From the Morning Scriptures

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

–Luke 7:11-17 (TNIV)

In today’s passage we get a preview of coming attractions of the Day of Resurrection. In this passage, Jesus only resuscitates the widow’s son. The son comes back to life but would eventually die again. On the Day of Resurrection, our Lord will raise our mortal bodies and transform them into bodies like his, bodies that are fitted to live forever in God’s direct presence in his New Creation. It is a glorious vision and provides Christians with a wonderful hope and promise.

The Christian hope of resurrection, glorious as it is, also means we have work to do here and now in God’s fallen creation. We are to be at work helping our Lord bring about his Kingdom here on earth because the New Creation reminds us that God’s creation is important and worth redeeming. If God promises to redeem it by bringing about the New Creation, surely we too must be at work, busy helping God bring about his redemptive plan. To be sure, it is God and God alone who will bring about fully the redemption of his fallen creation and creatures. But we who claim to love the Lord have a part to play and we dare not take that lightly.

How is God calling you to be a part of his redemptive plan for his fallen creation?

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Today would have been my parents’ 63rd wedding anniversary. I know they are reunited and resting in the Lord, waiting for their new resurrection bodies to live in the New Creation. For that I am very thankful. I miss them nevertheless and as I think about their great love for each other, this Beatles’ song comes to mind.

There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All this places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
In my life– I love you more

Happy anniversary, mom and dad. I love and miss you.

More from William Law

Today I continue to feature excerpts from William Law, this week’s featured Anglican writer. Check out my post from yesterday for all the hot poop on Law.

If religion requires s sometimes to fast and to deny our natural appetites, it is to lessen that struggle and war that is in our nature. It is to render our bodies fitter instruments of purity and more obedient to the good motions of divine grace. It is to dry up the springs of our passions that war against the soul, to cool the flame of our blood, and to render the mind more capable of divine meditations.

If religion commands us to live wholly unto God and to do all to his glory, it is because every other way is living wholly against ourselves, and will end in our own shame and confusion of face.

How ignorant, therefore, are they of the nature of religion, of the nature of man, and of the nature of God who think a life of strict piety and devotion to God to be a dull, uncomfortable statewhen it is so plain and certain that there is neither comfort nor joy to be found in anything else!

A Serious Call

A Prayer from Dr. John Baillie

O God, immortal, eternal, invisible, I remember with gladness and thanksgiving all that thou hast been to this world of men:

Companion of the brave:
Upholder of the loyal:
Light of the wanderer: Joy of the pilgrim:
Guide of the pioneer:
Helper of labouring men:
Refuge of the brokenhearted:
Deliverer of the oppressed: Succour of the tempted:
Strength of the victorious:
Ruler of rulers:
Friend of the poor:
Rescuer of the perishing:
Hope of the dying.

Give me faith now to believe that thou canst be all in all to me, according to my need, if only I renounce all proud self-dependence and put my trust in thee.

Forbid it, O Father, that the difficulty of living well should ever tempt me to fall into any kind of heedlessness or despair. May I keep it ever in mind that this human life was once divinely lived and this world once nobly overcome and this body of flesh, that now so sorely tries me, once made into thy perfect dwelling-place.

Show thy loving-kindness tonight, 0 Lord, to all who stand in need of thy help. Be with the weak to make them strong and with the strong to make them gentle. Cheer the lonely with thy company and the distracted with thy solitude. Prosper thy Church in the fulfilment of her mighty task, and grant thy blessing to all who have toiled today in Christ’s name. Amen.

A Diary of Private Prayer

How to Resemble Jesus

The more we lack everything the more we resemble Jesus crucified. The more we cling to the cross, the closer do we embrace Jesus who is nailed to it. Every cross is a gain, for every cross unites us to Jesus. I should possess no more and nothing better than Jesus had at Nazareth, and I should rejoice rather to have less than more. At every moment I should live as though that day I should die a martyr’s death. Only one thing is necessary: that is to do at every moment what is most pleasing to Jesus. I must prepare myself, without ceasing, for martyrdom, and accept it without the smallest attempt to defend myself, like the Divine Lamb, in Jesus, by Jesus, like Jesus and for Jesus. I should rejoice rather to lack than to have, at failure rather than success, and at penury rather than possessions, for in these I bear the cross and the poverty of Jesus, the greatest blessing the earth can give me. I must practise Abjection, the service of others. I must fix a certain number of menial tasks to be accomplished every day and to do them like Jesus of Nazareth, who ,came to serve.’ I must do without the orderly and serve, not be served.

–Charles de Foucauld, Meditations of a Hermit

Seeking God

May the Lord give you the blessing of a strong desire to stand inwardly before God. Seek and you will find. Seek God: such is the unalterable rule for all spiritual advancement. Nothing comes without effort. The help of God is always ready and always near, but is only given to those who seek and work, and only to those seekers who, after putting all their own powers to the test, then cry out with all their heart: Lord, help us. So long as you hold on to even a little hope of achieving something by your own powers, the Lord does not interfere. It is as though he says: “You hope to succeed by yourself. Very well, go on trying! But however long you try you will achieve nothing.” May the Lord give you a contrite spirit, a humble and a contrite heart.

The Art of Prayer