Law: the indwelling of Christ

May 23, 2009
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century

Meditation:
    Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
    -- Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

Quotation:
    You have no questions to ask of any body, no new way that you need inquire after; no oracle that you need to consult; for whilst you shut yourself up in patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God, you are in the very arms of Christ, your heart is His dwelling-place, and He lives and works in you as certainly as He lived in and governed that body and soul which He took from the Virgin Mary.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, own my life.

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Tertullian: how can Christians be evil?

May 22, 2009

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
    -- Matthew 5:38,39 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Evil-doers delight in hiding themselves; shun appearing; are bewildered when discovered; being accused, deny; not even when tortured, readily or always confess; certainly mourn when condemned; sum up against themselves, impute either to fate or to the stars the impulses of a wicked mind; for they will not have that to be their own, which they acknowledge to be evil. But what doth the Christian like this? None is ashamed, none repenteth, save that he was not such long ago. If he be marked down, he glorieth; if accused, maketh no defense; being questioned, confesseth even of his own accord; being condemned, giveth thanks. What manner of evil is this, which hath not the natural marks of evil, fear, shame, shrinking, penitence, sorrow? What manner of evil is this, whereof he that is accused rejoiceth?
    ... Tertullian (160?-230?), Tertullian: Apologetic and practical treatises, Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1842, p. 3 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people gentleness.

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Faber: the suffiency of Jesus

May 21, 2009
    Ascension
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330

Meditation:
    Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
    -- John 21:25 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end of everything to us... There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous, which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that night be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done—but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more.
    ... Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863), All for Jesus, London: Richardson & Son, 1854, pp. 1-2 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are everything to a needy world.

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Lawrence: being mindful of God

May 20, 2009

Meditation:
    They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
    -- Isaiah 11:9 (NIV)

Quotation:
    One way to recollect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. You should keep it strictly in the Presence of God; and, being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1900, pp. 35-36 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I acknowledge that You are present at all times.

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Adams: Inscription for a pulpit

May 19, 2009
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988

Meditation:
    [Paul to the elders at Ephesus:] Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
    -- Acts 20:28 (NIV)

Quotation:
    INSCRIPTION FOR A PULPIT

    “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.”
    The hungry sheep that crave the living Bread
    Grow few, and lean, and feeble as can be,
    When fed not Gospel, but philosophy;
    Not Love’s eternal story, no, not this,
    But apt allusion, keen analysis.
    Discourse well framed—forgot as soon as heard—
    Man’s thin dilution of the living Word.

    O Preacher, leave the rhetorician’s arts;
    Preach Christ, the Food of hungry human hearts;
    Hold fast to science, history, or creed,
    But preach the Answer to our human need,
    That in this place, at least, it may be said
    No hungry sheep looks up and is not fed.
    ... Robert Hammond Adams (1883-1975) (my grandfather)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant our pastors Your Spirit for the preaching of Your word.

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Mulford: the transcendental communique

May 18, 2009

Meditation:
    Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained.
    -- 2 Timothy 2:8-9 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The Word of God is the informing power of the revelation of God in the finite world. It is not, by any figure, to be identified with a book, or a temple, or a minister, or a shrine.
    ... Elisha Mulford (1833-1885), The Republic of God, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1893, p. 215 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your saving word go out to Your people.

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MacDonald: the devotion of God

May 17, 2009

Meditation:
    Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
    -- Matthew 16:22-23 (KJV)

Quotation:
    God is ever seeking to get down to us—to be the divine man in us. And we are ever saying, “That be far from Thee, Lord!” We are careful, in our unbelief, over the divine dignity, of which He is too grand to think. Better pleasing to God ... is the audacity of Job, who, rushing into His presence, and flinging the door of His presence-chamber to the wall, like a troubled—it may be angry—but yet faithful child, calls aloud in the ear of Him whose perfect Fatherhood he has yet to learn, “Am I a sea or a whale, that Thou settest a watch over me?”... The devotion of God to His creatures is perfect; He does not think about Himself, but about them; He wants nothing for Himself, but finds His blessedness in the outgoing of blessedness. Ah! it is a terrible—shall it be a lonely glory, this? We will draw near with our human response, our abandonment of self in the faith of Jesus. He gives Himself to us—shall we not give ourselves to Him? Shall we not give ourselves to each other whom He loves?
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Child in the Midst,” Unspoken Sermons, Series One [1867] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the grace to give myself.

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