Ryle: all things done well

Saturday, February 12, 2011
Meditation:
    People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
    —Mark 7:37 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The truth to which they gave utterance [that “He has done all things well!”], is full of deep and unspeakable comfort; and ought to be daily remembered by all true Christians.
    Let us remember it, as we look back over the past days of our lives, from the hour of our conversion. “Our Lord has done all things well!” In the first bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light,—in humbling us and teaching us our weakness, guilt, and folly,—in stripping us of our idols, and choosing all our portions,—in placing us where we are, and giving us what we have—how well everything has been done! How great the mercy—that we have not had our own way! [continued tomorrow]
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. Mark, Ipswitch: William Hunt, 1857, p. 151 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all You have done, I have benefitted from. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: peace

Friday, February 11, 2011
Meditation:
    What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
    —Romans 7:24-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Peace is that state of things which exists when God’s will is being done. But sin has entered into the world, and God’s will is not being done. And where God’s will is not being done, there strife is found. Man is born to be a child of God, but he has become the enemy of God. Man is at war with himself. He knows what is good and what is bad. Yet often when he longs to do what is right, he finds that instead he does the evil which he hates.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character, London: Lutterworth Press, 1955, p. 37 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can turn me from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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van Ruysbroeck: the love of Jesus

Thursday, February 10, 2011
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
    Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
    —Matthew 9:35-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The love of Jesus is at once avid and generous. All that He has, all that He is, He gives; all that we are, all that we have, He takes.
    ... Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), quoted in The Path of Eternal Wisdom: A Mystical Commentary on the Way of the Cross [1911], Evelyn Underhill, London: John M. Watkins, 1911, p. 47 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, for what You grant me, take all that I have. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Manton: a gift

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Meditation:
    This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
    —Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    On God’s part, a gift, not a debt, as wages is to the servant or soldier, but charisma, a gracious gift. Though we should serve God a thousand years, we cannot merit to be one half-day in heaven. There it is a gift to those who do most exactly persevere in holiness; the best have no other claim, but the mercy of the donor.
    ... Thomas Manton (1620-1677), The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, v. 11, London: James Nisbet & Co., 1873, p. 378 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church relies utterly on Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browne: solitude

Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Meditation:
“Am I only a God nearby,”
        declares the LORD,
    “and not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secret places
    so that I cannot see him?”
        declares the LORD.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
        declares the LORD.
    —Jeremiah 23:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, ... but delight to be alone and single with Omnipresency.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Christian Morals [op. post. 1716], London: Henry Washbourne, 1845, p. 45 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by grace, You are present to Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Gregory: the necessity of good intentions

Monday, February 7, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
    —Matthew 6:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Many things seem to be good and yet are not, because they be not done with a good mind and intention; and therefore our Saviour saith in the Gospel, “If thy eye has naught, all thy body shall be dark.” For when the intention is wicked, all the work that follows is naught, although it seemed to be never so good.
    ... St. Gregory the Great (540?-604), The Dialogues of Saint Gregory, P. L. Warner, 1911, p. 40 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purify my motives. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Van Dyke: Thou wayfaring Jesus

Sunday, February 6, 2011
Meditation:
O Hope of Israel,
    its Savior in times of distress,
why are you like a stranger in the land,
    like a traveler who stays only a night?
    —Jeremiah 14:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
Thou wayfaring Jesus, a pilgrim and stranger,
    Exiled from heaven by love at Thy birth:
Exiled again from Thy rest in the manger,
    A fugitive child ’mid the perils of earth—
Cheer with Thy fellowship all who are weary,
    Wandering far from the land that they love;
Guide every heart that is homeless and dreary,
    Safe to its home in Thy presence above.
    ... Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920, p. 230 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You make me a home in Your kingdom, for my home is not here. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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