Gossip: the hope of sinners

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    [Jesus] did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
    —John 2:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Browning ... tells us that what won him for Christ was this, that while others tried to soothe his angry conscience, and kept urging that, really, things were not nearly so bad as he was making out, Christ looked him in the eyes and told him bluntly that he was a desperate sinner, worse, much worse, even than he realized. And that, queerly enough as you might think, the man was not discomfited but heartened. Here at last, he felt, is one who understands and knows the facts. And since His desperate diagnosis is so accurate, may not His optimism also justify itself even in me. Well does He know what is in human nature, and yet, knowing the worst, He has still confident hope.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 90-91 (see the book)
    See also John 2:25; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 18:11; John 5:41-42; 6:64; Gal. 5:5; Tit. 3:4-7; Heb. 4:13; 1 Pet. 1:3-5; 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know the evil that is in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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