Law: the perspective of eternity

Saturday, July 24, 2010
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
    —Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now since our eternal state is as certainly ours, as our present state; since we are as certainly to live for ever, as we now live at all; it is plain, that we cannot judge of the value of any particular time, as to us, but by comparing it to that eternal duration, for which we are created.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 226 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me patience in the knowledge that You are preparing me for life eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clarke: getting concrete on the social implications

Friday, July 23, 2010
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
    —Isaiah 1:15-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The book would have been richer if [it had represented] that small but significant section of preachers who are not content with generalization where ‘the social implications’ of Christianity are concerned, but who are prepared to take sides on concrete issues. This is an admittedly different and dangerous proceeding, but one which certainly the prophets of Israel were not afraid to tackle. This is a form of witness-bearing, which the pulpit shuns at its peril.
    ... O. Fielding Clarke
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, embolden Your people, that we may not shrink from the right course. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: not for a special time

Thursday, July 22, 2010
    Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
Meditation:
    But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
    —Luke 5:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He said: that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action, as by prayer in the season of prayer.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, weave prayer throughout my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fosdick: science the new arbiter

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Meditation:
    Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
    —James 1:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to have Eddington believe in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation’s thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer ‘scientific’ is to cap the climax of praise.
    ... Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), As I see Religion, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1932, p. 123 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, renew my mind, that I may discard the world’s standards for Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stearns: our work and His work

Tuesday, July 20, 2010
    Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566
Meditation:
    If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
    —1 John 3:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is clear that God wants us to get involved. It is our work to do, and we are blessed when we do it willingly.
    ... Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, Inc., in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have been showered with Your blessings. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: Christian ethics

Monday, July 19, 2010
    Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379
Meditation:
    For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
    —Romans 4:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian ethic is inseparable from the preaching of the Word, for the very behaviour of the Christian destroys the work of Satan, and helps to build up the Body of Christ in the world.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Presence of the Kingdom, tr. Olive Wyon, Philadelphia: Wesminster Press, 1951, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lead Your people into battle through Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dod: no complaints

Sunday, July 18, 2010
Meditation:
    [The LORD] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
    —Psalm 103:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have no reason to complain of any crosses, because they are the bitter fruit of my sin. Nothing shall hurt us but sin; and that shall not hurt us, if we can repent of it. And nothing can do us good but the love and favour of God in Christ; and that we shall have if we seek it in good earnest. Afflictions are God's potions, which we may sweeten by faith and prayer; but we often make them bitter, by putting into God’s cup the ill ingredients of impatience and unbelief. There is no affliction so small but we shall sink under it, if God uphold us not: and there is no sin so great but we shall commit it, if God restrain us not. A man who hath the spirit of prayer hath more than if he hath all the world. And no man is in a bad condition, but he who hath a hard heart and cannot pray.
    ... John Dod (c.1549-1645), as quoted in The Lives of the Puritans, v. III, Benjamin Brook, London: J. Black, 1813, p. 3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cure forever my unbelief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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