Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 The deceit, the lie of the devil consists of this, that he wishes to make man believe that he can live without God's Word. Thus he dangles before man's fantasy a kingdom of faith, of power, and of peace, into which only he can enter who consents to the temptations; and he conceals from men that he, as the devil, is the most unfortunate and unhappy of beings, since he is finally and eternally rejected by God.
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Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Where would you be if God took away all read more
Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Where would you be if God took away all your Christian work? Too often it is our Christian work that is worshiped and not God.
Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709 Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845 read more
Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709 Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845 No nation, and few individuals, are really brought into [God's] camp by the historical study of the biography of Jesus, simply as biography. Indeed, materials for a full biography have been withheld from men. The earliest converts were converted by a single historical fact (the Resurrection) and a single theological doctrine (the Redemption) operating on a sense of win which they already had... The "Gospels" came later and were written not to make Christians but to edify Christians already made.
Theologians have felt no hesitation in founding a system of speculative thought on the teachings of Jesus; and yet Jesus read more
Theologians have felt no hesitation in founding a system of speculative thought on the teachings of Jesus; and yet Jesus was never an inhabitant of the realm of speculative thought.
It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man's part, which wins salvation, or read more
It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man's part, which wins salvation, or even, in a more modern way of speech, a creative moral principle in itself. Paul does not, in fact, speak (when he is using the language strictly) of "justification by faith", but of "justification by grace through faith," or "on the grounds of faith." This is not mere verbal subtlety. It means that the "righteousness of God" becomes ours, not by the assertion of the individual will as such, but by the willingness to let God work.
Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 If God said, "I forgive you," to a read more
Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 If God said, "I forgive you," to a man who hated his brother, and if (as is impossible) that voice of forgiveness should reach the man, what would it mean to him? How would the man interpret it? Would it not mean to him, "You may go on hating. I do not mind it. You have had great provocation, and are justified in your hate?" No doubt God takes what wrong there is, and what provocation there is, into the account; but the more provocation, the more excuse that can be urged for the hate, the more reason, if possible, that the hater should be delivered from the hell of his hate, that God's child should be made the loving child that He meant him to be. The man would think, not that God loved the sinner, but that He forgave the sin, which God never does. Every sin meets its due fate -- inexorable expulsion from the paradise of God's Humanity.
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 The higher faiths call their followers to strenuous moral effort. read more
Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 The higher faiths call their followers to strenuous moral effort. Such effort is likely to be arduous and painful in proportion to the height of the ideal, desperate in proportion to the sensitiveness of the conscience. A morbid scrupulousness besets the morally serious soul. It is anxious and troubled, afraid of evil, haunted by the memory of failure. The best of the Pharisees tended in this direction, and no less the best of the Stoics. And so little has Christianity been understood that the popular idea of a serious Christian is modeled upon the same type of character. (Continued tomorrow).
I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences read more
I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that he is indeed our Master.
