07/10
Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
Liberty Comes from God
Liberty comes from God. Anyone, therefore, who seeks to love liberty and to joy liberty, must be like to God; that is, the one shall be as faithful, humble and pure as God. By thus knowing the fountain of liberty, we are constrained not to abuse liberty. Liberty is divine because it is inherent in God.
07/11
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a spirit of freedom. Psalms 51: 7-12
Purify My Nation
Oh, God, not bless my fellow nation with riches and honors. They already possess superfluous wealth that excessively corrupted them. Oh, my God of love, not inflict further burden of sins upon them and drive them from corruption to ruin. Yea, my God, take the source of their riches and bestow upon them famine. Or, if unavoidable, open up a new volcano and let the torrents of lava cover up their houses and fields. My God of love, purify the souls of this nation by whatever measures Your will take. Only I beseech my Father, give this nation a spiritual rebirth; transform this a country into true faith; revolutionize this nation like England of the seventeenth century.
07/12
You love Jesus Christ; in whom not yet seeing, but believing in Him you exult with unspeakable joy, and having been glorified, obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1: 8-9
What is Faith
Faith is first of all faithfulness, second trust, and third practice. Faith without one of these essentials is not true faith. There is no other faith that brings salvation than the faith of three essentials. Thus, the way of faith is clear and evident as the shining sun.
07/13
I do pray for those who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. John 17:20-22
What is Christianity?
Christianity is not an institution, a church, or churches; neither is it creed, nor dogma, nor theology; neither is it a book, the Bible, nor even the words of Christ. Christianity is a person, a living person, Lord Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13: 8). If Christianity is not this ever-present living Christ, it is nothing. I go directly to Him, and not through the Pope, bishops, and other priests of churches. "I in them, and they in Me," says He to His disciples. When Christianity ceases to be this world and become of the world to come, the need of earthly churches shall disappear.
07/14
Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. Amos 8:11
God's Punishment
God's punishment, if any, shall not be failure of an enterprise, nor hard living, nor sickness, nor breakdown of family, nor even death itself. None of these is to be deemed woe, unhappiness or Heavenly punishment. But God's punishment, if any, shall be the inability to know God, inability to foresee the future and the Heavenly Nation, inability to understand the Bible though studied, inability to delight in thankfulness, and inability to view the providence and whole creation of God. This is, in its truest sense, the punishment of God.
07/15
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Romans 13: 8
Debt of Life
Human comes to the world indebted and grows under debts, and leaves the world by redeeming one's liabilities. Yea, Human ought to leave the world after repaying one's debts. Human owes one's country, one's community, one's parents, one's teachers, and one's friends. One was not born of one's own accord, has not grown by oneself, and cannot die for oneself. Human as such is the product of the society and the age. One cannot reflect upon oneself and say, "I owe nobody anything." Yea, anyone who admits these liabilities and wants to redeem oneself diligently and joyfully, one is a patriot, a brave person, a dutiful child, a loyal disciple, and a true friend.
07/16
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a living heart . Ezekiel 11:19
Rebirth
When we hear that God's son Christ shed His blood on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins, and when we believe this, sin is no longer able to dominate over us. We will then break out sin, love righteousness, and seek God, our true and personal Father. Life is then full of light and joy, without any more fear of death, yet with love even towards our enemy; in fact, a great change will occur in our heart.
07/17
The rod and reproof give wisdom; but a child left to oneself brings one's mother to shame. Proverbs 29:15
Train Children
Blessing is a child that has stern father, mother and teacher. The true feast of truth can never be enjoyed by anyone who merely cries for liberation from "the rod and reproof" in all its forms. Modern people dislike John the Baptist, and want to approach Jesus without any rigorous training. First let us enter the primary school of righteousness, so that we may be entitled to enter the university of the Gospel. Like Andrew, first a good follower of John the Baptist could become one of the best disciples of Christ. Jesus spent His earthly life to illustrate the beginning of the Gospel. Remember this Gospel had its roots in the strictest life of John the Baptist.
07/18
For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ Jesus. For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power. Colossians 1:27-29
Sole Work
What we do for Christ is nothing; what Christ did for us is everything. Our works do not justify us before God; only Christ's work makes us holy, righteous and blameless before Him. And the present-day Christianity, by emphasizing the former, makes the latter non-sense. Not charity-works, evangelical works, various and miscellaneous works connected with these works, but the life and death of Christ, especially His death upon the cross is the work for our salvation and our example. Compared with this work, all other works cannot be called works. And believing in this work and looking up to it, all other works bear fruit. Right and true it is that Paul said: "I determined not to know anything, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2: 2). For Paul, Christ's work was his only work.
07/19
Render therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's. Matthew 22:21
Institution and Life
Institution cannot be compatible with life, although institution is also essential in this world. And the conflict between the institution and life is inevitable. This is human life as it is. Life is a great contradiction. But beneath the contradiction there is a great harmony. Life always makes a progress under the pressure of antagonizing power of institution. The progress of life aims at the appearance of the perfection. Jesus said "I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). And this life is unattainable unless under outward physical pressure. As freedom exists with oppression side by side, so this life does with institution. From this point of view, institution also is what God ordained, and is therefore to be respected, rather than rejected in any way. Let it kill me first and then perfect my life. Let the world force play its influence upon me, so that my life may be perfected, just like the Lord Jesus subjected Himself to the death sentence by Pilate and Caiaphas, even to the perfection of His life.
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