The British power in America was broken this day, October 19, 1781, as 8000 British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. The following day, General George Washington called for a service to render thanksgiving to God: “In order to diffuse the general Joy through every Breast the General orders that… Divine Service be performed tomorrow in the several Brigades or Divisions. The Commander-in-Chief earnestly recommends that the troops not on duty should universally attend, with… gratitude of heart which the recognition of such… astonishing Interposition of Providence demands of us.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

Faith requires no apology.
And, if faith in God creates the problem,
it is surely understandable
that faith in God is going to answer it.
--- James S. Stewart


The course of human history consists of a series of encounters… in which each man or woman or child… is challenged by God to make [the] free choice between doing God’s will and refusing to do it. When Man refuses, he is free to make his refusal and to take the consequences.
--- Arnold Joseph Toynbee

... from here, there and everywhere

9     Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
[also] friendship sweet with advice from the heart.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                The unheeded secret

     My kingdom is not of this world. --- John 18:36.

     The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; … for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the life.

     We have to get rid of the plague of the spirit of the religious age in which we live. In Our Lord’s life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as his Master. The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men. It is not its practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College, its whole strength lies in the fact that here you are put into soak before God. You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad, and if you waste your time in over-active energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God’s Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes; but if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in God on the un-practical line, you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

Do you want to know his name?
  It is forgotten. Would you learn
  what he was like? He was like
  anyone else, a man with ears
  and eyes. Be it sufficient
  that in a church porch on an evening
  in winter, the moon rising, the frost
  sharp, he was driven
  to his knees and for no reason
  he knew. The cold came at him;
  his breath was carved angularly
  as the tombstones; an owl screamed.

He had no power to pray.
  His back turned on the interior
  he looked out on a universe
  that was without knowledge
  of him and kept his place
  there for an hour on that lean
  threshold, neither outside nor in.

R.S. Thomas, London: Macmillan, 1978. Frequencies

     One should note the parallel between the rarity of one who observes the commandments for their own sake and the rarity of one who has achieved intellectual excellence. Despite the rabbis’ emphasis on worship which is not based on self-interest, they were fully aware and responsive to the needs of those unable to attain this level. The talmudic tradition elaborated upon the developmental process underlying the progression from worship based on yirah (fear) and shelo lishmah (observing commandments or studying Torah not for their own sake) to ahavah (love) and lishmah (observing or studying Torah for its own sake). This gave Maimonides a structure with which to understand the relationship between individual and communal levels of worship.

     The rabbis, though committed to the need to transcend lower forms of religious experience, were careful not to develop a system catering solely to the elite. Antigonus was censored by the rabbis for revealing publicly what few individuals were capable of accepting. One must be circumspect when discussing the highest level of worship—love—with individuals who have not gone beyond that which is based on self-interest. The danger is not that the unique man recognizes as false that which the community accepts as true, but, rather, such a person is exposed to that which he cannot psychologically appropriate.

     Maimonides describes the reactions to Antigonus’ statement in his commentary to Avot:

     This Sage had two disciples, one named Zadok and the other named Boethius. When they heard him deliver the statement, they departed from him. The one said to his colleague, “Behold, the master expressly stated that man has neither reward nor punishment, and there is no expectation at all.” [They said this] because they did not understand his intention. The one lent support to his colleague and they departed from the community and forsook the Torah.

     One who evaluates the benefits of religious life in terms of self-interest will wrongly interpret statements stressing a disinterested worship of God as covert attempts to deny that God responds to man’s condition. “There is no hope!” is the response of a man in need when he is told to love God for His own sake. One who, for whatever reason, is tied exclusively to the pursuit of his physical needs, requires a god who relates directly to his condition of deprivation. The rabbis responded to this situation by legitimizing even those actions not based on pure motives:

     A man should always occupy himself with Torah and good deeds, though it is not for their own sake, for out of [doing good] with an ulterior motive there comes [doing good] for its own sake (T.B. Pesaḥim 50b).

     Purity of motive was not the only criterion used by talmudic tradition to evaluate the religious significance of human behavior. Maimonides recognized that the Talmud’s acceptance of imperfectly motivated actions was rooted in the belief that concrete action could lead to inwardness. Actions may lead to purity of motive even when initiated by impure motives.

     Besides this understanding of the psychological consequences of behavior, the rabbis were also motivated by their realistic understanding of communal needs. What is important in a social reality is how people act toward one another. One must appreciate that beneficial consequences can derive from imperfectly motivated actions. The man who gives charity while stipulating in his mind that he does so in order that he is rewarded and that his son recover from illness, is nevertheless declared a righteous man by the tradition. This person may be a philistine from the perspective of his motive, but at least the poor receive help. Those in need cannot wait until the individual heals his egocentricity. If one takes into account the needs of the poor and the deprived, one will be prepared to motivate action with a theology which promises abundant material rewards in return for compliance with religious norms.

     One does not require the teachings of Plato or al-Farabi to recognize the problem involved in attempting to embrace both individual excellence and responsibility to the community. The esoteric-exoteric distinction between theological models is not so much a function of truth as opposed to falsity, as it is a function of a perceptive understanding of levels of worship. The rabbis’ concern for excellence, ahavah and lishmah, was not compromised by their establishing minimal conditions in which all could participate, yirah and shelo lishmah.

     Philosophy, for Maimonides, serves as an instrument for raising the individual from worship at the level of yirah to the level of ahavah. Theoretical knowledge of God enables the individual to move from an observance based on self-interest to a purer observance of commandments. Philosophy offers the individual a God who is sought because of His perfection, and not only because He responds to man’s physical helplessness. That Maimonides thought philosophy had this effect is clear from the way he treats its importance in his legal works. One may disagree with Maimonides’ psychology and his conviction of the psychological consequences of philosophic development, yet one cannot ignore what he believed to be the human consequences of thought. To allege that philosophy is of little importance to Maimonides’ halakhic reader, as Husik does, is to miss Maimonides’ understanding of the direct bearing of philosophy upon one’s relationship to God and the commandments. Philosophy directs the halakhic Jew from a relationship to God based on reciprocity to a relationship based on pure love.

     The structure of the argument in Ḥelek reveals this understanding of philosophy. Immediately following a discussion of fear and love of God, Maimonides interrupts himself to describe the three approaches to Aggadah already discussed in chapter one. He concludes his description with the following statement:

     If, O reader, you belong to one of the first-named classes, do not pay any attention to any of my remarks on this subject, because not a word of it will suit you. On the contrary, it will harm you and you will dislike it. For how can food of lightweight and temperate character suit a person accustomed to partaking of bad and gross fare? It would really injure him, and he would loathe it.… If, however, you are of those who constitute the third class, and when you come across any of the Sages’ remarks which reason rejects, you pause and learn that it is a dark saying and an allegory. And if you then pass the night wrapped up in thought and dwelling in anxious reflection over its interpretation, mentally striving to find the truth and the correct point of view, … you will then consider this discourse of mine, and it will profit you, if God wills it.

     Why does Maimonides believe that he who reads Aggadah literally will find nothing satisfactory in his treatment of olam ha-ba? One may say that since Maimonides will offer a symbolic interpretation of many aggadot dealing with the messianic age, such a person would be repulsed by a non-literal conception of messianism. This plausible explanation does not go far enough. Before one can appropriate the true meaning of olam ha-ba and then an approach to Torah grounded in disinterested love, one must be committed to universal criteria of truth independent of traditional authority. One must first understand nature from the perspective of independent reason, in order then to understand and to appreciate Maimonides’ presentation of the relationship between the biblical God of history and the God of being.

     The relationship of man to God described in the Bible is reciprocal. The lord of history issues norms to man and promises—in return for man’s obedience—to satisfy all man’s material needs. In a time when God’s response to man is neither apparent nor visible, the expectation of an immediate historical response from God is replaced by messianism. Messianism and the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead essentially reflect the same model of man’s relationship to God as that found in the Bible; both doctrines merely postpone the time when God will reward those who comply with His will.

Hartman, D. (2009). Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest (See all Torah Books) .

     “Fits of depression come over most of us,” Charles Spurgeon once told his students. “The strong are not always vigorous, the joyous are not always happy.” Spurgeon himself was living proof, for he often suffered agonizing periods of depression. One of the worst occurred when he was only 22 years old. His congregation had outgrown its building, so Spurgeon arranged to rent Royal Surrey Garden’s Music Hall, London’s most commodious and beautiful building, for Sunday night services. Surrey Hall usually accommodated secular concerts, carnivals, and circuses. Using it as a place of worship was unheard of in its day, and the news spread through London like lightning.

     On Sunday morning, October 19, 1856, Spurgeon preached at New Park Street Chapel, saying: “I may be called to stand where the thunderclouds brew, where the lightnings play, and tempestuous winds are howling on the mountain top. Well, then, amidst dangers he will inspire me with courage; amidst toils he will make me strong; we shall be gathered together tonight where an unprecedented mass of people will assemble, perhaps from idle curiosity, to hear God’s Word; see what God can do, just when a cloud is falling on the head of him whom God has raised up to preach to you. … ”

     That evening 12,000 people streamed into Surrey Hall and an additional 10,000 overflowed into the surrounding gardens. The services started, but as Spurgeon rose to pray, someone shouted “Fire! Fire! The galleries are giving way!” There was no fire, but the crowd bolted in panic, and in the resulting stampede seven people were trampled to death. Twenty-eight more were hospitalized.

     The young preacher, reeling in shock, was literally carried from the pulpit to a friend’s house where he remained in seclusion for weeks. He wept by day and suffered terrifying dreams at night. He later said, “My thoughts were all a case of knives, cutting my heart to pieces.” At last, while meditating on Philippians 2:10, the Lord’s Word began to restore his soul.

     It was this disaster, horrible as it was, that vaulted Charles Spurgeon to overnight fame as a preacher all the world wanted to hear.

     So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, “Jesus Christ is Lord!”
--- Philippians 2:10,11.

Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

     A woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” --- Luke 11:27–28.

     The wonder is not that this woman spoke as she did but that people who hear the teaching of Jesus do not more often speak in his praise.(Spurgeon's Sermons on New Testament Women, Book 2 ) Of our blessed Lord his enemies said, “No one ever spoke the way this man does” (John 7:46). His very tone was melody, and his language was truth set to music. The doctrines that he taught were more than golden, they were light to the head and joy to the heart. He revealed the inmost heart of God and taught as never prophet or sage had before.

     This earnest woman did not mean, in the first place, to praise Christ’s mother. In the East, if they want to insult a man, they speak vilely of his mother; if they wish to honor him, they laud his mother to the skies.

     It was a brave speech for her to make, for the Savior had been confronted by persons of authority. They had spoken ill words of him. They had even dared to say that he cast out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of devils. When he had answered them wisely, this woman proclaimed his victory. If there is a time when not only enthusiasm suggests, but when affection compels us to speak for Christ, it is when others are opposing his name and cause. We cannot be silent when he is discredited. O Woman—your courage deserves our praise and our imitation! Oh, that we had a fire in our hearts burning as it did in yours, then would it consume the bonds that hold our tongues. Let us believe that when the current of thought around us runs in a wrong direction, such is the power of enthusiasm that one earnest, impassioned voice may turn it, and our Lord may yet win glory where now he is despised.

     To hear the Word of God and obey it is a blessing preferable to having been the mother of our Lord. We are sure of this because Jesus himself adjusts the scales of blessedness. We believe, on his authority, that though Mary was greatly blessed, yet even more emphatically are those blessed who hear the Word of God and obey it. This preference so truly given by the Master puts the highest blessedness within the reach of all of us.

     Notice that this preferable blessing is found in a very simple manner. “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” The process is stripped of all ambiguity or mystery. There is nothing about it that is hard or difficult: Hear the word and obey it; that is all.
--- C. H. Spurgeon

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

PROPER 24, WEDNESDAY
YEAR 1

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 38
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 119:25–48
Old Testament Lamentations 2:8–15
New Testament 1 Corinthians 15:51–58
Gospel Matthew 12:1–14

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 38

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.

1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger,
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 For your arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand has come down on me.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

5 My wounds grow foul and fester
because of my foolishness;
6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
all day long I go around mourning.
7 For my loins are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am utterly spent and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

9 O Lord, all my longing is known to you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,
and my neighbors stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares;
those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin,
and meditate treachery all day long.

13 But I am like the deaf, I do not hear;
like the mute, who cannot speak.
14 Truly, I am like one who does not hear,
and in whose mouth is no retort.

15 But it is for you, O LORD, that I wait;
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
16 For I pray, “Only do not let them rejoice over me,
those who boast against me when my foot slips.”

17 For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin.
19 Those who are my foes without cause are mighty,
and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 Those who render me evil for good
are my adversaries because I follow after good.

21 Do not forsake me, O LORD;
O my God, do not be far from me;
22 make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation.

PSALMS (EVENING)
Psalm 119:25–48

25 My soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to your word.
26 When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes.
27 Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.
29 Put false ways far from me;
and graciously teach me your law.
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your ordinances before me.
31 I cling to your decrees, O LORD;
let me not be put to shame.
32 I run the way of your commandments,
for you enlarge my understanding.

33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes,
and I will observe it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
36 Turn my heart to your decrees,
and not to selfish gain.
37 Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
give me life in your ways.
38 Confirm to your servant your promise,
which is for those who fear you.
39 Turn away the disgrace that I dread,
for your ordinances are good.
40 See, I have longed for your precepts;
in your righteousness give me life.

41 Let your steadfast love come to me, O LORD,
your salvation according to your promise.
42 Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me,
for I trust in your word.
43 Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your ordinances.
44 I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever.
45 I shall walk at liberty,
for I have sought your precepts.
46 I will also speak of your decrees before kings,
and shall not be put to shame;
47 I find my delight in your commandments,
because I love them.
48 I revere your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.

OLD TESTAMENT
Lamentations 2:8–15

8 The LORD determined to lay in ruins
the wall of daughter Zion;
he stretched the line;
he did not withhold his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
they languish together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
guidance is no more,
and her prophets obtain
no vision from the LORD.

10 The elders of daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth;
the young girls of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint
in the streets of the city.

12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.

13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
who can heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen oracles for you
that are false and misleading.

15 All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at daughter Jerusalem;
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?”

NEW TESTAMENT
1 Corinthians 15:51–58

51 Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

GOSPEL
Matthew 12:1–14

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10 a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary

     The Dead Sea Scrolls have made their way online some 2,000 years after they were written through a partnership between Google and Israel’s national museum.

     The important documents are available in searchable, high-resolution images, accompanied by informative videos, background information, and historical data. So far five of the scrolls have been digitized, including the biblical Book of Isaiah, the Temple Scroll, and three others.

     Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel, Professor Yossi Matias said they plan to add additional Dead Sea Scroll documents to the site in the future. The AP says nearly all the scrolls will be online by 2016. (PC Magazine)

     Here is technology at its best!           Click Here