Another criterion was loyalty to the community of Christ
both as gathered congregation and as organized church. The
pride of spiritual gifts had led the Corinthians to jealousy
and strife. They had divided into factions owning the
leadership, one of Paul, one of Apollos, another of Cephas, and
another of Christ -- but such factions, the apostle tells them,
were not characteristics of the "spiritual", but of the carnal.
To divide the Church was to destroy the temple of God, where
the Holy Spirit dwelt among them (I Cor. 3:1, 3, 16). And the
very gifts about which they quarreled should have been a power
to unite them, for they all proceeded from one and the same
Spirit, from one and the same Lord, from one and the same God,
who worketh all in all. The Spirit was indeed the principle of
unity in the Church, "for in one Spirit were we all baptized
into one body" (I Cor. 12:13). Therefore, to divide the Church
was to drive away the Spirit... The tests of spiritual
phenomena in the life of the community, and the proofs that
they were of the Holy Spirit, were unity, order, and
edification. [Continued tomorrow]
... Thomas Rees (1869-1926),
The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience [1915]

***********
The supreme antidote against strife and confusion, the
supreme principle of unity and service in the Church, was also
the greatest gift of the Spirit and the perfect and abiding
proof of its presence, namely, love. This introduces a third
criterion of the Spirit, and on the wider stage of the moral
life. It is loyalty to the moral ideal of Christ. "If we live
by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk" (Gal. 5:25).
Where the Spirit dwells, it produces a new, a higher, a unique
type of moral life. For Paul, the Christian life was not the
normal and natural product of human activity, but a gracious
divine gift, received by the descent of the Spirit into the
human heart, for "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
temperance" (Gal. 5:22-23). And there is yet one higher
manifestation of the Spirit, the participation in the divine
sonship of Jesus Christ. "And because ye are sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba,
Father" (Gal. 4:6). Where sonship is, there the Spirit is. On
the other hand, "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these
are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:l4). Where the Spirit leads,
there sonship is... the possession of the Spirit and
participation in Christ's sonship are but two aspects of the
same experience. Here, the phenomenon, if it may be so called,
bears its own credentials. Sonship is a self-evident work of
the Spirit. But the evidence is available only for its owners
in order that the Spirit of adoption may attest itself to
others, it must issue in the life according to the Spirit, by
walking in the spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
... Thomas Rees (1869-1926),
The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience [1915]

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A frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching Him
to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with His
providence, enlighten them with His Spirit, and bring them to
everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart
of man can be engaged in. Be daily, therefore, on your knees,
in a solemn deliberate performance of this devotion, praying
for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and
earnestness, as you use for yourself; and you will find all
little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great
and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others, as
you used only to delight in your own... It was this holy
intercession that raised Christians to such a state of mutual
love, as far exceeded all that had been praised and admired in
human friendship. And when the same spirit of intercession is
again in the world, when Christianity has the same power over
the hearts of people that it then had, this holy friendship
will be again in fashion, and Christians will be again the
wonder of the world, for that exceeding love which they bear to
one another.
... William Law (1686-1761),
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728]

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While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to
slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some
people fall who, in their desire to speak evil of no one,
actually uphold and speak well of vice. If you have to do with
one who is unquestionably a slanderer, do not excuse him by
calling him frank and free-spoken; do not call one who is
notoriously vain, liberal and elegant; do not call dangerous
levities mere simplicity; do not screen disobedience under the
name of zeal; or arrogance, of frankness; or evil intimacy, of
friendship. No, my friends, we must never, in our wish to shun
slander, foster or flatter vice in others: but we must call
evil evil, and sin sin, and so doing we shall serve God's
glory.
... François de Sales (1567-1622),
Introduction to the Devout Life

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Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to
authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very
seldom about the dangers of disobedience and unpeaceableness
and rending in pieces the Church of Christ by needless
separations and endless divisions.
... John Tillotson (1630-1694)

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He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he
himself must pass.
... George Herbert (1593-1633)

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Faith is sometimes equated with credulity, but it can be so
equated only when the profound mistake is made of thinking of
faith as primarily a matter of intellectual assent. As the New
Testament uses the word, faith is trust, acceptance,
commitment, vision. It is not a belief in this or that creed,
it is a quality which lies rather in the realm of intuition
than the intellect. Faith has indeed an element of true
simplicity; it is one of the qualities -- perhaps the
fundamental quality -- of the child-like spirit without which
no man can enter the Kingdom of God.
... Anonymous

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Do you think that the work God gives us to do is never
easy? Jesus says that His yoke is easy, His burden is light.
People sometimes refuse to do God's work just because it is
easy. This is sometimes because they cannot believe that easy
work is His work; but there may be a very bad pride in it...
Some, again, accept it with half a heart and do it with half a
hand. But however easy any work may be, it cannot be well done
without taking thought about it. And such people, instead of
taking thought about their work, generally take thought about
the morrow -- in which no work can be done, any more than in
yesterday.
... George Macdonald (1824-1905), The Seaboard Parish [1868]

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Many Christians are reluctant to become involved in public
affairs be cause politics is a "dirty business", but the same
people are generally quite happy to go into business life,
which is in its way just as "dirty". If the dubious practices
and moral compromises of every walk of life were dissected and
made known with the glare of publicity which shines on the
activities of politicians, then those who like to think that
they can keep their hands clean would have very few professions
to choose from.
... John B. Lawrence (1873-1968), Hard Facts [1958]

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The church has magnificent buildings, superb equipment,
trained leadership, excellent teaching materials,
organizational ability, and yet lacks that one thing that could
take all these tools and make them the channel of God's will.
In spite of its ever-increasing membership, the church lacks
the spirit of God's growing love and understanding that can
transform it from an efficient organization into a loving,
dynamic fellowship where men and women become vitally alive
with faith, love, and hope.
... Thomas M. Steen, "Renewal in the Church"

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Each of us comes into life with fists closed, set for
aggressiveness and acquisition. But when we abandon life our hands are
open; there is nothing on earth that we need, nothing the soul can take
with it.

Fulton J. Sheen
(1895-1979)

============================================
The symbol of the New Testament and the Christian Church is
a cross, which stands for a love faithful despite physical
agony and rejection by the world. No amount of air-
conditioning and pew-cushioning in the suburban church can
cover over the hard truth that the Christian life... is a
narrow way of suffering; that discipleship is costly: that, for
the faithful, there is always a cross to be carried. No one
can understand Christianity to its depths who comes to it to
enjoy it as a pleasant weekend diversion.
... W. Waldo Beach (1916-2001), The Christian Life [l966]
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Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the
undertaker will be sorry.

Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer)

============================================
Nothing could have saved the infant Church from melting
away into one of those vague and ineffective schools of
philosophic ethics except the stern and strict rule that is
laid down here [Rev. 2:15, 16] by St. John. An easy-going
Christianity could never have survived; only the most
convinced, resolute, almost bigoted adherence to the most
uncompromising interepretation of its own principles could have
given the Christians the courage and self-reliance that were
needed. For them to hesitate or to doubt was to be lost.
... W. M. Ramsay (1851-1939),
The Letters to the Seven Churches [1904]

======================
He who knows enough is enough will always have enough.

Lao-tzu
(BC 600-?, Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Taoism, Author of the Tao Te
Ching)

============================================
Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and
truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.

Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat )

============================================
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn
routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into
blessings.

William Arthur Ward
============================================
Give thanks for sorrow that teaches you pity; for pain that
teaches you courage - and give exceeding thanks for the mystery which
remains a mystery still - the veil that hides you from the infinite,
which makes it possible for you to believe in what you cannot see.

Robert Nathan
(1894-1985, American Novelist)

============================================
The underlying questions are always: What is the Church?
What is the Church for? If that is not kept in mind, the lay
ministry, about which so much is being said at present, remains
on the level of a many-sided activity in which the self-
assertion of the laity threatens to be more evident than a new
manifestation of the Church in modern society. The responsible
participation of the laity in the discharge of the Church's
divine calling is not primarily a matter of idealism and
enthusiasm or organizational efficiency, but a new grasp and
commitment to the meaning of God's redemptive purpose with
mankind and with the world in the past, the present, and the
future: a purpose which has its foundation and inexhaustible
content in Christ.
... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965),
A Theology of the Laity [1958]

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Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering
what one receives.

Alexandre Dumas the Younger
(1824-1895, French Writer)

============================================
You can achieve anything you want in life if you have the courage
to dream it, the intelligence to make a realistic plan, and the will to
see that plan through to the end.

Sidney A. Friedman
(1935-, American Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Author)

============================================
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and
he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty
to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even
our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual
tranquility under every circumstance.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

_________________________________________________________
Christian freedom, in my opinion, consists of three parts.
The first: that the consciences of believers, in seeking
assurance of their justification before God, should rise above
and advance beyond the law, forgetting all law righteousness...
The second part, dependent upon the first, is that consciences
observe the law, not as if constrained by the necessity of the
law, but that freed from the law's yoke they willingly obey
God's will... The third part of Christian freedom lies in
this: regarding outward things that are of themselves
"indifferent", we are not bound before God by any religious
obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and other
times not using them, indifferently... Accordingly, it is
perversely interpreted both by those who allege it as an excuse
for their desires that they may abuse God's good gifts to their
own lust and by those who think that freedom does not exist
unless it is used before men, and consequently, in using it
have no regard for weaker brethren... Nothing is plainer than
this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the
edification of our neighbor, but if it does not help our
neighbor, then we should forego it.
... John Calvin (1509-1564),
The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

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Friendship renders prosperity more brilliant, while it lightens
adversity by sharing it and making its burden common.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
( c. 106-43 BC, Great Roman Orator, Politician)

============================================
A satisfying prayer life elevates and purifies every act of
body and mind and integrates the entire personality into a
single spiritual unit. In the long pull we pray only as well
as we live.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

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