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MEDITATION:

Written by Louis Evely (1910-1985), a Belgian Christian writer and Roman Catholic priest. This is from his book “In the Christian Spirit.”

To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God. Christians believe in “the end of the world,” they expect the final catastrophe, the punishment of others. Atheists in their turn invent doctrines of salvation, try to give a meaning to life, work and the future of humankind, and refuse to believe in God because Christians believe in him and take no interest in the world.

All ignore the true God: he who has so loved the world! But which is the more culpable ignorance? To love God is to love the world. To love God passionately is to love the world passionately. To hope in God is to hope for the salvation of the world. I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God who believes in the salvation of the world? God seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough that he could send them into the world to save it.

PRAYER:

Written by Timothy Keller, contemporary pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, author, and speaker.

Lord, I have been trying to earn my own salvation and weave my own righteousness. But you are my salvation and righteousness. I am accepted in your Son! All my problems come because I am forgetting how loved, honored, beautiful, secure, rich, respected, embraced and free in Jesus I am. All other ways of finding honor, respect, purpose and so on are vain. Let me be so ravished with your love for me that no other love can control me. Amen.