"The Bible," we are told sometimes, "gives us such a beautiful picture of what we should be." Nonsense! It gives us no picture at all. It reveals to us a fact: it tells us what we really are; it says, This is the form in which God created you, to which He has restored you; this is the work which the Eternal Son, the God of Truth and Love, is continually carrying on within you.
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Feast of Michael & All Angels The nominal Christian, then, will see Jesus as a name, a representative, a read more
Feast of Michael & All Angels The nominal Christian, then, will see Jesus as a name, a representative, a symbol, a personification, a prototype, a figure, a model, an exemplar for something else. The nominal Christian pays homage to something about Jesus, rather than worshipping the man himself. For this reason, nominal Christians will extol the moral teachings of Jesus, the faith of Jesus, the personality of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the world view of Jesus, the self-understanding of Jesus, etc. None of these worships Jesus as the Christ, but only something about him, something peripheral to the actual flesh-and-blood man. This is why when the almighty God came into the world in Jesus, he came as the lowest of the low, as weakness itself, as a complete and utter nothing, in order that men would be forced into the crucial decision about him alone and would not be able to worship anything about him.
Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 If I want only pure water, what does it read more
Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 If I want only pure water, what does it matter to me whether it be brought in a vase of gold or of glass? What is it to me whether the will of God be presented to me in tribulation or consolation, since I desire and seek only the Divine will?
There have always been two kinds of Christianity -- man's and Christ's. Does anyone today remember how the emperor Constantine read more
There have always been two kinds of Christianity -- man's and Christ's. Does anyone today remember how the emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion? It is said that he had a vision -- saw a cross in the sky with the inscription, "In this sign shalt thou conquer." He accepted the new faith promptly, because he thought it would defeat his enemies for him. That is man's Christianity, a means to earthly triumph. And in our present crisis we are appealing to it to defeat the Russians for us. We hear of the life-and-death struggle between Christianity and Communism, the necessity of "keeping God alive as a social force" -- as if our Lord could not survive a Soviet victory! It is a poor sort of faith that imagines Christ defeated by anything men can do.
Christianity does not remove you from the world and its problems; it makes you fit to live in it, triumphantly read more
Christianity does not remove you from the world and its problems; it makes you fit to live in it, triumphantly and usefully.
For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
Feast of Luke the Evangelist Almighty God, who created humanity after your image and gave them living souls read more
Feast of Luke the Evangelist Almighty God, who created humanity after your image and gave them living souls that they may seek you and rule your creation, teach us so to investigate the works of your hand that we may subdue the earth to our use, and strengthen our intelligence for your service. And grant that we may so receive your Word as to believe in him whom you sent to give us the science of salvation and the forgiveness of our sins. All this we ask in the name of the same Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 To pass from estrangement from God to be a son read more
Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 To pass from estrangement from God to be a son of God is the basic fact of conversion. That altered relationship with God gives you an altered relationship with yourself, with your brother man, with nature, with the universe. You are no longer working against the grain of the universe; you're working with it... You have been forgiven by God and now you can forgive yourself. All self hate, self-despising, self-rejection, drop away, and you accept yourself in God, respect yourself, and love yourself... You cease to move into yourself, away from others. You give up your antagonism. You begin to move toward others in love. God moved toward you in gracious, outgoing love, and you move toward others in that same outgoing love.
God has called the laity to be his basic ministers. He has called some to be "player-coaches" ... to equip read more
God has called the laity to be his basic ministers. He has called some to be "player-coaches" ... to equip the laity for the ministry they are to fulfill. This equipping ministry is of unique importance. One is appointed to this ministry by the Holy Spirit; therefore it must be undertaken with utmost seriousness. This is a radical departure from the traditional understanding of the roles of the laity and the clergy. The laity had the idea that they were already committed to a "full-time" vocation in the secular world, [and] thus they did not have time -- at least, much time -- to do God's work. Therefore they contributed money to "free" the clergy to have the time needed to fulfill God's ministry. This view is rank heresy. If we follow this pattern, we may continue to do God's work until the Lord comes again and never fulfill God's purpose as it ought to be done.
