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Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Turn Thy Face Unto Us

Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness.

Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom. All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.

We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory. Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect.

(St.) Augustine of Hippo, 400 A.D.

Glory to God

Glory to You, Lord God, bringing from the depth of the earth an endless variety of colors, tastes and scents;
Glory to You for the warmth and tenderness of the world of nature;
Glory to You for the numberless creatures around us;
Glory to You for the depths of Your wisdom, the whole world a living sign of it;
Glory to You: on my knees, I kiss the traces of Your unseen hand;
Glory to You, enlightening us with the clearness of eternal life;
Glory to You for the hope of the unutterable, imperishable beauty of immortality;
Glory to You, O God, from age to age.

Akathist of Thanksgiving, Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov 1940. 7/2017

Meditation

“The Christian experience, from start to finish, is a journey of faith.”

~ Watchman Nee

Benediction

Finally, may I go forth filled with the joy and confidence of your Spirit; and may everything I do this day, in word or deed, be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Semi-Christians

Galatians 3:2-5 (Daily Prayer Bible)

only want you to tell me one thing: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the Law, or by faith, from hearing and believing the Gospel? Do you really intend to rely on your flesh, which could not begin your salvation, to perfect it? It would be insanity. Would you simply throw away the benefits of the tribulation you have suffered?

You have seen miracles worked in you, and you have known the presence of the Spirit. Did this come about because you relied on works of the Law, or because you relied on faith?

Verbatim Bible

Notes on the Scripture

Paul vs. the Judaizers (Galatians #27)

We have been looking at almost the same short passage of Galatians for four days, but now we have the payoff: The fundamental contribution of Paul to Christian theology, which begins here in Galatians. Although it was the rallying cry of Martin Luther and the Reformation, it is now accepted by every Christian denomination: “Salvation by faith”.

We can now identify with reasonable assurance at least one major “false gospel” that Paul so vehemently cursed in Galatians 1: the teachings of a sect called the Judaizers, who believed that all Christians had to become Jews. This involved both physical circumcision (for men) and obedience to the Law of Moses (for all).

If we find this strange, we must remember two things about the early church. First, as far as we know, it did not have a written Gospel. The Gospel of Mark, the first one written, was almost surely finished many years after this epistle, and even then, it would be a long and labor-intensive process to have it copied and delivered to the various churches. To the early Christians, “Scripture” was mostly the Jewish Scripture, our Old Testament, together with whatever Epistles and scraps of Gospel they could get. (Evidence suggests that there were several early Gospel scraps that were later incorporated into our four Gospels.)

Secondly, Jesus was himself a practicing Jew. He was circumcised and celebrated the festivals, as far as we know, exactly according to the Law. Moreover, since the Law of Moses was (and is) the actual Law of God, we might infer that Jesus followed it perfectly, and was the only human being ever to do so. Saying He was justified before God by the Law, however, would be going too far. As the Son of God, He needed no justification; He was guilty in the eyes of men, but innocent in the eyes of the Father, simply by virtue of the identity of His person.

But more importantly, Jesus' most prominent human characteristic was His faith. In fact, the faith of Jesus is arguably a key to our salvation. We have discussed the ambiguity of the concept “faith in Christ” (the pistis Xristou problem) previously, and sooner or later we will have to devote a day to it. But for now, realize that “faith in Christ” may not mean what it sounds like, but may actually refer to the faith “of” Christ. All of the Gospels, and especially John, make this emphatically clear by their descriptions of the time spent in Gethsemane preceding the crucifixion.

The initial and pre-eminent requirement for salvation is faith. Faith occurs in our spirit. It is a relationship with God of total trust and a desire for obedience. We can be good people, apparently perfect in our conduct, devoting our lives to others in utter humility and total love; but God will still see us as sinners, unless we have faith: 1) faith in Christ, 2) faith like that of Christ, and 3) the faith of Christ Himself which, like His sacrifice and resurrection, has already been given to us.

Daily Inspiration

“Faith”

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