Monday, September 22, 2008

man-made "Bubbles"


Still finishing Luther's Works, Volume 21: Sermon on the Mount and Magnificat, p. 340.

Mary says: "He has shown strength with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts."

"On the other hand, God lets the other half of mankind become great and mightily to exalt themselves. He withdraws His power from them and lets them puff themselves up in their own power alone. For where man's strength begins, God's strength ends. When their bubble is full blown, and everyone supposes them to have won and overcome, and they themselves feel smug in their achievement, then God pricks the bubble, and it is all over. The poor dupes do not know that even while they are puffing themselves up and growing strong they are forsaken by God, and God's arm is not with them. Therefore their prosperity has its day, disappears like bubble, and is as if it had never been."

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