Drury: the style and content of churches

Saturday, November 27, 2010
Meditation:
    Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
    —Proverbs 3:34 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We are building many splendid churches in this country, but we are not providing leaders to run them. I would rather have a wooden church with a splendid parson, than a splendid church with a wooden parson.
    ... Samuel Smith Drury (1878-1938), included in Leaves of Gold, Evan S. Coslett & Clyde Francis Lytle, ed. [1948], Honesdale, Pa.: Coslett Publishing Company, 1938, p. 62 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are sovereign over our strength and fortunes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: Thy word, visible

Friday, November 26, 2010
    Commemoration of Isaac Watts, Hymnwriter, 1748
Meditation:
    My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
    —Song of Solomon 2:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thy word remaineth for ever, which word now appeareth unto us in the riddle of the clouds, and through the mirror of the heavens, not as it is: because that even we, though the well beloved of thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looked through the lattice of our flesh and he spake us fair, yea, he set us on fire, and we hasten on his scent. But when he shall appear, then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is: as he is, Lord, will our sight be, though the time be not yet.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, XIII.xvi, p. 366 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your people shall become the fulfilment of Your promises, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: God's providence

Thursday, November 25, 2010
    Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
    Thanksgiving (U.S.)
Meditation:
    Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
    —2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whenever we call God the Creator of heaven and earth, let us at the same time reflect, that the dispensation of all those things which he has made is in his own power, and that we are his children, whom he has received into his charge and custody, to be supported and educated; so that we may expect every blessing from him alone, and cherish a certain hope that he will never suffer us to want those things which are necessary to our well-being, that our hope may depend on no other; that, whatever we need or desire, our prayers may be directed to him, and that, from whatever quarter we receive any advantage, we may acknowledge it to be his benefit, and confess it with thanksgiving; that, being allured with such great sweetness of goodness and beneficence, we may study to love and worship him with all our hearts.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.xiv.22, p. 170 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, for Your continual provision for Your people, we give You thanks and praise. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Paton: the meaning of "almighty"

Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Meditation:
    Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
    —Genesis 2:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We ought indeed to expect to find the works of God in such things as the advance of knowledge. Knowledge of the physical universe is not to be thought of as irrelevant to Christian faith [simply] because it does not lead to saving knowledge of God. In so far as it is concerned with God’s creation, physical science is a fitting study for God’s children. Moreover, the advance of scientific knowledge does negatively correct and enlarge theological notions—at the least, the geologists and astrophysicists have helped us to rid ourselves of parochial notions of God, and filled in some of the meaning of such phrases as “almighty.”
    ... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your creation reflects Your goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Shaw: practical man

Tuesday, November 23, 2010
    Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
    —Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus remains unshaken as the practical man; and we stand exposed as the fools, the blunderers, the unpractical visionaries.
    ... George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Androcles and the lion; Overruled; Pygmalion, New York: Brentano’s, 1916, p. lxxv (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to follow Jesus' teaching and example. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: forgiving our superiors

Monday, November 22, 2010
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
O God, whom I praise,
    do not remain silent,
for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me;
    they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
With words of hatred they surround me;
    they attack me without cause.
In return for my friendship they accuse me,
    but I am a man of prayer.
They repay me evil for good,
    and hatred for my friendship.
    —Psalm 109:1-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Man’s offense “smells to heaven”: massacres, broken treaties, beatings-up, theft, kidnappings, enslavement, deportation, floggings, lynchings, rape, insult, mockery, and odious hypocrisy, make up that smell. But the thing comes nearer than that. Those of us who have little authority, who have few people at our mercy, may be thankful. But how if one is an officer in the army (or, perhaps worse, an N.C.O.)? a hospital matron? a magistrate? a prison-warden? a school prefect? a trades-union official? a Boss of any sort? in a word, anyone who cannot be “answered back?” It is hard enough, even with the best will in the world, to be just. It is hard, under the pressure of haste, uneasiness, ill-temper, self-complacency, and conceit, even to continue intending justice. Power corrupts; the “insolence of office” will creep in. We see it so clearly in our superiors; is it unlikely that our inferiors see it in us? How many of those who have been over us did not sometimes (perhaps often) need our forgiveness? Be sure that we likewise need the forgiveness of those that are under us.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “The Psalms”, in Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1967, p. 119-120 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, incline me to mercy towards others. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hebert: His words

Sunday, November 21, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
    —Luke 10:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Jesus’] moral teaching does not consist of a universal scheme of ethics, a series of precepts which would be universally valid by whomever they had been spoken. They are to be heard as His word, spoken by Him, with the impact of His person behind them.
    ... Gabriel Hebert (1886-1963), The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 105 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the King. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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