“Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
— Jesus, Luke 5
Seeing Jesus (Luke 8:26-39)
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”
— Annie Dillard
Discipleship 101 (Luke 8:22-25)
“Whate’er my God ordains is right, Holy his will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does, and follow where he guideth.
He is my God, though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall, wherefore to him I leave it all.”
— Samuel Rodigast (d.1708)
Fully God and Fully Man (Luke 7:11-17)
“Following, then, the holy Fathers, we all unanimously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us One and the same Son, the Self-same Perfect in Godhead, the Self-same Perfect in Manhood; truly God and truly Man…
One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten; acknowledged in Two Natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the difference of the Natures being in no way removed because of the Union, but rather the properties of each Nature being preserved, and both concurring into One Person… not as though He were parted or divided into Two Persons, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ…”
— The Chalcedonian Definition, 451 AD
Powerfully Proclaim the Works of the Father (John 10:22-42)
The King of Love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever.
Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul He leadeth,
And, where the verdant pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.
Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me;
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing brought me.
In death’s dark vale, I fear no ill
With Thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thine unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From Thy pure chalice floweth.
And so through all the length of days,
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house forever.
—The King of Love My Shepherd Is, Henry Baker
A Revelation of Affection (Jonah 1:17)
“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the sea, and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds you so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break, with blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and He will make it plain.”
—William Cowper, God Moves in a Mysterious Way