All Saints' (5) Julian of Norwich

"Just as our flesh is covered by clothing, and our blood is covered by our flesh, so are we, soul and body, covered and enclosed by the goodness of God. Yet, the clothing and the flesh will pass away, but the goodness of God will always remain and will remain closer to us than our own flesh.
God only desires that our soul cling to him with all of its strength, in particular, that it clings to his goodness. For of all of the things our minds can think about God, it is thinking upon his goodness that pleases him most and brings the most profit to our soul.
For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.
Therefore we may ask from our Lover to have all of him that we desire. For it is our nature to long for him, and it is his nature to long for us. In this life we can never stop loving him."

All Saints' (4) John Howard Yoder

"The challenge to the faith community should not be to dilute or filter or translate its witness, so that the 'public' community can handle it without believing, but so to purify and clarify and exemplify it so that the world can perceive it to be good news."

From "Firstfruits: The Paradigmatic Role of God's People"

(Although I've read a book about his theology, I've never actually read a book by John Howard Yoder! I found a "simplified summary" of his most recognized book, The Politics of Jesus, online. In addition, I found an article in which Stanley Hauerwas reflects on this saintly brother soon after Yoder's death.)

All Saints' (3) William Law

"A Christ not in us is the same thing as a Christ not ours. If we are only so far with Christ as to own and receive the history of his birth, person and character, if this is all that we have of him, we are as much without him as those evil spirits which cried out 'we know thee, who thou art, thou holy one of God.' It is the language of Scripture that Christ in us is our hope of glory, that Christ formed in us, growing and raising his own life and spirit in us, is our holy salvation."

Many of William Law's works may be found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

All Saints' (2) C.S. Lewis

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier.

Christ says, "Give me All.

I don't want so much of your time

and so much of your money

and so much of your work:

I want You.

I have not come to torment your natural self,

but to kill it.

No half-measures are any good.

I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there,

I want to have the whole tree down.

Hand over the whole natural self,

all the desires which you think innocent

as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit.

I will give you a new self instead.

In fact, I will give you Myself:

my own will shall become yours."

Both harder and easier that what we are all trying to do.

You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself

sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard,

sometimes as very easy.

He says, "Take up your Cross"--in other words,

it is like going to be beaten to death

in a concentration camp.

Next minute he says,

"My yoke is easy and my burden light."

He means both.

And one can just see why both are true.

From Mere Christianity

All Saints' (1) Leonard Ravenhill

"Time was when people went to church to meet God. Now they go to hear a sermon about Him."

From Revival God's Way: A Message for the Church

(A selection of Leonard Ravenhill's audio sermons are available here.)

All Hallow's Eve

So...this is my one and only post for October. I guess it's not surprising, seeing as how I'm a creature of starts and spurts. It's not what I had intended when I began this blog, but it was bound to happen.

I plan to continue exploring the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134), but who knows how long that will take.

This evening, as I write, there is a candle burning in front of my house. It burns as a witness and a commemoration. In my own small way, I wish to say that I have put on Christ. He has claimed me as His own. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

At the same time, I'd like to reclaim All Saints' Day. So, the candle burns to remember the faithful who have gone before and to announce my solidarity with them in Christ.

During the month of November, I intend to post a small quote daily from some of my favorite men and women who have loved the Lord (and others) heroically and given themselves fully to the task of loving.

Kate Tristram says:

The life of a saint is not the life of a great man or woman,
but of God's life in an ordinary man or woman.
Saints' days are not all about that saint:
but about a celebration of Christ. ...
Remembering the saints
gives us a bigger idea of the things of God.
When Elisha's servant saw the enemy chariots
(2 Kings 6:15-16), he had to have his eyes opened
so that he could see God's chariots of fire.
It was such a big view of God that Elisha had,
and now his servant could share in that.
This is exactly how the saints can help us:
if ever we feel outnumbered,
remember that we never get to see the whole church.

Thank you, God, for showing Yourself in the lives of these--Your children. May Your life flood into me, and may I too be conformed to the image of Love through the power of your Spirit.

Psalm 121

Translating this psalm helped me understand and appreciate it more. So did Eugene Peterson's insights. So, here are a few observations on this Song of Ascents (#2 of 15).

First, here's a translation--

Song of Ascents. I raise my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? My help is from YHWH, Maker of heavens and earth. May He not give your feet to a shaking, not fall asleep watching over you.
Now please understand. He will not doze off and will not sleep! He is the Guardian of Israel!
YHWH is protecting you. YHWH is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not beat on me, nor the moon by night.
YHWH will protect you from all evil. He will guard your life. YHWH will watch over your going forth and your coming, from now until eternity.

The italicized words are all from a single Hebrew root--shamar. The fact that it is used six times in eight verses seems to make it the key word in this Psalm.

I had never understood the image of the Lord being a "shade" at my right hand. The dictionary I used (Holladay) describes this shade as that of a tree, a roof, or a cloud. It is an image of shelter or protection. For someone like me with very fair skin, such shelter (especially pre-sunscreen) can hardly be overvalued. The psalmist then connects this image with an interesting location..."at my right hand." This is the place that an honored person would take. God, the Almighty, the Honored One, is my shade. He not only protects me from trials. He also provides comfort. He "shamar"s me. He watches over me.

Peterson sees three dangers in this psalm: twisting one's ankle, sunstroke, and moonstroke (lunacy). Do Christians not suffer such trials? Sure they do. But we know where to look for help--to the Lord who accompanies us every step of the way. We need not look to the hills (where the pagan shrines were set up). No, this world's remedies are vacuous. God is with us. His love is constant. He will watch over our going and coming, from now until eternity.
May our trust not be in the remedies of pop culture magazines, nor in the numbing escape of prime-time TV. May we rely on Him who guards our soul, both night and day.

I end by quoting Eugene Peterson:
"All the water in the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: 'The LORD will keep you from all evil.'...None of the things that happen to you, none of the troubles you encounter, have any power to get between you and God, dilute his grace in you, divert his will from you."
(A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 38-39)
"Faith is not a precarious affair of chance escape from satanic assaults. It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who keeps our life, who keeps our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore." (p. 41)