Monday. [II Cor. 12:10-19; Mark 4:10-23

   The Lord breathed the breath of life, and man became the image of God. It is the same with one’s own rebirth: the beginnings of a new life are set down and one’s image is renewed by the breath of the Spirit of God; and whence and how it comes is not known. This is a point of departure; from here the work begins of raising up the image to a perfect likeness. When we are reborn according to the image of the Creator by the Lord’s Spirit we are transfigured from glory to glory, but not without us, our work and effort; however it is God who creates and restores us by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, according to faith in the Lord. Behold the ideal and method of fulfilling in oneself the image and likeness of God! People so often write about and discuss upbringing. Meanwhile, it is all determined in the word of God by several words. Undertake only to fulfil what is prescribed, and upbringing will go on successfully to the goal. This is God’s path; but it does not exclude human paths—to the contrary, it gives them direction and crowns their success. When only the human remains, upbringing usually is insufficient, even detrimental, and not rarely totally perverts those being raised; then the rest of life goes crooked. Where those raised in a crooked manner multiply, all of society becomes more and more crooked, both in life and in its attitudes. The end is universal crookedness; one bends in one direction, then another bends in another.