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Work on yourself


Tues­day. [II Cor. 8:16-9:5; Mark 3:13-19] The Lord chose the a­pos­tles, that they should be with Him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have pow­er to heal sick­ness­es, and to cast out dev­ils. Ev­ery Chris­tian is cho­sen — cho­sen for sim­i­lar deeds, name­ly: to be with the Lord, through un­ceas­ing re­mem­brance of Him and aware­ness of His om­ni­pres­ence, through the preach­ing and ful­fil­ment of His com­mand­ments, and through a read­i­ness to con­fess one’s faith in Him. In those cir­cles where such a con­fes­sion is made, it is a loud ser­mon for all to hear. Ev­ery Chris­tian has the pow­er to heal in­firm­i­ties — not of oth­ers, but his own, and not of the bod­y, but of the soul — that is, sins and sin­ful hab­its — and to cast out dev­ils, re­ject­ing evil thoughts sown by them, and ex­tin­guish­ing the ex­cite­ment of pas­sions en­flamed by them. Do this and you will be an apos­tle, a ful­filler of what the Lord chose you for, an ac­com­plisher of your call­ing as mes­sen­ger. When at first you suc­ceed in all this, then per­haps the Lord will ap­point you as a spe­cial am­bas­sa­dor — to save oth­ers af­ter you have saved your­self; and to help those who are tempt­ed, af­ter you your­self pass through all temp­ta­tions, and through all ex­pe­ri­en­ces in good and evil. But your job is to work up­on your­self: for this you are cho­sen; the rest is in the hands of God. He who hum­bles him­self shall be ex­alt­ed.


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