Brooks: pray for powers

Saturday, August 7, 2010
    Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
    —John 4:48 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be the miracle.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Twenty Sermons, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1887, p. 330 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have already created the miracle of salvation in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: To him that chose us first

Friday, August 6, 2010
Meditation:
    But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
    —Romans 5:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
To him that chose us first,
Before the world began;
To him that bore the curse
To save rebellious man;
    To him that form’d
    Our hearts anew
    Is endless praise
    And glory due.

The Father’s love shall run
Through our immortal songs;
We bring to God the Son
Hosannahs on our tongues:
    Our lips address
    The Spirit’s name
    With equal praise,
    And zeal the same.

Let every saint above,
And angel round the throne,
For ever bless and love
The sacred Three in One;
    Thus heav’n shall raise
    His honors high,
    When earth and time
    Grow old and die.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book III, hymn 39, p. 494-495 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is no limit to the honors due to Your Name.

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Neill: accepting what God has made

Thursday, August 5, 2010
    Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642
Meditation:
    Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
    —John 9:41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every virtue is a form of obedience to God. Every evil word or act is a form of rebellion against Him. This may not be clear at first; but, if we think patiently, we shall find that it is true. Why were you angry? You will probably find that it was because you were not willing to accept the world as God has made it; or because you were not willing to leave it to God to deal with the people that He has made.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character, London: Lutterworth Press, 1955, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith, so that I may not rebel against Your plan for the salvation of the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: contrite

Wednesday, August 4, 2010
    Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
Meditation:
    [Jesus to the Laodiceans:] I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
    —Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have to repent of our blindness, our lukewarmness, and our disobedience, and turn back to the central truth of Christ as Lord and Saviour; an ethical system will not save us here, nor a timid sentimentalism, nor an excited emotional return, nor a dilettante mysticism.
    We have to find that deep contrition which is the condition of His abiding.
    Repentance is not a mere feeling of sorrow or contrition for an act of wrongdoing. The regret I feel when I act impatiently or speak crossly is not repentance... Repentance is contrition for what we are in our fundamental beings, that we are wrong in our deepest roots because our internal government is by Self and not by God.
    And it is an activity of the whole person. Unless I will to be different, the mind will not follow.
    True repentance brings an urge to be different, because of the sense of the incessant movement of what I am, forming, forming, forming what I shall be in the years to come.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 104 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, burn repentance into my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Denney: the supreme reality

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Meditation:
    Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
    —Acts 19:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is that in the Gospel with which no one is allowed to argue. All we can do is believe ... or to disbelieve; to give it in our life the place of the final reality to which everything else must give way, or to refuse it that place. Many people ... would like to talk the Word of God over. It raises in their minds various questions they would willingly discuss. It has aspects of interest and of difficulty which call for consideration; and so on. Perhaps there are some that confusedly shield themselves against the responsibilities of faith and unbelief by such thoughts. All that such thoughts prove, however, is that those who cherish them have never yet realized that what we are dealing with in the Gospel is God. When God speaks in Christ, He reveals His gracious will without qualification. And without qualification, we have to believe in it, or refuse to believe, and so decide ... the controversy between ourselves and Him. God has not come into the world in Christ ... to be talked about, but to become the supreme reality in the life of men, or to be excluded from that place.
    ... James Denney (1856-1917), The Way Everlasting: Sermons, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911, 266-267 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word calls me to follow You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Traherne: God, present by love

Monday, August 2, 2010
Meditation:
    This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
    —1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God is present by Love alone. By Love alone He is great and glorious. By Love alone He liveth and feeleth in other persons. By Love alone He enjoyeth all the creatures, by Love alone He is pleasing to Himself, by Love alone He is rich and blessed... The Soul is shrivelled up and buried in a grave that does not love. But that which does love wisely and truly is the joy and end of all the world, the King of Heaven, and the Friend of God.
    ... Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674), Centuries of Meditations, edited and published by Bertram Dobell, in London, 1908, “2nd century”, 50, p. 116 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I reflect Your friendship and love to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Driver: vulnerable

Sunday, August 1, 2010
Meditation:
    When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
    —Acts 8:14-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The humblest and—in the ecclesiastical sense—lowest Congregational or Methodist chapel is as vulnerable as any to priestcraft, even if it possesses no ordained minister to play the role of the priest, for it can and usually does allow the very absence of a minister to limit unnecessarily the ministry of its members, both in the church and in the community. Such chapels, indeed, quite often openly put forward their lack of a paid, professional minister as an excuse for their introversion. “We can’t possibly do this ... study this ... attend that. We haven’t got a minister.” The corrosive influence is especially visible in these churches’ pattern of worship. Whoever is actually conducting the services, ordained minister or visiting lay preacher, the pattern is irretrievably sacerdotal, the congregation neither speaking by itself nor performing an action from start to finish. Even the Lord’s Prayer is commonly “led” in a loud voice from the pulpit, presumably in case the congregation forgets the words.
    ... Christopher Driver (1932-1997), A Future for the Free Churches?, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 100-101 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the faith propagates by Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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