Tillotson: ghostly consolation

Saturday, October 10, 2009
    Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644
Meditation:
    See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
    —Hebrews 12:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The common custom is (and I fear it is too common), when the physician has given over his patient, then, and not till then to send for the minister, not so much to inquire into the man’s condition, and to give him suitable advice, as to minister comfort, and to speak peace to him at a venture.
    But let me tell you, that herein you put an extremely difficult task upon us, in expecting that we should pour wine and oil into the wound before it be searched, and speak smooth and comfortable things to a man that is but just brought to a sense of the long course of a lewd and wicked life impenitently continued in. Alas! what comfort can we give to men in such a case? We are loath to drive them to despair, and yet we must not destroy them by presumption; pity and good-nature do strongly tempt us to make the best of their case, and to give them all the little hopes which with any kind of reason we can, and God knows it is but very little that we can give to such persons upon good ground; for it all depends upon the degree and sincerity of their repentance, which God only knows, and we can but guess at.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VII, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CLXI, p. 316-317 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your call is always now.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the Gospel according to St. Paul (III)

Friday, October 9, 2009
    Commemoration of Denys, Bishop of Paris, & his Companions, Martyrs, 258
    Commemoration of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, Philosopher, Scientist, 1253
Meditation:
    I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
    —Acts 20:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    This Gospel accords perfectly with the account which St. Paul gives of his preaching in his last address to the Ephesian elders, and it contains all the elements which are to be found in all the sermons and in all the notices of St. Paul’s preaching in the Acts, except only the answers to the objections against the Gospel, and the proofs of its truth which would be manifestly out of place in writing to Christians.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 69 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, repeat You call to us until we hear it.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the Gospel according to St. Paul (II)

Thursday, October 8, 2009
Meditation:
    For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
    —1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Briefly, that teaching contains the following elements: (1) There is one living and true God (I Thess. 1:9); (2) Idolatry is sinful and must be forsaken (I Thess. 1:9); (3) The wrath of God is ready to be revealed against the heathen for their impurity (I Thess. 4:6), and against the Jews for their rejection of Christ and their opposition to the Gospel (I Thess. 2:15,16); (4) The judgment will come suddenly and unexpectedly (I Thess. 5:2,3); (5) Jesus, the Son of God (I Thess. 1:10), given over to death (I Thess. 5:10), and raised from the dead (I Thess. 4:14), is the Savior from the wrath of God (I Thess. 1:10); (6) The Kingdom of Jesus is now set up and all men are invited to enter it (I Thess. 2:12); (7) Those who believe and turn to God are now expecting the coming of the Saviour who will return from Heaven to receive them (I Thess. 1:10; 4:15-17); (8) Meanwhile, their life must be pure (I Thess. 4:1-8), useful (I Thess. 4:11-12), and watchful (I Thess. 5:4-8); (9) To that end, God has given them His Holy Spirit (I Thess. 4:8; 5:19). [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. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to cease resisting Your call to a holy life.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the Gospel according to St. Paul

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Meditation:
    As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
    —Acts 17:2-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The first Epistle [to the Thessalonians] was written about a year after St. Paul’s first preaching in the city, where, according to Prof. [William] Ramsay’s calculation, he had laboured for only five months. Thus his stay had not been long enough for him to do more than teach the fundamental truths which seemed to him of the first importance: all the circumstances of his visit were still fresh in his memory and he was recalling to the minds of his readers what he had taught them by word of mouth. Now in that Epistle we get an extraordinarily clear and coherent scheme of simple mission-preaching not only implied but definitely expressed. [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. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the simplicity of Your word persuades Your people.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Price: a translator for all seasons

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
    Feast of William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr, 1536
Meditation:
    All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
    —2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [William Tyndale] was a master of a simple and forceful literary style. This, combined with exactness and breadth of scholarship, led him so to translate the Greek New Testament into English as largely to determine the character, form, and style of the Authorized Version. There have been some painstaking calculations to determine just how large a part Tyndale may have had in the production of the version of 1611. A comparison of Tyndale’s version of I John and that of the Authorized Version shows that nine-tenths of the latter is retained from the martyred translator’s work. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians retains five-sixths of Tyndale’s translation. These proportions are maintained throughout the entire New Testament. Such an influence as that upon the English Bible cannot be attributed to any other man in all the past.
    More than that, Tyndale set a standard for the English language that moulded in part the character and style of that tongue during the great Elizabethan era and all subsequent time. He gave the language fixity, volubleness, grace, beauty, simplicity, and directness. His influence as a man of letters was permanent on the style and literary taste of the English people, and of all who admire the superiority and epochal character of the literature of the sixteenth century.
    ... Ira Maurice Price (1856-1939), The Ancestry of Our English Bible, Philadelphia: The Sunday School Times Company, 1907, p. 245-246 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is no praise high enough for Your word.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: which side are we on

Monday, October 5, 2009
Meditation:
    In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
    —1 Peter 1:6,7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If temptation were really what natural man and moral man understand by it, namely, testing of their own strength—whether their vital or their moral or even their Christian strength—in resistance, on the enemy, then it is true that Christ’s prayer would be incomprehensible. For that life is won only from death and the good only from the evil is a piece of thoroughly worldly knowledge which is not strange to the Christian. But all this has nothing to do with the temptation of which Christ speaks. It simply does not touch the reality which is meant here. The temptation of which the whole Bible speaks does not have to do with the testing of my strength, for it is of the very essence of temptation in the Bible that all my strength—to my horror, and without my being able to do anything about it—is turned against me; really all my powers, including my good and pious powers (the strength of my faith), fall into the hands of the enemy power and are now led into the field against me. Before there can be any testing of my powers, I have been robbed of them.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation, London: SCM Press, 1955, p. 9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am helpless to resist temptation without You.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Francis: study your nature

Sunday, October 4, 2009
    Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226
Meditation:
    Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”
    —Acts 27:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every one must study his own nature. Some of you can sustain life with less food than others can, and therefore I desire that he who needs more nourishment shall not be obliged to equal others, but that every one shall give his body what it needs for being an efficient servant of the soul. For as we are obliged to be on our guard against superfluous food which injures body and soul alike, thus we must be on the watch against immoderate fasting, and this the more, because the Lord wants conversion and not victims.
    ... St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), in Saint Francis of Assisi: a biography, Johannes Jørgensen, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912, p. 103 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to see the good things in life as Your provision.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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