Mother Teresa: true holiness

May 16, 2009
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877

Meditation:
    We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
    -- Romans 12:6-8 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Make sure that you let God’s grace work in your souls by accepting whatever He gives you, and giving Him whatever He takes from you. True holiness consists in doing God’s work with a smile.
    ... Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me cheerfulness in in Your service.

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Gloag: truth leading to holiness

May 15, 2009
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945

Meditation:
    For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    -- 2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV)

Quotation:
    And by ‘knowledge’ here [II Peter 1:2,5,8; 2:20; 3:18] is not to be understood a mere theoretical knowledge of the truths of Christianity or the gnosis of the Gnostics; but a realization of these truths influencing the practice and leading to holiness of life.
    ... Paton J. Gloag (1823-1906), Introduction to the Catholic Epistles, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1887, p. 232 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth keeps me from straying.

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Owen: alms

May 14, 2009
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle

Meditation:
    Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
    -- James 2:15,16 (NIV)

Quotation:
    I shall not value his prayers at all, be he never so earnest and frequent in them, who gives not alms according to his ability.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded, Glasgow: Collins, 1826, p. 76 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, set Your fire within my heart.

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Teresa of Avila: how to love God better

May 13, 2009

Meditation:
    “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
    -- Mark 12:29-31 (NIV)

Quotation:
    We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reason for thinking so; but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not. Be sure that, in proportion as you advance in fraternal charity, you are increasing your love of God, for His Majesty bears so tender an affection for us that I cannot doubt He will repay our love for others by augmenting, and in a thousand different ways, that which we bear for Him.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Interior Castle (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown us what love is.

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Phillips: the central fact of history

May 12, 2009
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, spiritual writer, 1963

Meditation:
    That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
    -- John 1:9 (KJV)

Quotation:
    If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited Planet. It is not enough to express formal belief in the “Incarnation” or in the “Divinity of Christ”; the staggering truth must be accepted afresh—that in this vast, mysterious Universe, of which we are an almost infinitesimal part, the great Mystery, Whom we call God, has visited our planet in Person. It is from this conviction that there springs unconquerable certainty and unquenchable faith and hope. It is not enough to believe theoretically that Jesus was both God and Man; not enough to admire, respect, and even worship Him; it is not even enough to try to follow Him. The reason for the insufficiency of these things is that the modern intelligent mind, which has had its horizons widened in dozens of different ways, has got to be shocked afresh by the audacious central Fact—that, as a sober matter of history, God became one of us.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity [1956], chapt. iii, par. 3 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have visited our hearts.

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Thomas à Kempis: adversity

May 11, 2009

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me."
    -- Matthew 24:9 (NIV)

Quotation:
    If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ, II.i. [1418] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have promised that we shall not be overcome.

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Brooks: our need of discontent

May 10, 2009

Meditation:
    When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
    -- Acts 21:12,13 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is leading, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still, in spite of all, the child of God.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You constantly lead Your children towards their destiny with You.

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