MacDonald: on shame

Thursday, February 24, 2011
Meditation:
    If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
    —2 Corinthians 3:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do you so love the truth and the right that you welcome, or at least submit willingly to the idea of an exposure of what in you is yet unknown to yourself—an exposure that may redound to the glory of the truth by making you ashamed and humble?... Are you willing to be made glad that you were wrong when you thought others were wrong?... We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future. It will not hurt us so long as we do not try to hide things, so long as we are ready to bow our heads in hearty shame where it is fit that we should be ashamed. For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Shame is a thing to shame only those who want to appear, not those who want to be. Shame is to shame those who want to pass their examination, not those who would get into the heart of things... To be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of truth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Final Unmasking”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 235-236, 238 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, expose all the dark places in my heart to Your cleansing light. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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