July 19, 2013 Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin Bible Text: For it is God which workethin you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. —Philippians 2:13 Devotional: But I have heard that God, of his infinite goodness, has touched your heart, so that you desire to be a Christian, not in name only but in reality. If I may express myself thus, it is because the word Christian passes glibly indeed from the lips of all, but when it is required of us to humble ourselves beneath the gospel, which is the sceptre by which Jesus Christ wills to reign over us, almost all shrink back; in which fact we see that it is but too common a thing from hypocrisy to wear like a mask the title of Christian, and by so doing profane it. And it is not a small nor a vulgar virtue to approve by deeds that we desire to be the disciples of the Son of God, to the end that he also may avow us for his disciples. For that reason you are so much the more bound to recognize the mercy of God in advancing you thus far. For it is not of our own impulse that we come thitherward, but only inasmuch as he has been pleased to draw us. And that this goodness may have greater lustre by being better known, he has chosen us out and set us apart from among those to whom we are otherwise alike. —Correspondence
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 03:40:42 +0000