MacDonald: the Bible leading to Christ

Saturday, October 2, 2010
Meditation:
    The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
    —Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sad, indeed, would the whole matter be if the Bible had told us everything God meant us to believe. But herein is the Bible greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the Word, the Way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the ever-unfolding Revelation of God. It is Christ “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” not the Bible, save as leading to Him.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Higher Faith”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 52-53 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the pure source of all knowledge. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard of Clairvaux: a dreadful offensiveness

Friday, October 1, 2010
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
[The LORD:] “I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
    I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.
    Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
    —Amos 5:21-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I do a great wrong in His sight, when I beseech Him that He will hear my prayer, which as I give utterance to it I do not hear myself. I entreat Him that He will think of me; but I regard neither myself nor Him. Nay, what is worse, turning over corrupt and evil thoughts in mine heart, I thrust a dreadful offensiveness into His presence.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Selections from His Letters, Meditations, Sermons, Hymns and Other Writngs, tr. Horatio Grimley, CUP Archive, n.d., p. 195 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my heart towards righteousness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the covenant of forgiveness

Thursday, September 30, 2010
Meditation:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.
    —Psalm 51:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God could, if I may so say, more easily have made a new world of innocent creatures, and have governed them by the old covenant, than have established this new one for the salvation of poor sinners; but then, where had been the glory of forgiveness? It could never have been known that there was forgiveness with Him. The old covenant could not have been preserved and sinners pardoned. Wherefore, God chose to leave the covenant than sinners unrelieved, than grace unexalted and pardon unexercised...
    Will we continue on the old bottom of the first covenant? All that we can do therein is but to set thorns and briars in the way of God, to secure ourselves from His coming against us and upon us with His indignation and fury. Our sins are so, and our righteousness is no better. And what will be the issue? Both they and we shall be trodden down, consumed, and burnt up. What way, then, what remedy is left unto us? Only this of laying hold on the arm and strength of God in that covenant wherein forgiveness of sin is provided.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX [1668], in Works of John Owen, v. VI, New York: R. Carter & Bros., 1851, p. 475 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rest in Your strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: all places are holy

Wednesday, September 29, 2010
    Feast of Michael & All Angels
Meditation:
    He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
    —Romans 14:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As a good Christian should consider every place as holy, because God is there, so he should look upon every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is to be offered unto God.
    The profession of a clergyman is a holy profession, because it is a ministration in holy things, an attendance at the altar. But worldly business is to be made holy unto the Lord, by being done as a service unto Him, and in conformity to His Divine will.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 46 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, sanctify the labor of my hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: world understands humility and love

Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Meditation:
    To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
    —2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes. The poorest... Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. John, v. III, London: William Hunt, 1873, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility that I lack. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pierce: in the midst of suffering

Monday, September 27, 2010
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
Bless the LORD, O my soul:
    and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
    who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
    who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
    so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
    —Psalm 103:1-5 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Jesus Christ can so interfere in a human life that it can look up and say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,” even in the midst of sorrow or suffering.
    ... Robert Pierce (1914-1978), founder and president, World Vision, in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted me the ultimate hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: pure grace

Sunday, September 26, 2010
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
    —1 Peter 2:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a covenant, ... and God is faithful to His covenant. But the substance of that covenant is all pure mercy and grace. If men presume to claim for themselves, upon the basis of the covenant, some relationship with God other than that of the sinner needing God’s grace, the covenant has been perverted. And where that has happened, God, in the sovereign freedom of His grace, destroys these pretensions, calls “No people” to be His people, breaks off natural branches and grafts in wild slips, filling them with the life which is His own life imparted to man. There is no law in His Kingdom save the law of pure grace. That is why they come from east and west to sit down with Abraham and Isaac, while the sons of the Kingdom are cast out; for the sons of the Kingdom have no place there unless they are willing to sit down with all whom the Lord of the feast shall call, and to receive His mercy in exactly the same way as the publicans and sinners.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 90-91 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am not worthy of Your mercy, except through the merits of Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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