Savonarola: wonders

Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Meditation:
    What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
    —James 2:14-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you believe, where are your works? Your faith is something everyone knows, for everyone knows that Christ was [crucified], and that everywhere men pray to Him. The whole world knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by poor fishermen. O wise man, do you think the poor fishermen were not clever enough for this? Where they worked, there they made hearts better; where they could not work, there men remained bad; and therefore was the faith true and from God. The signs which the Lord had promised followed their teaching: in His name they drove out the devil; they spoke in new tongues; if they drank any deadly drink, they received therefrom no harm. Even if these wonders had not occurred, there would have been the wonder of wonders, that poor fishermen without any miracle could accomplish so great a work as the faith. It came from God, and so is Christ true, and Christ is thy God, who is in heaven and awaits thee.
    ... Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), The World’s Orators, Guy Carleton Lee, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900, p. 60 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:14-17; 2 King 4:39-41; Acts 4:13; Matt. 17:20; Mark 16:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let mine not be a dead faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth