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Written by Ray Stedman [1917-1992], a pastor and author. 

Scripture is put together in such an amazing way that it takes both the Word and the Spirit to understand the Bible. You can read the Word, and if you are not ready for the words and open to them, those words will not say a thing to you. But if you are open, you will learn something from them. The next time you can come back, read the same words, and learn something more. Each time you will learn something more. It never ceases to refresh your spirit and instruct your mind and to open and expand your capacity to receive from God. That is the way God teaches us truth–as you are able to bear it. This is true also of His revelation to us about ourselves. One of the things about Scripture is that it shows you who you are and who you have been all along. God is gracious to us that way. He does not just rip the veil off, and suddenly you see the whole ghastly thing. If He did, we would be wiped out. But He lifts it little by little. You shake and tremble and say, ‘Is that the way I’ve been?’ You are aghast at the way you have been treating people, and you think, Thank God that’s over! The next week He lifts it a little higher. You shake and tremble and go through it again and say, At last we got to the bottom! Then God lifts it high enough for you to see more, and you are wiped out again. But you handle it, little by little. Because, along with the revelation of yourself, He also reveals Himself and His adequacy to handle your inadequacies.

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. [Mark 4:33]

Written by Wade Johnston, a contemporary pastor, theology professor, and podcaster.

C.S. Lewis wrote a helpful book about love called The Four Loves. I highly recommend it. The four loves are affection, eros, friendship, and charity. Affection is what we have for siblings, roommates, and coworkers. We grow familiar with them. We get used to them. They become regular presences in our lives. Eros is love for our spouse. It’s getting lost in your beloved. It’s more than physical. The physical is merely an expression of something deeper—an often humorous and lighthearted expression at that. Lovers laugh at each other, Lewis says, until they have a baby to laugh at. The third love is friendship. We can get by without it, but life wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. While lovers look face to face, friends stand side by side. Their conversation never ends. It just gets interrupted, picking up even years later where it left off. Friendships have changed the world. The fourth and final love, however, is unlike any other. This love is charity. It’s selfless love. There’s no give-and-take, no quid pro quo. This love is purely gift-love. This is God’s self-giving love for us in Christ. While were still sinners, God justified the ungodly. He saved us from the devil, the world, death, and, most importantly, from ourselves. He did this simply to do it, because we needed it… To love is to see God. And to see God is to love. To see God is to love the world he has created, to delight in the rays of the sun, the chirping of the birds, the cool touch of the breeze, the lapping of the waves. It’s to stop and appreciate the hand behind what surrounds us. Even more, though, to see God is to love the people he has created, both your enemies and your neighbors—to appreciate their gifts, forgive their faults, recall the blood that bought them, and see the face of Christ in their own.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. [1 John 4:16]

Today’s prayer was written by Dimitrii of Rostov (1651-1709) a monk from Kiev who was a leading opponent of the Caesaropapist reform of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Come, my Light,
and illumine my darkness.
Come, my Life,
and revive me from death.
Come, my Physician,
and heal my wounds.
Come, Flame of divine love,
and burn up the thorns of my sins,
kindling my heart
with the flame of thy love.

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. [John 1:4]

Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British writer, scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Mere Christianity.”

Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but also God’s love for man and man’s love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feelings in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, “If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?” When you have found the answer, go and do it.”

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [Deuteronomy 6:5]

Written by Johannes Vos (1862-1949), a Dutch-American reformed  theologist.  This is an excerpt from his book “The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary.”

True happiness depends on our consciously aiming to serve the purpose for which we were created, namely, to glorify God and enjoy him. Consciously to serve the purpose for which God created him is man’s glory, and apart from a conscious consecration of himself to that purpose, there can be no real, deep, and satisfying happiness. As Augustine said in his Confessions, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it finds repose in Thee.”

 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Ephesians 2:10]

This prayer was written by the Practicing the Way course developers.

Good Creator, who made our inmost parts, you see more of us than we do, you know us better than we ever will, and yet you call us “beloved.”  Give us courage to see ourselves in the light, to be honest with who we are and what we are not, that in our being fully seen by you, we may be transformed ever more greatly by your love, into your holy image. Amen.

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. [1 Corinthians 8:3]

Written by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), an evangelist and teacher aligned with the Holiness Movement.  This is an excerpt from his book “My Utmost for His Highest.”

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women. The one all–important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. Redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes. Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. God cannot deliver or transform me while my interest is merely in my own character.

The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. [Proverbs 20:27]

Written by John Ortberg, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “The Me I Want to Be.”

Many approaches to spiritual growth assume that the same methods will produce the same growth in different people – but they don’t. Because you have been created by God as a unique person, His plan to grow you will not look the same as His plan to grow anyone else. What would grow an orchid would drown a cactus. What would feed a mouse would starve an elephant. All of those entities need light, food, air, and water – but in different amounts and conditions. God’s plan for you will not look exactly like His plan for anyone else, which means it will take freedom and exploration for you to learn how God wants to grow you. Spiritual growth is hand-crafted, not mass-produced. God does not do ‘one-size-fits-all.’

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [2 Corinthians 3:17]

Written by Mother Alice Kaholuoluna (1888-1957), a Congregational minister of native Hawaiian ancestry and the first woman ordained by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association.

Before the missionaries came, my people used to sit outside their temples for a long time meditating and preparing themselves before entering. Then, they would virtually creep to the altar to offer their petitions and afterwards would again sit a long time outside, this time to “breathe life” into their prayers. The Christians, when they came, just got up, uttered a few sentences, said Amen and were done. For that reason my people called them haoles, “without breath,” or those who failed to breathe life into their prayers.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

Written by Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), a theologian, leader of the English reformation, and Archbishop of Canterbury.  This is from the Book of Common Prayer.

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. [1 Peter 1:24-25].