Allshorn: shallow comfort
Please see my commentary below, regarding this post I received from the daily devotional I subscribe to, the CQOD, Christian Quotation of the Day, which is highly recommended as the best online source of quotations for Christian unity I know of.
_______________________________________________________________
Christian Quotation of the Day
Monday, September 21, 2026
Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up
and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out
of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
--John 7:37-38 (ESV)
_______________________________________________________________
Quotation:
We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We
can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have
helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time
till the juice we have put into them has run out; but, we may
have brought them no hunger for God (because that hunger is no
ache in our own heart) nor [brought them] anywhere near to the
end of self.
... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of
Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 23
See the book at https://cqod.com/b/r1350
See also John 7:37-38; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:1-2; 143:6-7;
Isa. 26:8-9; 44:3; 59:21; John 4:14; 6:51; Gal. 5:22
_______________________________________________________________
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, lead me to point others to the Living Bread and the
Living Water.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Tweet this: https://cqod.com/t/t1350
_______________________________________________________________
© Copyright 2026, Robert McAnally Adams, curator,
with Robert Douglas, principal contributor.
CQOD is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Sub to CQOD HTML: cqodh-subscribe@cqod.com
CQOD Home Page: https://www.cqod.com/
CQOD mobile: https://www.cqod.com/m
CQOD Blog: http://cqod.blogspot.com/
CQOD RSS Feed: https://cqod.com/r/feed
CQOD on Facebook: https://cqod.com/r/fb
CQOD on Twitter: https://cqod.com/r/tw
CQOD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curatorcqod/
CQOD What's New: https://cqod.com/cqodwnew.htm
Subscription info: https://www.cqod.com/cqodsubs.htm
Jonah: http://jonahmiracleplay.blogspot.com/
Ruth: http://ruthaplay.blogspot.com/
The Unholy City: https://cqod.com/SSP/TheUnholyCity/
Comments, problems: email to curator@cqod.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: cqod-unsubscribe@cqod.com
For additional commands, e-mail: cqod-help@cqod.com
I'd like to comment on points in this excerpt from the above, fine devotional:
"...we may have brought them no hunger for God (because that hunger is no ache in our own heart) nor [brought them] anywhere near to the end of self…
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, lead me to point others to the Living Bread and the Living Water….”
Amen and amen! Lord, so lead us all to unite together as one in Spirit in pointing others, saved and unsaved alike, our own hearts included, to the Living Bread and the Living Water which is your words spoken by you in the Bible.
What could be nearer to 'the end of self' than the self-sacrificial love of God and all His children, in the self-sacrificial love that God and all His children have for one another when all the children of God in Christ seek to fully unite in the meaning of the words Jesus of Nazareth spoke in the Bible, which complete unity begins when we all start to obey the first most important words of command of God, as newly fulfilled in the words that came from the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible: His new command to love one another with our lives on this Earth laid down in loving service to God, by our own loving service to all His children He loves so much? Isn't that how He said He wanted us to remember the Spirit of God in Heaven Who loves us so much, which Jesus showed to us here on Earth in His broken flesh and flowing blood, "Do this in my memory"?
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."” (Joh 6:51 ESV)
“53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."” (Joh 6:53-58 ESV)
We each have an obligation to worship in liturgy and in offering the Lord's table as we believe best glorifies the Father in the name of the Son, which is the glory the Father gave to Jesus on Earth, but these should not need to be distinctives that keep us from acknowledging one another as sisters and brothers in Christ. The same tolerance should be applied to all our various Christian faith group or denomination's distinctive choices in form of worship and doctrine as we each determine may be reasonably interpreted to be in keeping with the words Jesus spoke in the Bible.
Didn't we hear the words of Jesus tell us all that the offensive, hard to hear talk of eating His flesh and drinking His blood was primarily about making His Spirit alive and strong in us by His Spirit in us feeding on His spoken words?
“61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (Joh 6:61-63 ESV)
Are we Christians really to be satisfied to serve only the God who appreciates and prefers above all other Christian groups, the distinctives of our own Christian denomination or Christian faith group, while we denigrate the worship other Christian groups offer to God, another man's master, by which they intend to glorify the Father in the name of the Son, according to how they interpret the words Jesus spoke in the Bible, in ways that could be reasonable interpretations, but just not our own? Should we be satisfied to serve God with our own distinctive beliefs, while we ignore the first most important commandment to both love God and love all believers, with our own lives laid down for them, as God did for us?
How far is that example by us showing to both other believers, and to the whole world, no hunger for God (because that hunger is no ache in our own heart for the Living Bread that is the spoken words of Jesus in the Bible).
Didn't we believers all hear Jesus telling Satan, as Jesus effectively did, versus every temptation to sin, 'Satan, yes it is written, God really did say...'? Shouldn't that be our collective answer in all of Christianity to all evil, especially to anything that stands in the way of Christian unity in all the words that proceeded from the mouth of God in Jesus in the Bible?
“3 And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4 But he answered, "It is written, "’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"” (Mt 4:3-4 ESV)
“Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’"” (Mt 4:7 ESV)
“Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "’You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’"” (Mt 4:10 ESV)
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?"” (Ge 3:1 ESV)
What hunger that is "no ache in our own heart"...and that is "anywhere near to the end of self", do we show to the whole world, believer and unbeliever alike, when we shirk from our most important commanded duty of seeking unity together with all believers in the Living Bread from Heaven, and in the Living Water of God's own spoken words, flowing from the throne of God in Heaven, in the words that flow from the mouth of God, in words that His own words from His mouth in the Bible say are His Spirit, and are the beginning of our eternal life in His Spirit, when the Father draws anyone who will hear and seek to live by every word of the good news from the voice calling from the mouth of the One, Good Shepherd in the Bible, which words are kept written in our memory, known by heart, in every child of God, each child repentant, mutually loving, and all-forgiving, each a sheep of the flock of the One, Good Shepherd, in Whom the Father and the Son are One in the One Spirit of God in self-sacrificial shepherd's love for even the least lamb in the flock, any of whom may be found among members of any Christian denomination or Christian faith group?
It is written that God says He has given to all us believers the glory God gave to Jesus for the purpose of seeking a Christian unity that is in His eternal Spirit; His Spirit that is composed of every eternal word that proceeded from the mouth of God in Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible, which words God sent Jesus to speak as God, Himself in man on Earth, to speak into existence His Spirit to live in any and all on Earth who will hear His voice with ears to hear with intent to live by the all-loving, all-powerful God's spoken words, making them God's own sheep, which God-spoken words are His One Spirit of self-sacrificial love, the same love as lives in both the Father and the Son, given to live the same in all believers in our self-sacrificial love for one another, for which love of ours, as commanded, God loves us believers as God loved Jesus.
...that they may be one even as we are one...
“22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (Joh 17:22-23 ESV)
...For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again...
“14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."” (Joh 10:14-18 ESV)
“7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
...As the Father has loved me...
“9 ¶ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (Joh 15:7-13 ESV)
...I and the Father are one...
“27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one."” (Joh 10:27-30 ESV)
