Williams: the force of argument

Saturday, May 15, 2010
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    [Paul:] When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
    —Galatians 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The history of Christendom itself would have been far happier could we all have remembered that rule of intelligence—not to believe a thing more strongly at the end of a bitter argument than at the beginning, not to believe it with the energy of the opposition rather than one’s own.
    ... Charles Williams (1886-1945), The Descent of the Dove: a history of the Holy Spirit in the church, Meridian Books, 1956, p. 193 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, please do not allow anger to break Your fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nida: the one work of faith

Friday, May 14, 2010
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faith...”
    —Habakkuk 2:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In Romans 1:17, we are accustomed to find the words, “The just shall live by faith.” This declaration has been a clarion call to faith and has been the text for many a sermon on the necessity of continued faith throughout life. It is true that this verse may have this meaning, but it is more probable that it means, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” This is in keeping with the whole emphasis of Paul throughout Romans, which has as its theme “justification by faith” (Romans 5:1). Paul does not present two themes in Romans: the one, “living by faith,” and the other, “justification by faith.” His purpose was to emphasize one great primary truth of Christian doctrine: the righteousness which comes by faith in God. It is a kind of imputed righteousness, which has its origin in the grace of God and its response in the faith of man. Not only is this translation more in keeping with the Pauline context, but it is more faithful to the Hebrew of Habakkuk 2:4, of which it is a quotation.
    ... Eugene A. Nida (b. 1914), God’s Word in Man’s Language, Harper, 1952, p. 73 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown the world how to live! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ: the joy of Ascension Day

Thursday, May 13, 2010
    Ascension
Meditation:
    When [Jesus] had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.
    —Luke 24:50-51 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This Ascension Day is properly the most solemn feast of our Lord Jesus: for this day first in His manhood He began to sit on the Father’s right hand in bliss and took full rest of all His pilgrimage before.
    Also this is properly the feast of all the blessed spirits in heaven: for this day they had a new joy of their Lord whom they saw never before there in His manhood.
    ... The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Nicolas Love, Michael G. Sargent, Westminster: William Caxton, 1490, critical edition, Garland Pub., 1992, p. 219 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long to see You in the flesh. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: four meditations for sleepless nights

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Meditation:
I have considered my ways
    and have turned my steps to your statutes.
I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.
    —Psalm 119:59 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Meditate on Jacob’s wrestling with the angel all night: be thou also importunate with God for a blessing, and give not over till He hath blessed thee.
    Meditate on the angel passing over the children of Israel, and destroying the Egyptians for disobedience and oppression; pray for the grace of obedience and charity, and for the divine protection.
    Meditate on the angel who destroyed in a night the whole army of the Assyrians for fornication; call to mind the sins of thy youth, the sins of thy bed; and say with David, “My reins chasten me in the night season, and my soul refuseth comfort:” pray for pardon and the grace of chastity.
    Meditate on the agonies of Christ in the garden, his sadness and affliction all that night; and thank and adore Him for His love, that made Him suffer so much for thee; and hate thy sins which made it necessary for the Son of God to suffer so much.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the thought of You drives away evil. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: opening heaven

Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Meditation:
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.
    —Psalm 1:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As in our daily walk we come nearer towards heaven, He will open to us more of heaven.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Parochial Sermons, v. III, London: Rivingtons, 1873, p. 206 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    I see more of You now, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Arnold: narrow in the right way

Monday, May 10, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must become “narrow” in the right way—“narrow” in the sense that we live only for Christ. I do not mean at all that our lives should show more religiosity. There is no one as broadhearted as the crucified Christ, whose outstretched arms seek all men. It is a matter of decisiveness in one’s heart, of living only for Christ. If we have this decisiveness, we will have broad hearts, though not, of course, in the worldly sense of tolerance for anything and everything.
    ... J. Heinrich Arnold (1913-1982), Discipleship, Farmington, PA: Plough Pub. House, 1994, p. 30-31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You must lead me along life’ path; alone, I will stray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hopkins: The world is charged...

Sunday, May 9, 2010
Meditation:
    All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
    —Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went,
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and ah! bright wings.
    ... Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Penguin Classics, 1953, p. 27 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are present in Your world!

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