The Kiss

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  “Ryabovitch pulled the bed-clothes over his head, curled himself up in bed, and tried to gather together the floating images in his mind and to combine them into one whole. But nothing came of it. He soon fell asleep, and his last thought was that someone had caressed him and made him happy—that something extraordinary, foolish, but joyful and delightful, had come into his life. The thought did not leave him even in his sleep. When he woke up the sensations of oil on his neck and the chill of peppermint about his lips had gone, but joy flooded his heart just as the day before.” The Kiss By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)

The Twofold Message of Grace

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“The twofold message of grace is: 1.) “All flesh is grass!” and 2.) “Behold your God!” This is the message that takes away all of the glory and dignity of the flesh and proclaims the redemptive Glory of Christ. The results of this message will be a sense of the awesome holiness of God, the inability and sinfulness of the flesh and the total sufficiency of the Person and work of Christ. Perhaps once again we will hear men and women cry, “Depth of mercy can there be, mercy still reserved for me? Can my God, His wrath forbear, and me, the chief of sinners, spare?”

Rolfe Barnard (1904-1969)

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