Quotations for June, 1996
Saturday, June 1, 1996
Feast of Justin, Martyr at Rome, c.165
Commemoration of Angela de Merici, Founder of the Institute of St. Ursula, 1540
This astonishing sense of spiritual attack which, it seems to me, must inevitably follow the continual reading of the four Gospels, without preconception but with an alert mind, is not the sole privilege of the translator. It can happen to anyone who is prepared to abandon proof-texts and a closed attitude of mind, and allow not merely the stories but the quality of the Figure Who exists behind the stories to meet him afresh. Neat snippets of a few verses are of course useful in their way, but the overall sweep and much of the significance of the Gospel narratives are lost to us unless we are prepared to read the Gospels through, not once but several times.
... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. i, p. 11 
(see the book; see also Eph. 6:17; Matt. 10:26-28; Luke 1:1-4; Acts 8:25; Heb. 4:12; more at Bible, Gospel, Jesus, Mind, Prejudice)
Sunday, June 2, 1996
Trinity Sunday
Contemplating this blighted and sinister career, the lesson is burnt in upon the conscience, that since Judas by transgression fell, no place in the Church of Christ can render any man secure. And since, falling, he was openly exposed, none may flatter himself that the cause of Christ is bound up with his reputation, that the mischief must needs be averted which his downfall would entail, that Providence must needs avert from him the natural penalties for evil-doing. Though one was as the signet upon the Lord’s hand, yet was he plucked thence. There is no security for any soul except where love and trust repose, upon the bosom of Christ.Now if this be true, and if sin and scandal may conceivably penetrate even the inmost circle of the chosen, how great an error it is to break, because of these offenses, the unity of the Church, and institute some new communion, purer far than the Churches of Corinth and Galatia, which were not abandoned but reformed, and more impenetrable to corruption than the little group of those who ate and drank with Jesus.
... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 90-91
(see the book; see also John 12:4-6; Acts 5:1-5; 1 Cor. 1:10,30; Phil. 1:27-28; Eph. 4:3; Phil. 1:27; more at Betrayal, Church, Conscience, Corruption, Providence, Security, Sin, Truth, Unity)
Monday, June 3, 1996
Feast of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, Teacher, 1910
Commemoration of Martyrs of Uganda, 1886 & 1978
The Gospel leaves men, unless upon extraordinary occasions, their names, their reputations, their wealth and honours, if lawfully obtained and possessed; but the league that is between the mind and these things in all natural men must be broken. They must be no longer looked upon as the chiefest good, or in the place thereof.
... John Owen (1616-1683), III.4 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 277
(see the book; see also Tit. 2:11-14; Isa. 33:6; Matt. 6:19-21; Luke 12:33-34; 16:13; 2 Cor. 4:18; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:1-5; 1 Pet. 4:1-5; 1 John 2:15-17; more at Goodness, Gospel, Honor, Man, Possession, Wealth)
Tuesday, June 4, 1996
[Jesus’] moral teaching does not consist of a universal scheme of ethics, a series of precepts which would be universally valid by whomever they had been spoken. They are to be heard as His word, spoken by Him, with the impact of His person behind them.
... Gabriel Hebert (1886-1963), The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 105
(see the book; see also Luke 10:22; Isa. 49:2; 55:11; Matt. 7:28-29; Heb. 4:12-13; more at Jesus, Morality, Teach)
Wednesday, June 5, 1996
Feast of Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton, Archbishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany, Martyr, 754
It is only by fidelity in little things that the grace of true love to God can be sustained, and distinguished from a passing fervor of spirit...No one can well believe that our piety is sincere, when our behavior is lax and irregular in its little details. What probability is there that we should not hesitate to make the greatest sacrifices, when we shrink from the smallest?
... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Selections from Fénelon, ed. Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston: Roberts Bros., 1879, p. 160
(see the book; see also Matt. 16:1-4; 26:3-5; Luke 12:42-44; 22:59-62; more at Faith, God, Grace, Hesitancy, Love, Sacrifice, Sincerity, Social)
Thursday, June 6, 1996
Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945
It is easy to criticise the many failings of the Church; it is all too easy to criticise the lives of those who profess and call themselves Christians; but I should say that it is almost impossible to read the Gospels thoroughly with adult, serious attention and then dismiss the central Figure as a mere human prophet or a tragic idealist. The reaction to such a study may indeed prove to be conversion or open hostility, but it would at least mean the end of childish and ill-informed attacks upon what is supposed to be the Christian religion.
... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. i, p. 12
(see the book; see also Jer. 9:3; Matt. 16:13-17; Luke 9:18-20; more at Apologetics, Church, Conversion, Hostility, Prophet)
Friday, June 7, 1996
Sometimes thou shalt be forsaken of God, sometimes thou shalt be troubled by thy neighbors; and what is more, oftentimes thou shalt be wearisome even to thyself. Neither canst thou be delivered or eased by any remedy or comfort; but so long as it pleaseth God, thou oughtest to bear it. For God will have thee learn to suffer tribulation without comfort, and that thou subject thyself wholly to Him, and by tribulation become more humble. No man hath so cordial a feeling of the Passion of Christ, as he that hath suffered the like himself.The Cross therefore is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee. Thou canst not escape it, whithersoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou goest, thou carriest thyself with thee, and shalt ever find thyself. Both above and below, without and within, which way so ever thou dost turn thee, everywhere thou shalt find the Cross; and everywhere of necessity thou must hold fast patience, if thou wilt have inward peace, and enjoy an everlasting crown.
... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xii, p. 107
(see the book; see also 2 Tim. 3:10-13; Ps. 22:1; Luke 9:23; 1 Cor. 15:30-31; Heb. 12:5-11; more at Comfort, Deliverance, Humility, Neighbor, Passion of Christ, Patience, Peace, Suffer, Trouble, Weakness)
Saturday, June 8, 1996
Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711
Commemoration of Roland Allen, Mission Strategist, 1947
The charm of the words of great men, those grand sayings which are recognized as true as soon as heard, is this, that you recognize them as wisdom which has passed across your own mind. You feel that they are your own thoughts come back to you, else you would not at once admit them: “All of that has floated across me before, only I could not say it, and did not feel confident enough to assert it: or had not conviction enough to put it into words.” Yes, God spoke to you what He did to them: only, they believed it, said it, trusted the Word within them; and you did not. Be sure that often when you say, “It is only my own poor thought, and I am alone,” the real correcting thought is this: “Alone, but the Father is with me,”—and therefore I can live that lonely conviction.
... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. I, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861, p. 239-240
(see the book; see also John 16:31-32; Ps. 22:1; John 1:9; Rom. 8:16; 1 John 5:6; more at Confidence, Conviction, God, Knowing God, Thought, Trust, Truth, Wisdom)
Sunday, June 9, 1996
Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597
Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373
The Servant Messiah carries out his ministry in the lives of his ministers. His life is reproduced in their lives, so they also are servants. But this ministry is exercised in and towards the Church, so as to enable the Church itself to carry out the ministry of the Servant. The Messiah came as a Servant; his ministers are servants; and the Church he created is a Servant-Church.
... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 60
(see the book; see also Luke 12:35; Zech. 3:8; Matt. 8:6-10; Mark 10:42-45; Phil. 2:6-8; more at Church, Life, Messiah, Minister, Service)
Monday, June 10, 1996
At this day... the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; ... but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God.
... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.v.4, p. 60
(see the book; see also Ps. 14:1-3; Job 12:7-25; Jer. 18:13-15; Rom. 1:18-25; more at Apologetics, Evil, God, Mind, Nature, Seed)
Tuesday, June 11, 1996
Feast of Barnabas the Apostle
It is obvious ... that there are many lay people who can counsel more effectively than the minister can in such areas as adjusting to widowhood, coming to terms with advancing age, bringing principle to bear upon business decisions, because they have experience in these fields which the minister does not personally have. At the very least, they can add a note of reality to what the minister offers.In many cases, the group takes up where the individual counseling left off, supplementing it or even eliminating it entirely. I have been repeatedly thankful that a group was available to give steady guidance to a person who had made a fresh start in Christian living, but who still had a long way to go. This has been especially true in cases of loneliness, moderate emotional instability, inability to understand others, and need of continued guidance in the use of prayer and the Bible and the accepting and giving of love. In the nature of the case no amount of individual counseling can fully deal with these needs. The “priesthood of all believers” becomes a realized fact, with each person helping to open up for his neighbor the way to God.
... Howard B. Haines (1911-2000), “Fellowship Groups: ‘Intercessory Love’”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 132-133
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 12:4-6; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:21; 1 Pet. 2:4-9; more at Bible, Church, Counsel, God, Guidance, Love, Minister, Neighbor, People, Prayer)
Wednesday, June 12, 1996
There were ten lepers healed, and only one turned back to give thanks, but it is to be noticed that our Lord did not recall His gift from the other nine because of their lack of gratitude. When we begin to lessen our acts of kindness and helpfulness because we think those who receive do not properly appreciate what is done for them, it is time to question our own motives.
... Evan S. Coslett (1830-1939), Leaves of Gold, Clyde Francis Lytle, ed. [1948], Honesdale, Pa.: Coslett Publishing Company, 1938, p. 33
(see the book; see also Luke 17:12-19; Ps. 44:21; Jer. 17:10; Matt. 6:1-4; 19:30; Heb. 4:13; more at Appreciation, Bible, Gifts, Gratitude, Helpfulness, Kindness, Question, Thanksgiving)
Thursday, June 13, 1996
Commemoration of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Apologist and Writer, 1936
Some relate ... that the eagle tries the eyes of her young by turning them to the sun; which if they cannot look steadily on, she rejects them as spurious. We may truly try our faith by immediate intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness. Direct faith to act itself immediately and directly on the incarnation of Christ and His mediation; and if it be not the right kind and race it will turn its eyes aside to anything else.
... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 323
(see the book; see also Heb. 6:13-15; Ps. 66:10-12; Isa. 48:10; Jas. 1:2-4,12; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12-13; more at Christ, Faith, Incarnation, Knowing God, Righteousness)
Friday, June 14, 1996
Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691
If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.
... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, IV.xii, p. 70
(see the book; see also Ps. 103:2-3; Acts 17:24-26 Heb. 11:3; 1 Pet. 1:23; more at God, Historical, Love, Praise, Soul)
Saturday, June 15, 1996
Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941
Jesus remains unshaken as the practical man; and we stand exposed as the fools, the blunderers, the unpractical visionaries.
... George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Androcles and the lion; Overruled; Pygmalion, New York: Brentano’s, 1916, p. lxxv
(see the book; see also Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 12:16-20; Tit. 3:3-7; more at Fool, Historical, Jesus, Man)
Sunday, June 16, 1996
Feast of Richard of Chichester, Bishop, 1253
Commemoration of Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Moral Philosopher, 1752
Consider that it is not failing in this or that attempt to come to Christ, but a giving over your endeavors, that will be your ruin.
... John Owen (1616-1683), The Glory of Christ [1684, 1691], in Works of John Owen, v. I, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1850, p. 428
(see the book; see also Jas. 4:8; Matt. 15:22-28; Luke 13:24; 22:44; Eph. 6:18; Heb. 12:1-3; more at Call, Christ, Endeavor, Failure, Sin)
Monday, June 17, 1996
Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936
Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone.
... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 88
(see the book; see also Prov. 3:25-26; Ps. 31:11-14; 46:1-3; Prov. 3:5-6; Rom. 3:19; Heb. 4:16; more at Confidence, God, Religion)
Tuesday, June 18, 1996
Thy word remaineth for ever, which word now appeareth unto us in the riddle of the clouds, and through the mirror of the heavens, not as it is: because that even we, though the well beloved of thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looked through the lattice of our flesh and he spake us fair, yea, he set us on fire, and we hasten on his scent. But when he shall appear, then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is: as he is, Lord, will our sight be, though the time be not yet.
... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, XIII.xv, p. 366
(see the book; see also Song of Solomon 1:3; 2:9; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2; more at Eternity, Fire, Prayers, Sight, Son, Time)
Wednesday, June 19, 1996
Commemoration of Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu, Evangelist, Teacher, 1929
Many we have who plead themselves to be Christians; which might be allowed them, ... would they not do such things as the Christian religion abhoreth. But this is the least part of their claim. They will also be the only Christians, all others who differ from them—however falsely so called, being only a drove of unbelievers, hasting unto hell.
... John Owen (1616-1683), The Church of Rome No Safe Guide, in Works of John Owen, v. XIV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 487
(see the book; more at Church, Hell, Religion)
Thursday, June 20, 1996
Evangelism is not an activity at all. It is rather an attitude of mind behind all Christian activity. Evangelism is not a list of certain things done, but the spirit in which they are done. That is precisely why it cannot be organized. It is perhaps best described as an attitude of mind towards God and the world—an attitude which the Church must recover if she is to be true to her Lord, and to seize hold of the present opportunity.
... C. Gordon Bridge, Evangelism: Some principles and experiments, London: SPCK, 1937, p. 8
(see the book; see also Matt. 10:7-8; Luke 10:9; 16:16; Acts 4:1-4; more at Attitudes, Church, Evangelization, God, Mission, Spirit, World)
Friday, June 21, 1996
Of all spirits, I believe the spirit of judging is the worst, and it has had the rule of me, I cannot tell you how dreadfully and how long... This, I find, has more hindered my progress in love and gentleness than all things else. I never knew what the words, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” meant before; now they seem to me some of the most awful, necessary, and beautiful in the whole Word of God.
... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), letter to his motherThe Life of Frederick Denison Maurice: Chiefly Told in His Own Letters, v. 1, ed. John Frederick Maurice, London: Macmillan, 1885, p. 129-130
(see the book; see also Rom. 2:1; Matt. 7:1-2; Luke 6:37; Rom. 14:4; Jas. 4:11-12; more at Beauty, Gentleness, Judgment, Love, Rule, Spirit, Weakness)
Saturday, June 22, 1996
Feast of Alban, first Martyr of Britain, c.209
After all, we were told, our salvation had already been accomplished by the grace of God... It was unkind to speak to men like this, for such a cheap offer could only leave them bewildered and tempt them from the way to which they had been called by Christ. Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred forever from the knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace—whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 55
(see the book; see also Eph. 2:10; Matt. 5:16; John 14:5; 2 Thess. 3:13; 1 John 5:3-4; 2 John 1:6; more at Disciple, Grace, Life, Obedience, Salvation, Temptation)
Sunday, June 23, 1996
Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678
Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand the will and mind of God therein, though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentaries and expositions; pray and read, and read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place... There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why Christians at this day are at such a loss as to some things is, that they are contented with what comes from men’s mouths, without searching and kneeling before God to know of Him the truth of things. Things we receive at God’s hands come to us as truths from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come with the smell of Heaven upon them.
... John Bunyan (1628-1688), Christ a Complete Saviour [1692] The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. I, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 238
(see the book; see also John 13:3; Ps. 121:1-2; Jer. 31:33-34; Matt. 6:25-34; 1 John 4:4-5; more at Bible, God, Heaven, Knowledge, Man, Meditation, Prayer, Truth, Uncertainty)
Monday, June 24, 1996
Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist
Paul uses the example of differing opinions about food and days among the believers in Rome to teach that Christians should not despise or judge one another. Note that he does not advise them to find a happy medium between the contending opinions or to average the two extremes into a compromise. On the contrary, he admonished that “every one be fully convinced in his own mind.” He declares that God is able to make both stand, since both of them are serving the Lord in obedience to their individual convictions of His will... Each of us has to find personally what is the will of God for his own life, and let all others meet their responsibility to do the same... For God, by giving different commands to many, and putting them together according to His plan, shall accomplish ultimately His complete will.
... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 9
(see the book; see also Rom. 14:5-6; John 9:31; Rom. 14:21-23; Col. 2:16-17; Tit. 1:15; Heb. 11:6; 1 John 3:19-21; more at Church, Contention, Conviction, Judgment, Obedience, Responsibility, Service, Teach, Will of God)
Tuesday, June 25, 1996
Love is the greatest thing that God can give us, for Himself is love: and it is the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours. The apostle calls it the band of perfection; it is the old, and it is the new, and it is the great commandment, and it is all the commandments; for it is the fulfilling of the Law. It does the work of all the graces without any instrument but its own immediate virtue. For as the love to sin makes a man sin against all his own reason, and all the discourses of wisdom, and all the advices of his friends, and without temptation and without opportunity, so does the love of God; it makes a man chaste without the laborious arts of fasting and exterior disciplines, temperate in the midst of feasts, and is active enough to choose it without any intermedial appetites, and reaches at glory through the very heart of grace, without any other aims but those of love. It is a grace that loves God for Himself, and our neighbors for God. The consideration of God’s goodness and bounty, the experience of those profitable and excellent emanations from Him, may be, and most commonly are, the first motive of our love; but when we are once entered, and have tasted the goodness of God, we love the spring for its own excellency, passing from passion to reason, from thanking to adoring, from sense to spirit, from considering ourselves to an union with God: and this is the image and little representation of heaven; it is beatitude in picture, or rather the infancy and beginnings of glory.
... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 156
(see the book; see also 1 Thess. 3:12; Ps. 34:8; 1 Cor. 13; 1 Pet. 2:1-3; 2 Pet. 1:5-8; more at Commandment, Fulfillment, Giving, Glory, God, Goodness, Grace, Law, Love, Neighbor, Virtue, Work)
Wednesday, June 26, 1996
Form-criticism... has made an end of the false notion, which for a long time dominated critical scholarship, that it was possible throughout the gospels to distill from them a “Life of Jesus” that would be free from dogmatic presuppositions and not affected by any “retouching” derived from the faith of the Church. In fact, however, faith in Jesus Christ crucified and risen did not first appear at some later stage in the tradition, but was the foundation of the tradition, the very soil out of which it grew; and it is in light of that faith alone that the tradition can be understood.This faith in Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Exalted One, explains both the things which the primitive tradition makes known to us, with its manifest concern for the factual truth of the tradition about Jesus, and at the same time the peculiar liberty which the evangelists take in making alterations in the record in points of detail. In relating the acts and words of Jesus, they do not refer back to any sort of “archives” possessed by the community... Jesus Christ is not for them a figure of past history whose proper place is in a library.
... Günther Bornkamm (1905-1990), “The Stilling of the Storm in Matthew”, as quoted in The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History, Gabriel Hebert, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 37
(see the book; see also Matt. 8:24-27; Ps. 16:10; Luke 24; John 2:19-21; 10:17-18; Acts 2:22-24; Rom. 6:4; 8:11; more at Christ, Church, Community, Criticism, Crucifixion, Faith, Historical, Jesus, Resurrection, Tradition, Truth)
Thursday, June 27, 1996
We know so well what the unique quality was that held this great and beautiful pride and exquisite humility together. It lay in the relationship he held with God. We know the familiar idea of Jesus’ oneness with God: only we deal with it too much as a doctrine of the Church, not as an element in Jesus’ own experience. If we never find it in reality, in life, we cannot reveal the true Christ-like character at all—we will always be trying earnestly to be something, but on too superficial and obvious a plane.
... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 77-78
(see the book; see also John 10:30; Matt. 11:27,29; Luke 22:26-27; John 1:1-2,14; 8:28; 17:11; more at Beauty, God, Humility, Jesus, Knowing God, Pride, Revelation, Truth)
Friday, June 28, 1996
Feast of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200
The Church exists, and does not depend for its existence upon our definition of it: it exists wherever God in His sovereign freedom calls it into being by calling his own into the fellowship of His Son.And the Church exists solely by His mercy. God shuts up and will shut up every way except the way of faith which simply accepts His mercy as mercy. To that end, He is free to break off unbelieving branches, to graft in wild slips, and to call “No people” His people. And if, at the end, those who have preserved through all the centuries the visible “marks” of the Church find themselves at the same board with some strange and uncouth late-comers on the ecclesiastical scene, may we not fancy that they will hear Him say—would it not be so like him to say—“It is my will to give unto these last even as unto thee?” Final judgment belongs to God, and we have to beware of judging before the time. I think that if we refuse fellowship in Christ to any body of men and women who accept Jesus as Lord and show the fruits of His Spirit in their corporate life, we do so at our peril. It behooves us, therefore, to receive one another as Christ has received us.
... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 150
(see the book; see also Matt. 20:13-16; Hos. 1:10; Rom. 9:25-26; 11:15-21; 15:7; 1 Pet. 2:10; more at Body of Christ, Call, Church, Existence, Faith, Fellowship, Judgment, Mercy, People, Peril)
Saturday, June 29, 1996
Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles
Christ did not throw about that great word Salvation. But once, in the heart of an angry crowd, their enthusiasm soured suddenly into a growling muttering. He applied it confidently to a man who, under the inspiration of His friendship, had broken with his sorry past and his old selfish, unclean ways, and was doing what he could to put things right. Now that, He said, is what I call a saved man. Very solemnly He tells us that on the Day of Judgment we shall not be asked the questions we are expecting, but others that will puzzle and startle us. Those folk on the left hand were, as far as we hear, respectable folk; their business books were straight, their home life was kindly, they themselves were clean-living men and women: nothing whatever is laid to their charge excepting this, that they lived in a world needing their help and were too absorbed in something—what it was, we are not told; it may have been their souls—to give what aid they could.
... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 23-24
(see the book; see also Luke 19:2-10; Matt. 11:15; 25:31-46; more at Christ, Judgment, Question, Regeneration, Repentance, Salvation)
Sunday, June 30, 1996
We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.
... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Fourth Conversation, p. 17
(see the book; see also 2 Thes. 3:13; Eccl. 11:1; Gal. 6:9; 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Heb. 12:1-3; more at God, Love, Weary, Work)
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