From the Morning Scriptures

Several days later [the governor] Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”

–Acts 24:24-25 (TNIV)

Luke points us to an important phenomenon here. Felix’s reaction is quite typical of people when they meet Jesus but are only marginally interested in him. When the profane meets the holy, it always becomes acutely aware of its profanity (and we are all profane to one extent or another). In this case, Felix’s awareness of all that he was called to be but wasn’t caused him to be afraid.

But Jesus tells us not to be afraid because he wants to heal us and give us life. He doesn’t want to see us choose to be permanently alienated from the Source of all life. But he can only do that when we are willing to put to death in us all that keeps us separated and alienated from him. This is what Jesus meant when he tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him. Felix was afraid because he knew that he wanted to follow his own desires–desires that would surely lead to death–more than One who could give him life. He wasn’t willing to do what it takes to follow the Lord of Life. Deep down he understood he was making a dumb choice and that is what made him afraid.

What are you afraid of these days?

More From William Law

Today I offer three more excerpts from this week’s featured Anglican writer, William Law (see Monday’s post for a brief biography on Law). I hope you have found his writings to be inspiring and challenging to you.

If anyone could show that we need not always act as in the divine presence, that we need not consider and use everything as the gift of God, and that we need not always live by reason–the same arguments would show that we need never act as in the presence of God nor need we make religion and reason the measure of any of our actions. If, therefore, we are to live unto God at any time or in any place, we are to live unto him at all times and in all places. If we are to use anything as the gift of God, we are to use everything as his gift. If we are to do anything by strict rules of reason, we are to do everything in the same manner.

They, therefore, who confine religion to times and places, and who think that it is being too strict and rigid to make religion give laws to all their actions and ways of living–they who think thus mistake the whole nature of religion. They may well be said to mistake the whole nature of wisdom who do not think it desirable to be always wise. He has not learned the nature of piety who thinks it too much to be pious in all his actions.

A Serious Call

The creature has nothing else in its power but the free use of its will, and its free will hath no other power but that of concurring with, or resisting, the working of God in nature.

A Serious Call

Prayer is the nearest approach to God and the highest enjoyment of him that we are capable of in this life. It is as much your duty to rise to pray as to pray when you are risen. And if you are late at your prayers you offer to God the prayers of an idle, slothful worshiper who rises to prayers as idle servants rise to their labor.

A Serious Call

Saying and Doing

I ran away and stayed away; Mother Teresa moved in and stayed. That was the difference. She, a nun, rather slightly built, with a few rupees in her pocket; not particularly clever, or particularly gifted in the arts of persuasion. just with this Christian love shining about her; in her heart and on her lips. Just prepared to follow her Lord, and in accordance with his instructions regard every derelict left to die in the streets as him; to hear in the cry of every abandoned child, even in the tiny squeak of the discarded fetus, the cry of the Bethlehem child; to recognize in every leper’s stumps the hands which once touched sightless eyes and made them see, rested on distracted heads and made them calm, brought back health to sick flesh and twisted limbs. As for my expatiations on Bengal’s wretched social conditions I regret to say that I doubt whether, in any divine accounting, they will equal one single quizzical half smile bestowed by Mother Teresa on a street urchin who happened to catch her eye.

–Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God

Tips on Praying

I have come to learn certain things about private prayer. You cannot pray to order. You can get on your knees to order; but how to pray? I have found nothing more important than to learn how to get oneself into that frame and condition in which one can pray. You have to learn how to start yourself off, and it is just here that this knowledge of yourself is so important. What I have generally found is that to read something which can be characterized in general as devotional is of great value. By devotional I do not mean something sentimental, I mean something with a true element of worship in it. Notice that I do not say that you should start yourself in prayer by always reading the Scriptures; because you can have precisely the same difficulty there. Start by reading something that will warm your spirit. Get rid of a coldness that may have developed in your spirit. You have to learn how to kindle a flame in your spirit, to warm yourself up, to give yourself a start. It is comparable, if you like, to starting a car when it is cold. You have to learn how to use a spiritual choke. I have found it most rewarding to do that, and not to struggle vainly. When one finds oneself in this condition, and that it is difficult to pray, do not struggle in prayer for the time being, but read something that will warm and stimulate you, and you will find that it will put you into a condition in which you will be able to pray more freely.

–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Works for laity too. 🙂

Richard Foster: Simplicity, Fidelity, Service

The vows of simplicity, fidelity, and service are for all Christians at all times. They are categorical imperatives for obedient followers of the obedient Christ. They are the beginning point from which we explore the depths of the spiritual life and discover our mission in the world.

The vows prod us into seeking a deeper spiritual life. We turn our backs on the superficiality of modern culture and plunge into the depths by making use of the classical disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. We help each other move forward in the spiritual life by encouraging those who advance and by comforting those who stumble.
The vows call us to a vigorous social witness. We stand in contradiction to the dominant culture, which has given its soul to the vows of greed, permissiveness, and selfishness. We critique the empty values of contemporary society, and call it to joyful discipleship to Christ.

The vows call us to evangelism and mission-mindedness. They are not ideals that we keep to ourselves and retreat into our cloistered homes to enjoy; they are to be freely shared with all who confess Christ as Lord and King. We have an obligation to win the nations and all peoples of the earth in anticipation of that day when “every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father” (Phil. 2:1011).

–Richard J. Foster, Money, Sex and Power

Henri Nouwen: A Time of Purification

Is this going to be a period of purification, Lord? Is this going to be the time when you give me insight into the chains that bind me and the courage to throw them off? Is this going to be my chance to see my prison and escape it?

John Eudes said: “This is a time of purification. A time to identify your ambiguous relationships and your ambivalent attitudes, and to make some decisions and choose some directions.” Lord, it is you who said this to me. If I believe in your church and the voice of those who speak in her name, in your name, then it was you who pointed out to me the meaning of my stay here: “Identify and choose.”

And you also said, “Pray even when you do not feel attracted to it.” Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening.
Yes, Lord, I will pray–not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of the choir, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Let me see myself in the light of Your mercy and choose you. Amen.

— Henri J. M. Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy

Obstacles to Prayer

As soon as we make a serious attempt to pray in spirit and in truth, at once we become acutely conscious of our interior disintegration, of our lack of unity and wholeness. In spite of all our efforts to stand before God, thoughts continue to move restlessly and aimlessly through our head, like the buzzing of flies (Bishop Theophan) or the capricious leaping of monkeys from branch to branch (Ramakrishna). To contemplate means, first of all, to be present where one is to be here and now. But usually we find ourselves unable to restrain our mind from wandering at random over time and space. We recall the past, we anticipate the future, we plan what to do next; people and places come before us in unending succession. We lack the power to gather ourselves into the one place where we should be–here, in the presence of God; we are unable to live fully in the only moment of time that truly exists–now, the immediate present. This interior disintegration is one of the most tragic consequences of the Fall. The people who get things done, it has been justly observed, are the people who do one thing at a time. But to do one thing at a time is no mean achievement. While difficult enough in external work, it is harder still in the work of inner prayer.

–Kallistos Ware, The Power of the Name

Holiness

The call to a holy life is extended to everyone whose fife has been touched by the reality of God. Holiness is not the fruit of specialness, but of faithfulness. For to be faithful in a relationship is to honor it by the way we live. The call to holiness in our day, as it has always been, is a call to live in the world as a sign of the Kingdom. It is a call to participate in those things that contribute to human solidarity, forgiveness and compassion, righteousness and justice, and ultimately, global peace (shalom!).

— James C. Fenhagen, Invitation to Holiness

Focusing on God

Here I would like to mention two things which I have learned from my great master, John of the Cross–one on the method of meditation, and the other on the book to choose.
The Method: Saint John divides it into three parts, and up to this point there’s nothing new.

  1. Imaginative reflection on the mystery which one wishes to meditate.
  2. Intellectual consideration of the mysteries represented. (Here too there’s nothing new).
  3. (And this is important.) Loving and attentive repose in God, to make sure we are fully prepared for that moment when the intelligence opens itself up to God’s illumination.

This exercise of love, which is deeply human, results in a serene and devout repose before God. It must be meditation clearly directed towards simplicity and interior silence.

The Book to Choose: Above all other books, choose the Bible. If you like, read as many books of meditation as possible, but that isn’t essential. It is essential to read and meditate on the Scriptures. Christianity without the Bible is a contradiction in terms. Preaching not anchored in the Scriptures is equally impossible. There is no true religious formation which is not based on the Gospel. The Bible is the letter which God himself wrote to men in the thousands of years of their history. It is the long drawn out sigh for Christ (Old Testament) and the account of his coming among us (New Testament). When the temple of Jerusalem was burning, the Jews abandoned all its treasures to flames but saved the Bible. Paul knew the Bible by heart, and Augustine said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” The Bible is the word of God, the Word made flesh is the Eucharist. I put them both on the altar and kneel down before them.

–Carlo Carretto, Letters from the Desert