Pierce: what God blesses

Saturday, January 1, 2011
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
    —Psalm 41:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I don’t ask God to bless what I do. I pray He will help me to do what He blesses.
    ... Robert Pierce (1914-1978), founder and president, World Vision, in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me into Your will this year. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wycliffe: in the family

Friday, December 31, 2010
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
    —Galatians 3:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For what man it be that Christ converts and saves him in heaven, he is Israel’s son, for he supplants the fiend as Jacob did Esau, and he is made a man that sees God by faith. And Christ is called thus both Jacob and Israel, and other holy fathers that prefigured Christ, and thus men are made by grace to be of the house of Jacob.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Sermon XLI, in Select English works of John Wyclif, v. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869, p. 114 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, for making me part of Your family. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: a tongue they understand

Thursday, December 30, 2010
Meditation:
    Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
    —Acts 2:7-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are so farre off from condemning any of their labours that traveiled before us in this kinde, either in this land or beyond sea, ... that we acknowledge them to have beene raised up of God, ... and that they deserve to be had of us and of posteritie in everlasting remembrance... Therefore blessed be they, and most honoured be their name, that breake the yce and give the onset upon that which helpeth forward to the saving of soules. Now what can be more available thereto, than to deliver Gods booke unto Gods people in a tongue which they understand? ... So if we, building upon their foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, doe endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we perswade ourselves, if they were alive, would thanke us... For is the Kingdom of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them if we may be free?
    ... Miles Smith (1554-1624), in the preface to The Authorised Version of the English Bible [1611], Cambridge: The University Press, 1909, p. 19,28 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we thank You that You have caused Your word to be known among us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Green: Christ in your zip code

Wednesday, December 29, 2010
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.
    —Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Mass evangelism undoubtedly has its place; parochial missions can make their contribution; a specially gifted evangelist can proclaim his message; the specialist Christian can make his contribution in factory, in politics and in teaching; all these are genuine contributions to the evangelistic activity of the Christian Church: but in the last analysis it is the worshipping community, that part of the Body of Christ that worships, lives and proclaims the Gospel in all its activities in any given neighborhood, which is the real evangelising agent used by the Spirit of God. It is here amidst the people, that the Church must worship and live her life. If she is faithful both to her God and to her Gospel, she will be used to hold forth the Word of light to the conversion of those that see and hear. But if its light is hid, then wherewith shall the neighborhood be lighted? And if the salt has lost its savour, wherewith shall the district be salted?
    ... Bryan S. W. Green (1901-1993), The Practice of Evangelism, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951, p. 71 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your light shine forth into our communities. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: key to loving our enemies

Tuesday, December 28, 2010
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
    —Matthew 5:44-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature: to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men’s evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.
    ... 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, III.vii.6, p. 625 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown us the way of love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: finding unity in communion

Monday, December 27, 2010
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
    —1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is a singularly unpleasant thought that a book about Holy Communion is more likely to produce disagreement and controversy than one written on almost any other Christian subject. It seems a truly terrible thing that this Sacred Appointment, which was surely meant to unite, in actual practice divides Christians more sharply than any other part of their worship. Christians of various denominations may, and frequently do, work together on social projects, they may study the Scripture together, and they may ... pray together. But the moment attendance at the Lord’s Table is suggested, up go the denominational barriers.
    ... I would make a strong plea that we do not exclude from the Lord’s Table in our Church those who are undoubtedly sincere Christians. I cannot believe that to communicate together with our Lord should be regarded as the consummation, the final pinnacle, of the whole vast work of Reunion. Suppose it is the means and not the end. We might feel far more sharply the sin of our divisions and of our exclusiveness if we came humbly together to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, and in that reception we might find such a quickening of our common devotion to Him that the divisions between us might be found not nearly so insuperable as we supposed.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Appointment with God, New York, Macmillan, 1954, p. 59,61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Show us, Lord, how to unite at Your table. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phelps: eternal Christmas

Sunday, December 26, 2010
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    [Angel to Mary:] “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
    —Luke 1:31-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
In the pure soul, although it sing or pray,
The Christ is born anew from day to day.
The life that knoweth Him shall bide apart
And keep eternal Christmas in the heart.
    ... Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911), included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 165 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are present in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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