Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SATURDAY, August 28 (Augustine of Hippo)
John 8:12-20. My judgment is valid.
The real barrier to our welcoming of Jesus Christ is not a sophisticated mind but an unworthy life. Sin is often the obstacle; there are things in our lives which we will have to abandon if Christ comes in. That is why the world rejects him. If he came in, the war and greed in our lives, and many a social evil they have produced, would have to go. So he is still despised and rejected of men.
You, too, may be saying—perhaps not out loud but in your heart—“There is no room, no room at all.” If someone says that with vehement determination, barring the door against Christ and choosing to live with company that would have to leave were Christ to enter, how can a preacher’s words melt that deliberate refusal?
But if some are saying “no room” humbly, because their lives seem too soiled to welcome so great a guest, then there is hope. He did not come at first to a palace, but to a stable, and through the centuries since he never has despised the common, vulgar, and soiled dwelling places. Such are his ways. He seeks us out wherever and however we are living our lives. And what amazing consequence has come to those who have welcomed him! (1977)
Pray for the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) and the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway (Scotland)
Ps 20, 21:1-7(8-14) * 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117; Job 9:1; 10:1-9, 16-22; Acts 11:1-18
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The thought that there is, "company [in my heart] that would have to leave were Christ to enter" is compelling.
I see them in there, lurking in the shadows of my heart.