Tuesday. [Rom. 14:9-18; Matt. 12:14-16, 22-30]

   He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Who is with the Lord? He who lives and acts in His spirit; he who allows himself neither thoughts, nor feelings, nor desires, nor intentions, nor words, nor deeds, which would be unpleasing to the Lord and in opposition to His revealed commandments and determinations. He who lives and acts otherwise, is not with the Lord and consequently does not gather, but scatters. What does he scatter? Not only energy and time, but also what he gathers. For example, one who gathers riches not with the Lord, amasses only riches, not sharing with others, while depriving himself even of necessary things; or another gathers them, spends a part on his own luxurious lifestyle, part on donations made out of vainglory, and saves part for his heirs. In the other world he will appear with nothing—and there he will be the poorest of the poor. On the contrary, one who gathers riches with the Lord passes on what is gathered through the hands of the poor and needy, unto eternal treasuries. When such a person dies, he will find in that world all his riches intact, not scattered, although he spent them throughout his life. The same applies to the gathering of knowledge. Here scattering is even more obvious, because it can be seen how one who is intellectual not in the Lord gathers a seeming mountain of knowledge, but it is no more than rubbish—a phantom of the truth, and not the truth. They not only lack knowledge, but even loose human sense. They become delirious, like one who is asleep. Read the systems of the materialists and you will see that this is so.

Wednesday. [Rom. 15:7-16; Matt. 12:38-45]

   In every person who lives unrepentant in sin there lives a demon, as if in a house, who takes charge over everything within him. When by the grace of God such a sinner comes to contrition over his sins, repents and ceases to sin—the demon is cast out from him. At first the demon does not disturb the one who has repented, because there is much fervour within him in the beginning, which burns demons like a fire, and repulses them like an arrow. But then, when fervour begins to grow cold, the demon approaches from afar with its suggestions, throws in memories about former pleasures and calls him to them. If the penitent does not beware, he will soon pass from a sympathy to a desire for sin; if he does not come to his senses and return himself to the state of his former soberness, then a fall is not far off. From desire are born the inclination for sin and decision to commit it—the inner sin is ready; the outer sin is only waiting for a convenient occasion. When an occasion presents itself, the sin will be accomplished. Then the demon will enter again, and begin to drive a person from sin to sin even faster than before. The Lord portrayed this with the parable about the second return of the demon into the clean, swept house.