Lewis: yearnings as evidence

Saturday, September 26, 2009
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
    —John 7:37-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A man’s physical hunger does not prove that that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating, and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a women and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon called “falling in love” occurred in a sexless world.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Weight of Glory, and other addresses, Macmillan Co., 1949, p. 6 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your grace, You satisfy our true need.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Andrewes: look on it

Friday, September 25, 2009
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
    —John 19:32-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pierce that in you, that was the cause of Christ’s piercing, that is, sin and the lusts thereof... Look and be pierced with love of Him, who so loved you, that He gave Himself in this sort to be pierced for you.
    Look upon Him, and His heart opened, and from that gate of hope promise yourself, and look for all manner of things that good are.. the deliverance from the evil of our present misery [and] the restoring to the good of our primitive felicity... Look back upon it with some pain; for one way or other, look upon it we must.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 131-133,135 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to endure that suffering You have ordained.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: unworthy of eternal life?

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Meditation:
    Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
    —Acts 13:46-47 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    The possibility of rejection was ever present. St. Paul did not establish himself in a place and go on preaching for years to men who refused to act on his teaching. When once he had brought them to a point where decision was clear, he reminded that they should make their choice. If they rejected him, he rejected them... He did not simply “go away;” he openly rejected those who showed themselves unworthy of his teaching. It was part of the Gospel that men might “judge themselves unworthy of eternal life.” It is a question which needs serious consideration whether the Gospel can be truly presented if this element is left out.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 75 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me the people to whom we should preach.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the necessity of personal decision

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Meditation:
    [Joshua:] “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
    
    —Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [St. Paul] always contrived to bring his hearers to a point. There was none of the indeterminate, inconclusive talking, which we are apt to describe as “sowing the seed.” Our idea of sowing the seed seems to be rather like scattering wheat out of a balloon... Occasionally, of course, grains of wheat scattered out of a balloon will fall upon ploughed and fertile land and will spring up and bear fruit; but it is a casual method of sowing. Paul did not scatter seeds, he planted. He so dealt with his hearers that he brought them speedily and directly to a point of decision, and then he demanded of them that they should make a choice and act on their choice. In this way he kept the moral issue clearly before them, and made them realize that his preaching was not merely a novel and interesting doctrine, but a life. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 74-75 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You direct us to those who need Your word.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Latimer: the purpose of suffering

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
    —Hebrews 10:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It may fortune thou wilt say, “I am content to do the best for my neighbor that I can, saving myself harmless.” I promise thee, Christ will not hear their excuse; for He himself suffered harm for our sakes, and for our salvation was put to extreme death. I wis, if it had pleased Him, He might have saved us and never felt pain; but in suffering pains and death He did give us example, and teach us how we should do one for another, as He did for us all; for, as He saith himself, “He that will be Mine, let him deny himself, and follow Me, in bearing My cross and suffering My pains.” Wherefore we must needs suffer pain with Christ to do our neighbor good, as well with the body and all his members, as with heart and mind.
    ... Hugh Latimer (1485?-1555), in The World’s Orators, Guy Carleton Lee, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900, p. 160-161 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Show me, Lord, the sacrifices I must make for my neighbor.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: giving power to the Word

Monday, September 21, 2009
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
    —2 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wherever God’s Word may be preached, His precepts remain a letter and dead words so long as they are not received by men with a pure heart; only where they pierce to the soul do they become, so to speak, changed into Spirit. (paraphrase of Calvin’s Institutes, I.ix.3)
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), quoted in The Letter to the Romans, Emil Brunner, Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1959, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit, so that Your word may live within us.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Olson: deeper significance

Sunday, September 20, 2009
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
    The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
    But the temple he had spoken of was his body
    —John 2:19-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    But the word ‘temple’ took on a deeper significance when Jesus referred to His own body as ‘this temple.’ He thus definitely declared Himself to be the personal embodiment of the living God. Later the Apostle Paul applied this term to Christians... “Ye are God’s building... Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” And again, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and that ye are not your own?” Paul taught that it is God’s people who constitute the true church of God, and wherever they have fellowship in the Gospel, God is there. Moreover, he emphasized that as members of this true church it is our privilege to be “laborers together with God.” It is our privilege to build upon the one foundati! on, Jesus Christ, with gold, silver, precious stones—the kind of Christian service which abides for recognition at the judgment seat of Christ. Again, it is our responsibility to be consecrated for holy living and faithful service, “for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; so we must shun evil, and, since we have been bought with a price, we must glorify God in body and spirit.
    ... Milford C. Olson
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cleanse this temple.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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