Thanks so much to Zane and the Cross-O Band! And thanks so much to all our Veterans!
Opening Prayer
If we find ourselves increasing…in numbers, in strength, in wealth, in knowledge, in everything which promotes human and social happiness, let us ever remember our dependence for all these on the protecting and merciful dispensations of Divine Providence.”
–President John Tyler, December 7, 1841, exactly 100 years before Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Veterans listed at the Crazy Mountain Museum; Cemetery; Cole Drug
Montana’s birthday: Montana is the only state with a triple divide – meaning water from Glacier National Park flows into the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Hudson Bay. The Montana Yogo Sapphire is said to be the only gem from North America included in the Crown Jewels of England. This year’s Capitol Christmas tree comes from the Kootenai National Forest. It started its trek from Montana to D.C. recently. (Senator Daines email)
Writer—plagiarize and edit myself—slightly stream-of-consciousness message tonight…
Wise Founding Father
I have quoted America’s first president in many of my articles over the years. I most often cite one particular statement. But first, I want to ask what you think is George Washington’s greatest legacy for America? His victory over the British and others during his superb military career? His legendary aversion to bullets, flying through is jacket but not him? His prayers and ability to retain vague order and morale at Valley Forge among his rag-tag army? His becoming the first president of the United States? His amazing choice to step down from power and popularity after two terms – setting a standard that remains with us today? His marital fidelity to Martha in their beautiful mansion at Mount Vernon – even though he loved another woman? Or is it enough that his name and face appear on schools, streets, currency, and cities all over the country?
For myself, I consider the evidence of Washington’s faith in the biblical Trinity to be his greatest legacy – both for himself and for his country.
Ok, now for the quote. This is how General Washington replied when the Continental Congress offered him near-dictatorial powers around the end of America’s War for Independence, in 1783:
“Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear in mind that as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.”
How can we describe this? Wise – seeing his potential to destroy a good thing through personal ambition. Humble – not believing himself to be the epitome of America. Merciful – seeking to establish liberty through means that themselves bolster freedom, unlike, say, much of the French Revolution. Noble, courageous, and dutiful also come to mind.
Good leaders are wary of their own success and of the faith others have in their success. I love the tone this set for his later life (such as stepping down from the presidency). Matthew 25 says those who are faithful over a few things will receive greater responsibilities in the future.
From the Flag to the Cross
I love and respect this flag behind me – but I love and need this cross even more. I do not know about you but I believe many Christians in America overemphasize current events, politics, and politicians. We are rightly grieved over widespread godlessness in our culture. But God may let certain evils wax strong in our nation because His people trust too much in man and too little in Him for the future.
Consider Isaiah 31: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!”
This often occurs after a tragedy, such as the deadly hurricanes or mass shootings we have seen recently. It is important to recall that these things were unthinkable prior to Genesis 3. It can be easy to look to the government for help, or criticize it for its response.
Of course, many committed Christians jump in to aid despondent victims—bearing and honoring the name of Christ on the ground and in prayer from a thousand miles away. Yet as the weakness of men’s efforts inevitably sink in, attention to those efforts often ironically increases—with God sliding onto the back burner in many people’s minds.
Not that “letting go and letting God” has any biblical basis. God made man to rule over the world and commands His people to love one another. But for Christians combatting evil and suffering, God needs to be their ultimate motivator, enabler, sustainer, and goal. This can be hard!
In contrast to Isaiah 31, believers can proclaim Psalm 20—on good days: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Even on bad days, the man of God can cry Psalm 42: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”
I humbly desire to remind believers—as I remind myself—that our love for Jesus and security in Him are supposed to supersede all other objects of affection and sources of peace. This is pivotal in redirecting ourselves from the flag to the cross.
Is Man or God Normal?
The word “normal” can have positive, neutral, or negative connotations. For example, if you call your day “normal,” maybe you were pain-free for the first time all year, possibly nothing strange happened, or perhaps you were bored. As for God, the Bible proclaims His praises so boldly that calling Him “normal” could sound blasphemous.
To answer the title question, juxtapose the common activities of man and God with their original or actual nature. If man is normal, then his thoughts, words, and deeds often or always match his nature. The same goes for God. In this sense, “normal” relates more to accurate versus inaccurate than positive versus negative.
I believe man is entirely abnormal. In the creation story, God called His work “very good” after He created Adam and Eve. They had never sinned, there was no curse, and life and reality were as similar to heaven on earth as we ever knew.
No one knows how long the first man and woman followed God’s original plan for their lives—a day, a decade? But until that first transgression, they were not only innocent—they were normal. Their actions matched their nature, which was both moral and immortal. Through wickedness we became permanently abnormal. Death and danger threaten every soul—except those whom Jesus Christ glorifies in heaven following repentance and faith in Him.
What about God? Does His conduct match His character? If normal means living out exactly who oneself is supposed to be, then God is the embodiment of normalcy! The Bible supports this again and again. A favorite of mine is in James 1: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Were He less than normal, the universe would be in chaos—if it would exist at all.
God’s perfect track record includes offering love, grace, mercy, and justice to all of His creation, particularly in sending Jesus Christ into this world as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14). Yet when the Son of God died on the cross and rose again on the third day—the least imaginable but most powerful event in history—Jesus also did something even greater than extend salvation to all who believe in Him. John 17 cites Jesus and God, His “righteous Father,” as giving glory and love, one to the other…and that is the most normal thing the biblical Triune God ever does!
How Much Can We Know God?
Merriam-Webster’s defines “knowledge” as “the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association,” or as “the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning.”
If we have knowledge about something, we communicate about it with some level of authority. If a baseball pitcher tells you about curve balls, you accept his comments intuitively. If he tells the “Mona Lisa” is a mountain in Qatar – then you end the conversation!
This goes for knowing someone, too. If I tell you about my two boys, you might politely listen and believe what I am saying. If you did not, I may reasonably take offense. But if I don’t know you, and if I am in no position to have any information about your family, yet I try to inform you about them, I might offend you.
Street-level English usage weakens the power of the concept of knowledge or knowing. “Do you know so-and-so?” “Yes. I met him once a few years ago.” The correct answer should be, “No. But I met him once a few years ago.” The difference is subtle, but significant.
Knowing someone – including God – requires some effort on our part, along with some kind of permission and / or enabling on His part. Romans 5 calls it “access.” The NKJV of the Bible notes the “knowledge of God” three times in the Old Testament and five in the New Testament. The phrase “know God” occurs twice in the O.T. and five times in the N.T. Each time, knowing God is portrayed as good, not knowing Him is shown as bad.
Knowing God is very possible, because of how available God has made Himself to mankind – such as in creation, salvation, and ultimately, glorification with Him forever. But do you ever ponder how much, quantitatively, we can ever know God?
Take your spouse, your sibling, your child, your parent, your best friend. What percentage of their beliefs, dreams, feelings, personalities, skills, and schedules do you think you know? Fifty percent sounds pretty good.
Let’s try a quick test. Whether you last saw that person a minute ago or a month ago, where is he or she this instant, what are they doing, and how is their day going? How many times today, and at what intensity, have they prayed or reminisced about anything great or terrible in their past? Maybe you know their biggest fears, sins, talents, and hopes: but do you know the last five times each of those things permeated their minds? Are you aware of the minute they woke up today, the last time they coughed, where they were when they last ran out of breath, when they plan on their next physical activity and what tiny goals they may have about it, which book they want to read next, or the most recent time they felt 100% secure in a close relationship?
Well, even if your imagined percentage has shrunk, you still likely know that person better than most people, right? How well we know another person reflects how close we are with them. This goes for God, too.
But man is finite; God is infinite; therefore our knowledge of Him is infinitely small. In fact, I think this logically means we cannot know God at all! Say I want to count to infinity. I count as fast as I can for three days straight: no food, water, or sleep, and I keep counting in the bathroom. Maybe I get to 1 million, which would be about four numbers per second. Not bad (but a waste of time, and no, I’ve never tried it). But at 1 million, despite all my effort, I am not the tiniest fraction of a percent closer to infinity than I was three days ago. If I were, then infinity would not be infinity. It simply would be a really big – but knowable – number!
So, too, with God. He is infinite not only in time and space, but also in holiness, power, glory, love, and even knowledge…to name a few. We can (and should) try our best to get to know Him, but mathematically, at least, we can never know Him one little bit. If we could, then eventually we would be able to get to know Him two little bits, then three, then fifty, and entirely. But in all these cases, He would be less than infinite.
Do you remember the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11? God did not confuse their language and stop their building because He feared them. They never would have made it to heaven anyway! He simply forced them to recall their humanity and humility, and upheld the glory of His name and presence in their midst.
The Bible frequently reveals God’s awesome greatness (incomplete list of 30+ passages, if you want). God is unassailable, unapproachable, and unmatchable. He is vast, holy, loving, merciful, gracious, faithful, powerful, and more. But we toss these words around easily and casually. We have no idea what it is like to have any, let alone all, these traits – perfectly.
This is where the best news comes along. If the infinite God designs and controls these infinite wonders, then He – and only He – can transcend His own incomprehensible nature to create a portal, so to speak, by which we can see and hear and know and love Him. Unlike infinity, the number, which reveals nothing about itself to us, God can and has bridged the gap between us and Himself.
How do we know? The Bible offers many answers. Passages on the “knowledge of God” include the following:
~ Proverbs 2: “Search for [wisdom] as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”
~ Hosea 6: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
~ 2 Corinthians 10: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
~ And Colossians 1 relates Paul’s prayer that God’s children may be “fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
These verses show it is both possible and advisable to grow in our understanding of God. Their broader contexts also convey that this happens via faith in Jesus, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” The Bible describes several of God’s saints as His friends, children, and heirs. And one cannot retain these holy designations without knowing God.
That is it: God is too great to be known at all; yet He has made Himself known to whoever repents of their sins and follows Him. He has made the impossible possible, through the improbable death and resurrection of His Son! I do not know how much God’s children will get to know Him in Heaven. But Revelation 3 provides an amazing glimpse: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. (Note God’s initiative.) If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Now, that is knowledge!
Conclusion
In his 600-year-old best-seller, The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis seeks to show people how they can follow Christ completely and constantly. Anything less, for any amount of time, he explains, is not only wrong, but it also should be out of the question. Jesus lovingly and willingly gave His all for us, and He asks the same in return.
I underlined a lot in The Imitation. Of course, a Kempis is not on par with the Bible, but here are some lines I really appreciated:
“A humble peasant who serves God is better than the proud astronomer who knows how to chart the heavens’ stars but lacks all knowledge of himself.”
“Be willing to suffer a little for Christ…there are many who suffer far worse things to achieve worldly advancement.”
“I am unable to offer You the praise and gratitude I ought, even for the least of Your benefits.”
Who is it that can know and follow Christ? The Bible says Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s great Russian novel, Crime and Punishment, gives a beautiful picture of this regarding the book’s protagonist: Raskolnikov. After his crime early in the tale, Raskolnikov starts seeing cracks in his worldview which had led him to murder. Someone whose own wrecked life God was redeeming, Sonia, patiently guided him toward truth and repentance.
In a remarkable passage, Sonia concludes reading part of John’s Gospel to Raskolnikov:
“‘That is all about the raising of Lazarus,’ she whispered severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not daring to raise her eyes to him. She still trembled feverishly. The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.”
Closing Prayer
“All of us – at home, at war, wherever we may be – are within the reach of God’s love and power. We all can pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of God’s will. We should ask for courage, wisdom, for the quietness of soul which comes alone to them who place their lives in His hands.”
–President Harry S Truman, 1950
Opening Prayer
If we find ourselves increasing…in numbers, in strength, in wealth, in knowledge, in everything which promotes human and social happiness, let us ever remember our dependence for all these on the protecting and merciful dispensations of Divine Providence.”
–President John Tyler, December 7, 1841, exactly 100 years before Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Veterans listed at the Crazy Mountain Museum; Cemetery; Cole Drug
Montana’s birthday: Montana is the only state with a triple divide – meaning water from Glacier National Park flows into the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Hudson Bay. The Montana Yogo Sapphire is said to be the only gem from North America included in the Crown Jewels of England. This year’s Capitol Christmas tree comes from the Kootenai National Forest. It started its trek from Montana to D.C. recently. (Senator Daines email)
Writer—plagiarize and edit myself—slightly stream-of-consciousness message tonight…
Wise Founding Father
I have quoted America’s first president in many of my articles over the years. I most often cite one particular statement. But first, I want to ask what you think is George Washington’s greatest legacy for America? His victory over the British and others during his superb military career? His legendary aversion to bullets, flying through is jacket but not him? His prayers and ability to retain vague order and morale at Valley Forge among his rag-tag army? His becoming the first president of the United States? His amazing choice to step down from power and popularity after two terms – setting a standard that remains with us today? His marital fidelity to Martha in their beautiful mansion at Mount Vernon – even though he loved another woman? Or is it enough that his name and face appear on schools, streets, currency, and cities all over the country?
For myself, I consider the evidence of Washington’s faith in the biblical Trinity to be his greatest legacy – both for himself and for his country.
Ok, now for the quote. This is how General Washington replied when the Continental Congress offered him near-dictatorial powers around the end of America’s War for Independence, in 1783:
“Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear in mind that as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.”
How can we describe this? Wise – seeing his potential to destroy a good thing through personal ambition. Humble – not believing himself to be the epitome of America. Merciful – seeking to establish liberty through means that themselves bolster freedom, unlike, say, much of the French Revolution. Noble, courageous, and dutiful also come to mind.
Good leaders are wary of their own success and of the faith others have in their success. I love the tone this set for his later life (such as stepping down from the presidency). Matthew 25 says those who are faithful over a few things will receive greater responsibilities in the future.
From the Flag to the Cross
I love and respect this flag behind me – but I love and need this cross even more. I do not know about you but I believe many Christians in America overemphasize current events, politics, and politicians. We are rightly grieved over widespread godlessness in our culture. But God may let certain evils wax strong in our nation because His people trust too much in man and too little in Him for the future.
Consider Isaiah 31: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!”
This often occurs after a tragedy, such as the deadly hurricanes or mass shootings we have seen recently. It is important to recall that these things were unthinkable prior to Genesis 3. It can be easy to look to the government for help, or criticize it for its response.
Of course, many committed Christians jump in to aid despondent victims—bearing and honoring the name of Christ on the ground and in prayer from a thousand miles away. Yet as the weakness of men’s efforts inevitably sink in, attention to those efforts often ironically increases—with God sliding onto the back burner in many people’s minds.
Not that “letting go and letting God” has any biblical basis. God made man to rule over the world and commands His people to love one another. But for Christians combatting evil and suffering, God needs to be their ultimate motivator, enabler, sustainer, and goal. This can be hard!
In contrast to Isaiah 31, believers can proclaim Psalm 20—on good days: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Even on bad days, the man of God can cry Psalm 42: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”
I humbly desire to remind believers—as I remind myself—that our love for Jesus and security in Him are supposed to supersede all other objects of affection and sources of peace. This is pivotal in redirecting ourselves from the flag to the cross.
Is Man or God Normal?
The word “normal” can have positive, neutral, or negative connotations. For example, if you call your day “normal,” maybe you were pain-free for the first time all year, possibly nothing strange happened, or perhaps you were bored. As for God, the Bible proclaims His praises so boldly that calling Him “normal” could sound blasphemous.
To answer the title question, juxtapose the common activities of man and God with their original or actual nature. If man is normal, then his thoughts, words, and deeds often or always match his nature. The same goes for God. In this sense, “normal” relates more to accurate versus inaccurate than positive versus negative.
I believe man is entirely abnormal. In the creation story, God called His work “very good” after He created Adam and Eve. They had never sinned, there was no curse, and life and reality were as similar to heaven on earth as we ever knew.
No one knows how long the first man and woman followed God’s original plan for their lives—a day, a decade? But until that first transgression, they were not only innocent—they were normal. Their actions matched their nature, which was both moral and immortal. Through wickedness we became permanently abnormal. Death and danger threaten every soul—except those whom Jesus Christ glorifies in heaven following repentance and faith in Him.
What about God? Does His conduct match His character? If normal means living out exactly who oneself is supposed to be, then God is the embodiment of normalcy! The Bible supports this again and again. A favorite of mine is in James 1: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Were He less than normal, the universe would be in chaos—if it would exist at all.
God’s perfect track record includes offering love, grace, mercy, and justice to all of His creation, particularly in sending Jesus Christ into this world as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14). Yet when the Son of God died on the cross and rose again on the third day—the least imaginable but most powerful event in history—Jesus also did something even greater than extend salvation to all who believe in Him. John 17 cites Jesus and God, His “righteous Father,” as giving glory and love, one to the other…and that is the most normal thing the biblical Triune God ever does!
How Much Can We Know God?
Merriam-Webster’s defines “knowledge” as “the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association,” or as “the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning.”
If we have knowledge about something, we communicate about it with some level of authority. If a baseball pitcher tells you about curve balls, you accept his comments intuitively. If he tells the “Mona Lisa” is a mountain in Qatar – then you end the conversation!
This goes for knowing someone, too. If I tell you about my two boys, you might politely listen and believe what I am saying. If you did not, I may reasonably take offense. But if I don’t know you, and if I am in no position to have any information about your family, yet I try to inform you about them, I might offend you.
Street-level English usage weakens the power of the concept of knowledge or knowing. “Do you know so-and-so?” “Yes. I met him once a few years ago.” The correct answer should be, “No. But I met him once a few years ago.” The difference is subtle, but significant.
Knowing someone – including God – requires some effort on our part, along with some kind of permission and / or enabling on His part. Romans 5 calls it “access.” The NKJV of the Bible notes the “knowledge of God” three times in the Old Testament and five in the New Testament. The phrase “know God” occurs twice in the O.T. and five times in the N.T. Each time, knowing God is portrayed as good, not knowing Him is shown as bad.
Knowing God is very possible, because of how available God has made Himself to mankind – such as in creation, salvation, and ultimately, glorification with Him forever. But do you ever ponder how much, quantitatively, we can ever know God?
Take your spouse, your sibling, your child, your parent, your best friend. What percentage of their beliefs, dreams, feelings, personalities, skills, and schedules do you think you know? Fifty percent sounds pretty good.
Let’s try a quick test. Whether you last saw that person a minute ago or a month ago, where is he or she this instant, what are they doing, and how is their day going? How many times today, and at what intensity, have they prayed or reminisced about anything great or terrible in their past? Maybe you know their biggest fears, sins, talents, and hopes: but do you know the last five times each of those things permeated their minds? Are you aware of the minute they woke up today, the last time they coughed, where they were when they last ran out of breath, when they plan on their next physical activity and what tiny goals they may have about it, which book they want to read next, or the most recent time they felt 100% secure in a close relationship?
Well, even if your imagined percentage has shrunk, you still likely know that person better than most people, right? How well we know another person reflects how close we are with them. This goes for God, too.
But man is finite; God is infinite; therefore our knowledge of Him is infinitely small. In fact, I think this logically means we cannot know God at all! Say I want to count to infinity. I count as fast as I can for three days straight: no food, water, or sleep, and I keep counting in the bathroom. Maybe I get to 1 million, which would be about four numbers per second. Not bad (but a waste of time, and no, I’ve never tried it). But at 1 million, despite all my effort, I am not the tiniest fraction of a percent closer to infinity than I was three days ago. If I were, then infinity would not be infinity. It simply would be a really big – but knowable – number!
So, too, with God. He is infinite not only in time and space, but also in holiness, power, glory, love, and even knowledge…to name a few. We can (and should) try our best to get to know Him, but mathematically, at least, we can never know Him one little bit. If we could, then eventually we would be able to get to know Him two little bits, then three, then fifty, and entirely. But in all these cases, He would be less than infinite.
Do you remember the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11? God did not confuse their language and stop their building because He feared them. They never would have made it to heaven anyway! He simply forced them to recall their humanity and humility, and upheld the glory of His name and presence in their midst.
The Bible frequently reveals God’s awesome greatness (incomplete list of 30+ passages, if you want). God is unassailable, unapproachable, and unmatchable. He is vast, holy, loving, merciful, gracious, faithful, powerful, and more. But we toss these words around easily and casually. We have no idea what it is like to have any, let alone all, these traits – perfectly.
This is where the best news comes along. If the infinite God designs and controls these infinite wonders, then He – and only He – can transcend His own incomprehensible nature to create a portal, so to speak, by which we can see and hear and know and love Him. Unlike infinity, the number, which reveals nothing about itself to us, God can and has bridged the gap between us and Himself.
How do we know? The Bible offers many answers. Passages on the “knowledge of God” include the following:
~ Proverbs 2: “Search for [wisdom] as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”
~ Hosea 6: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
~ 2 Corinthians 10: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
~ And Colossians 1 relates Paul’s prayer that God’s children may be “fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
These verses show it is both possible and advisable to grow in our understanding of God. Their broader contexts also convey that this happens via faith in Jesus, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” The Bible describes several of God’s saints as His friends, children, and heirs. And one cannot retain these holy designations without knowing God.
That is it: God is too great to be known at all; yet He has made Himself known to whoever repents of their sins and follows Him. He has made the impossible possible, through the improbable death and resurrection of His Son! I do not know how much God’s children will get to know Him in Heaven. But Revelation 3 provides an amazing glimpse: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. (Note God’s initiative.) If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Now, that is knowledge!
Conclusion
In his 600-year-old best-seller, The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis seeks to show people how they can follow Christ completely and constantly. Anything less, for any amount of time, he explains, is not only wrong, but it also should be out of the question. Jesus lovingly and willingly gave His all for us, and He asks the same in return.
I underlined a lot in The Imitation. Of course, a Kempis is not on par with the Bible, but here are some lines I really appreciated:
“A humble peasant who serves God is better than the proud astronomer who knows how to chart the heavens’ stars but lacks all knowledge of himself.”
“Be willing to suffer a little for Christ…there are many who suffer far worse things to achieve worldly advancement.”
“I am unable to offer You the praise and gratitude I ought, even for the least of Your benefits.”
Who is it that can know and follow Christ? The Bible says Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s great Russian novel, Crime and Punishment, gives a beautiful picture of this regarding the book’s protagonist: Raskolnikov. After his crime early in the tale, Raskolnikov starts seeing cracks in his worldview which had led him to murder. Someone whose own wrecked life God was redeeming, Sonia, patiently guided him toward truth and repentance.
In a remarkable passage, Sonia concludes reading part of John’s Gospel to Raskolnikov:
“‘That is all about the raising of Lazarus,’ she whispered severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not daring to raise her eyes to him. She still trembled feverishly. The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.”
Closing Prayer
“All of us – at home, at war, wherever we may be – are within the reach of God’s love and power. We all can pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of God’s will. We should ask for courage, wisdom, for the quietness of soul which comes alone to them who place their lives in His hands.”
–President Harry S Truman, 1950
