate link with our fellow church-member in Fiji, and we think how wonderful it is that we belong to a communion which spans the entire globe. We do not normally reflect that this sense of solidarity is very often gained at the expense of the unity which we ought to be experiencing with our fellow-Christian next door who belongs to a different denomination.
... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 120
(see the book; see also Matt. 23:8; John 17:20,21; Phil. 1:27-28; 1 Pet. 3:8; more at Church, Communion, Neighbor, Pride, Unity, World)
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out by multiplying distractions and beats us down destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might drink and renew our strength, before going out to face the world again.“The thoughtful soul to solitude retires,” said the poet * of other and quieter times; but where is the solitude to which we can retire today? ... “Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still,” is a wise and healing counsel; but how can it be followed in this day of the newspaper, the telephone, the radio and the television? These modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown so large and dangerous that they threaten to devour us all. What was intended to be a blessing has become a positive curse. No spot is now safe from the world’s intrusion...The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today. What the world will do about it is their problem. Apparently the masses want it the way it is, and the majority of Christians are so completely conformed to this present age that they, too, want things the way they are. They may be annoyed a bit by the clamor and by the goldfish-bowl existence they live, but apparently they are not annoyed enough to do anything about it.* from Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, stanza IV
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Of God and Men, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1960, p. 103,105
(see the book; see also Ps. 4:4; 46:10; Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13; Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42; 6:12; John 6:15; more at Blessing, Devotion, Life, Need, Prayer, Solitude, World)
Friday, May 13, 2016
Within the life of the church, the paths of the single and the married should not be allowed to diverge. The shared life of the Christian community must become a context in which the differing gifts can be used for each other. There is much still to be learned about this. Are the homes of married Christians an added support for the single? Is the availability of the single Christian put at the disposal of his married friends, for “babysitting” duties and the like? And what is true of the mutual support of married and single needs to be true in a wider way of the care exercised by the married and the single for each other, so that nobody’s home life becomes completely cut off from support and help.
... Oliver O’Donovan (b. 1945), “Marriage and the Family”, in The Changing World, Bruce Kaye, ed., vol. 3 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 105
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 12:24-27; Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:11-13; Col. 1:24; more at Church, Community, Friend, Gifts, Home, Life, Marriage)
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Feast of Matthias the Apostle
God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He ... brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.
... John Newton (1725-1807), in a letter, 1777, The Works of the Rev. John Newton, v. I, New York: Williams and Whiting, 1810, p. 593-594
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Rom. 8:13-14; Eph. 2:14-16; Col. 3:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:17-19; Rev. 2:10; more at Blessing, Death, God, Heart, Providence, Purpose)
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Pentecost
Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Every time we say, ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit,’ we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality, and change it.
... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Plain Christianity, London: Macmillan, 1954, p. 70
(see the book; see also Acts 1:8; Ps. 51:10; Acts 2:4; Rom. 5:5; 8:13-14; 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:12; Col. 3:9-10; more at Belief, God, Holy Spirit, Life, Sanctification)
Monday, May 16, 2016
Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;Naught be all else to me, save what Thou art:Thou my best thought, by day or by night;Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word;I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;Thou my great Father, I Thy true son,Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise;Thou mine inheritance, now and always:Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all!
... Anonymous, medieval Irish hymn, Eriu, Journal of the School of Irish Learning, v. 2-3, Kuno Meyer, John Strachan, Dublin: School of Irish Learning, 1905, p.90
(see the book; see also Jas. 3:17; Isa. 6:9-10; 9:2; 60:1-2; 61:1-3; John 1:5; more at Heart, Heaven, Praise, Prayers, Salvation, Thought, Truth, Vision, Wisdom)
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Anybody with any maturity knows that an experienced Christian is more eager to have God use him than he is to use God for his own ends; but this does not mean that God is absent from the processes of business and livelihood, nor unconcerned about them, nor unable to reveal Himself through them. When we begin to look upon work, business, money, as potential sacraments through which God can work, we shall make better use of them.
... Samuel M. Shoemaker (1893-1963), The Experiment of Faith, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 29
(see the book; see also 1 Tim. 6:10-11; Ps. 2:11; Rom. 12:11; Eph. 4:28; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:7-12; Tit. 3:14; more at Attitudes, Experience, God, Money, Sacrament, Work)
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Whenever man decides that he is competent to do as he pleases he is soon enjoying Hell on earth, partly because much of what he pleases, except he know he must obey God, is low-down disgusting and partly because, even when he pleases to do something decent, he is mostly too weak-willed and too addle-pated to bring the same to good effect. Man must be redeemed by a power outside himself... I do not regard the overdetermined “optimists” as silly; they seem to me only the victims of a wishful thinking which disregards plain facts.
... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), God is Not Dead, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. xiv
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 7:23-24; Rom. 6:21; 7:5; 8:1,4-6; Eph. 5:3-5; Col. 3:5-6; Jas. 1:13-15; more at God, Hell, Obedience, Pleasure, Redemption, Sin)
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Eternal Lord, how faint and smallOur greatest, strongest thoughts must seemTo Thee, who overseest all,And leads us through Life’s shallow stream.
How tangled are our straightest ways;How dimly flares our brightest star;How earthbound is our highest praiseTo Thee, who sees us as we are.
Our feet are slow where Thine are fast;Thy kiss of grace meets lips of stone;And we admit Thy love at lastTo hearts that have none of their own.
... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985)
(see also Ps. 139:1-4; Matt. 22:36-37; Eph. 2:1-2; Rom. 5:5; 1 John 4:19; more at Everlasting, Grace, Heart, Jesus, Love, Praise, Thought)
Friday, May 20, 2016
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.
... Matthew Henry (1662-1714), An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments [1828], Job 8, in loc. v. 1-7,II.2
(see the book; see also Job 5:17-18; 8:1-7; Matt. 5:11-12; Luke 6:22-23; Rom. 8:18; Jas. 5:10-11; more at Affliction, Grace, Punishment, Sanctification, Sin, Trial, Weakness)
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
What do I mean by “interpret in a religious sense?” In my view, that means to speak on the one hand metaphysically, and on the other individualistically. Neither of these is relevant to the Bible message or to the man of today. Is it not true to say that individualistic concern for personal salvation has almost completely left us all? Are we not really under the impression that there are more important things than bothering about such a matter? (Perhaps not more important than the matter itself, but more than bothering about it). I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But is it not, at bottom, even Biblical?... It is not with the next world that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved and set subject to laws and atoned for and made new. What is above the world is, in the Gospel, intended to exist for this world—I mean that not in the anthropocentric sense of liberal, pietistic, ethical theology, but in the Bible sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 504
(see the book; see also Mark 12:28-31; Deut. 6:4; 10:12; 30:6; John 3:16-17; Rom. 8:32; 1 Tim. 1:5; more at Atonement, Crucifixion, Existence, Gospel, Jesus, Knowledge, Resurrection, Salvation, Theology, Truth, World)
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Trinity Sunday
Pray with your intelligence. Bring things to God that you have thought out and think them out again with Him. That is the secret of good judgment. Repeatedly place your pet opinions and prejudices before God. He will surprise you by showing you that the best of them need refining and some the purification of destruction.
... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), With God in Prayer, London: Jacobs & Co., 1907, p. 16
(see the book; see also Amos 5:14-15; Eph. 6:17; Phil. 4:6-8; Col. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jude 1:20; more at God, Judgment, Prayer, Prejudice, Thought)
Monday, May 23, 2016
Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
It is sufficient to know in the general that our employment [in Paradise] shall be our unspeakable pleasure, and every way suitable to the glory and happiness of that state, and as much above the noblest and most delightful employments of this world, as the perfection of our bodies, and the power of our souls, shall then be above what they now are in this world.For there is no doubt that he who made us, and endued our souls with a desire of immortality, and so large a capacity of happiness, does understand very well by what ways and means to make us happy, and hath in readiness proper exercises and employments for that state, and every way more fitted to make us happy, than any condition or employment in this world is suitable to a temporal happiness.
... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VII, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CLXV, p. 392
(see the book; see also Rev. 22:1-5; Luke 20:34-36; John 3:36; 5:24; 6:53-58; Rom. 6:21-22; 1 John 3:1-2; more at Glory, Happiness, Immortality, Paradise, Perfection, Pleasure, Power, Providence)
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
I know Thee, Saviour, Who Thou art,Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend!Nor wilt Thou with the night depart,But stay, and love me to the end.Thy mercies never shall remove;Thy nature, and Thy name is Love.
... Charles Wesley (1707-1788), The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, v. II, John Wesley, London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869, p. 175
(see the book; see also 1 John 4:7-8; Gen. 32:28; Ps. 16:7; 42:8; 119:55; Isa. 26:9; Luke 6:12; more at Friend, Jesus, Knowing God, Love, Mercy, Prayers, Savior, Sinner)
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
I find the doing of the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans.
... George MacDonald (1824-1905), The Marquis of Lossie, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1879, p. 243
(see the book; see also John 4:31-34; Ps. 40:8; Luke 19:10; John 5:36; Heb. 12:2; Jas. 1:22; more at Dispute, Obedience, Time, Will of God)
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
You and I drift on through the years dully enough, because we do not believe in God, not really, and so we have no expectation. But Jesus did believe in Him, was sure He is alive and abroad in the world; that, therefore, anything may happen any hour. And thus to Him any smallest incident was a magic casement opening upon who could tell what possibilities! A fisherman offers Him a crude, inchoate half-faith, and with that He is sure that He can found a world-wide Church that will defy the powers of evil, aye, and grind them into nothingness at last: a dying brigand, paying the just penalties of his crimes, gropes towards Him in the darkness with the vague hands of a blind man, and, founding upon that, Christ dies, quite sure that He has won: two or three Gentiles seek an interview with Him, and He sees a whole teeming world of men and women being saved.
... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 111-112
(see the book; see also Matt. 16:15-18; Luke 23:40-43; John 12:20-32; more at Belief, Christ, Death, Faith, God, Jesus, Salvation)
Friday, May 27, 2016
Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
In that obedience which we have shown to be due the authority of rulers, we are always to make this exception, indeed, to observe it as primary, that such obedience is never to lead us away from obedience to him, to whose decrees all their commands ought to yield, to whose majesty their scepters ought to be submitted. And how absurd would it be that in satisfying men you should incur the displeasure of him for whose sake you obey men themselves! The Lord, therefore, is the King of Kings, who, when he has opened his sacred mouth, must alone be heard, before all and above all men; next to him we are subject to those men who are in authority over us, but only in him. If they command anything against him, let it go unesteemed.
... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, IV.xx.32, p. 662
(see the book; see also Acts 5:29; Mark 7:7-9; Acts 4:19; Rom. 13:1-7; Tit. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:13-17; Rev. 7:9-17; more at Commandment, King, Man, Obedience, Social, Submission)
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Gladly shall I come whenever bodily strength will allow to join my testimony with yours in Olney pulpit, that God is love. As yet I have not recovered from the fatigues of my American expedition. My shattered bark is scarce worth docking any more. But I would fain wear, not rust, out. Oh! my dear Mr. Newton, indeed and indeed I am ashamed that I have done and suffered so little for Him that hath done and suffered so much for ill and hell-deserving me.
... George Whitefield (1714-1770), letter to John Newton, in John Newton: a biography, Bernard Martin, Heinemann, 1950, p.212
(see the book; see also Phil. 3:7-9; Matt. 13:44-46; Luke 17:33; Gal. 2:15-16; Col. 1:24; more at God, Historical, Humility, Love, Suffer)
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Jesus will prevail. His Church will prevail. Everything else is just passing away. Our current leadership [of the Episcopal Church USA] will die one day, as will you and I. It is not for us to condemn others, but to witness to them of Him who is in our lives. Even now, the enemy is at work, but Jesus will prevail. I know a God whose mercy knows no limits and whose power has no restraints.
... Todd H. Wetzel (b. 1946), Steadfast Faith, Dallas, Texas: Latimer Press, 1997, p. 170
(see the book; see also Luke 6:37-38; Matt. 28:19; Luke 24:46-47; John 15:27; Acts 1:8; 2:32; more at Church, Condemnation, Death, God, Jesus, Life, Mercy, Power, Witness)
Monday, May 30, 2016
Feast of Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906
Commemoration of Joan of Arc, Visionary, 1431
Commemoration of Apolo Kivebulaya, Priest, Evangelist, 1933
If it be the earnest desire, and longing of your heart, to be merciful as he is merciful; to be full of his unwearied patience, to dwell in his unalterable meekness; if you long to be like him in universal, impartial love; if you desire to communicate every good, to every creature that you are able; if you love and practice everything that is good, righteous, and lovely, for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely; and resist no evil, but with goodness; then you have the utmost certainty, that the Spirit of God liveth, dwelleth, and governeth in you.
... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 169-170
(see the book; see also Matt. 5:7; Luke 6:36; Rom. 12:21; Eph. 4:1-3; 1 Tim. 6:11-12; Jas. 1:4; more at Goodness, Holy Spirit, Longing, Love, Meekness, Mercy, Patience, Righteousness)
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Since becoming a disciple of Christ, Paul knows that all mere orthodoxy, all mere knowledge concerning God’s will, is not only nothing but less than nothing. The more knowledge, the more obligation. The maintaining of revealed doctrine becomes blasphemy if it is not borne out by the corresponding testimony of the life. He who is always appealing to the Word of God without his life and conduct corresponding to this knowledge of God, dishonours God’s name, making Him an object of mockery and hatred. It is just those who know so well how to talk about God who make His name hateful among men, because their lives darken the picture of God and turn it into a caricature. The Lord is judged by the life of His servants; this is the truer, the more zealously they appeal to Him.
... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Letter to the Romans, Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1959, p. 22-23
(see the book; see also Rom. 2:21-24; Ps. 50:16; 74:22; Matt. 23:3; Luke 11:46; Tit. 2:1-2; more at Authenticity, Blasphemy, Christ, Conduct, Disciple, God, Hatred, Judgment, Knowledge, Life)
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Mere Christianity: a conversation
Simple Songs for Psalms
Quotations Bible Study
Essays Archive
Bookworms
Spotlights
Publications:
Jonah: a miracle play
Ruth: a play
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