Luther: in the midst of your enemies

Saturday, October 30, 2010
    Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546
Meditation:
The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion;
    you will rule in the midst of your enemies.
    —Psalm 110:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing, who would ever have been spared?
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), paraphrase from "Sermon on Psalm 110" [1518], WA, 1:696, quoted in Life Together [1954], Dietrich Bonhoeffer & tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 27 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove our fears, and lead us out into the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: taking up the cross

Friday, October 29, 2010
    Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
    —John 5:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The cross is laid on every Christian. It begins with the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. Since this happens at the beginning of the Christian life, the cross can never be merely a tragic ending to an otherwise happy religious life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at His call. That is why the rich young man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of his following was the death of his will. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and His call are necessarily our death and our life.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, London: SCM Press, 1964, p. 44 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I surrender myself to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton: left untried

Thursday, October 28, 2010
    Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
    —John 3:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), What’s Wrong with the World, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1912, p. 48 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You draw Your people to Yourself, regardless the difficulty. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: communion with God

Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Meditation:
    Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
    —Mark 1:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus, like all other religious leaders, taught men to pray, that is, He taught them to look away from the world of ordinary sense impressions and to open the heart and spirit to God, yet He is always insistent that religion must be related to life. It is only by contact with God that a better quality of living can be achieved—and Jesus Himself, as the records show, spent many hours in communion with God—yet that new quality of life has to be both demonstrated and tested in the ordinary rough-and-tumble of plain living. It is in ordinary human relationships that the validity of a man’s communion with God is to be proved.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), When God was Man, London: Lutterworth Press:, 1954, p. 22 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is strength to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: faith in action and waiting

Tuesday, October 26, 2010
    Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
    Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664
Meditation:
    But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.
    —Hosea 12:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is that which, knowing the Lord’s will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills; neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Temptation in the Wilderness”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 147 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people repose in Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Graham Swift: Jesus' sovereignty first

Monday, October 25, 2010
    Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285
Meditation:
    At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
    —Matthew 11:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The basic assumption which all expositors seem anxious to secure is certainly right, namely, that the ultimate purpose of a parable is to help and not hinder the apprehension of the truth. But beyond this, we may say that it belongs to the very nature of revelation that the capacity to receive it depends upon the prior surrender and obedience of the will... The disciples had so surrendered to the sovereignty of Jesus and could therefore know. If temporarily parables concealed the truths of the kingdom from the outsider on the intellectual plane, it was only in order that moral conviction might first be secured with a view to intellectual enlightenment afterwards. There are many who, through intellectual pride, would like to have it otherwise, but it cannot be.
    ... C. E. Graham Swift, The New Bible Commentary, Frances Davidson, Eerdmans., 1963, p. 814-815 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your wisdom goes out to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Teresa of Avila: the power of obedience

Sunday, October 24, 2010
Meditation:
    Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
    —Romans 16:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Interior Castle [1577], tr., E. Allison Peers, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961, p. 33 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the hidden power within Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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