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Photo credit: "Love" by Little Nora
Photo credit: matt_soThe words which all of us shall one Day hear sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints, but of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books, but of cups of cold water in the name of Christ.
--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond..
When a man becomes a Christian the natural process is this: The Living Christ enters into his soul. Development begins. The quickening Life seizes upon the soul, assimilates surrounding elements, and begins to fashion it. According to the great Law of Conformity to Type this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who fashions. And all through Life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet perfectly definite, process, goes on "until Christ be formed" in it.
--from Natural Law by Henry Drummond
It is not hard to give up our rights. They are often eternal. The difficult thing is to give up ourselves. The more difficult thing still is not to seek things for ourselves at all. After we have sought them, bought them, won them, deserved them, we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already. Little cross then to give them up. But not to seek them, to look every man not on his own things, but on the things of others--that is the difficulty. "Seekest thou great things for thyself?" said the prophet; "seek them not." Why? Because there is no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste.
--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond..
Let man choose Life; let him daily nourish his soul; let him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living branch in the Vine, and the True-Vine Life will flow into his soul, assimilating, renewing, conforming to Type, till Christ, pledged by His own law, be formed in him.
--from Beautiful Thoughts by Henry Drummond..
We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved us. . . And that is how the love of God melts down the unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the new creature, who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish.
--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond..
What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Though perfect, we read that He learned obedience, and grew in wisdom and in favor with God. Do not quarrel, therefore, with your lot in life. Do not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you see it not; and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles. You remember Goethe's words: "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of life." Talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer, of faith, of meditation, of seeing the unseen; character grows in the stream of the world's life. That chiefly is where men are to learn love.
--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond..
Few of us are truly satisfied with the person in our mirror. We look in the glass in passing and the voices start. Too fat. Too thin. Too short. Too tall. Why can't I have more hair, fewer wrinkles? It's so unfair that her skin is clear and mine looks like the surface of the moon. Any of these voices sound familiar?
Maybe the voices don't mention the physical. Maybe they criticize deeper, question who you are as a person. Why can't you be a better father, mother, brother, sister? So you think you're a follower of Christ? Ha! How could He love someone as messed up as you? Maybe if you weren't so spineless and had some will-power you could be a good person.
And that's where the big lie comes sneaking into our hearts, the lie that somehow if we just try hard enough we can measure up to God's standards. But the truth is that our own efforts toward self-perfection will only lead to frustration. Only by "letting go and letting God" can we know the changes that are needed to make us into the people that the mirrors of self-reflection can't pick apart.
Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does.
--from Beautiful Thoughts by Henry Drummond
Life depends upon contact with Life. It cannot spring up out of itself. It cannot develop out of anything that is not Life. There is no Spontaneous Generation in religion any more than in Nature. Christ is the source of Life in the Spiritual World; and he that hath the Son hath Life, and he that hath not the Son, whatever else he may have, hath not Life.
--from Beautiful Thoughts by Henry Drummond
Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread, and the Oil of Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor on with a Garment of Praise it will be better for them than blankets.
--from Beautiful Thoughts by Henry Drummond
Why is it so easy to say we love and so hard to show it? Perhaps it is because we are at our core terribly self-absorbed. We are so concerned with having our own needs and wants met throughout the day that any love we have is left as a feeling and not an action. Yet showing love is what we, as Christians, should be all about.
"Where Love is, God is. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. God is Love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very easy;
especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure; for that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit."
--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond
How old are you on the inside? Rarely do our calendar years correspond to the age we feel in our mind's view. That's why the 70-year-old grandma can't figure out who that old person is in the mirror. After all, she can see past the wrinkles and gray hair to the 21-year-old college girl within her. Why can't other people see her in the same way?
The truth is that our physical age is irrelevant. We are eternal creatures, designed to live forever with our Creator. These bodies grow, age, and eventually wear out, but the inner child of God lives on, hopefully growing daily in the knowledge and wisdom of his Lord, slowly but surely conforming to Christ's image. Take time to recapture that child-like spirit as you reflect on Him today.
"The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore PUT ON CHRIST." -- Henry Drummond
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