this is an excerpt for the dec 13th from the much-enjoyed advent book called "watch for the light":
"We must once and for all give up trying to be self-made individuals. Let us cease preaching by ourselves, being right by ourselves, doing good by ourselves, being sensible by ourselves, improving the world by ourselves. God wants to do everything, certainly through us and with us and never without us; but our participation in what he does must naturally originate and grow out of his power, not ours. O, how we could then speak with one another. For whatever does not grow out of God produces smoke, not fire. But that which is born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4)."
see this week's reading - james 5:1-10; 2 peter 3:13-15
(sherry)
1 comment:
I love the image of "smoke" vs. "fire"....it definitely is suffocating and stifling to others when we act like we've got something special that no one else has or that we're giving something that has come exclusively out of our "own riches." We're reading Daniel in our group at the men's community house and this haughtiness and dependence on self is something that comes up again and again with the various kings of Babylon and their retinue vs. Daniel and the other exiles dependence on the grace and goodness of God. This is a message that definitely needs to be heard in our "celebrity" & "image" obsessed culture.
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