Fenelon: without ceasing

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Meditation:
    O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.
    —Psalm 88:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation. Speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Selections from Fénelon, ed. Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston: Roberts Bros., 1879, p. 54 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, when my mind wanders, bring it back to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: taking the Scriptures literally

Friday, February 25, 2011
Meditation:
    For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.
    —Acts 20:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is, however, very much to be said for my opinion; in the first place this—that no violence ought to be done to the words of God, neither by man, nor by angel, but that, as far as possible, they ought to be kept to their simplest meaning, and not to be taken, unless the circumstances manifestly compel us to do so, out of their grammatical and proper signification, that we may not give our adversaries any opportunity of evading the teaching of the whole Scriptures.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), The Babylonian Captivity of the Church [1520], 2.25 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word come to Your people as You intended. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: on shame

Thursday, February 24, 2011
Meditation:
    If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
    —2 Corinthians 3:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do you so love the truth and the right that you welcome, or at least submit willingly to the idea of an exposure of what in you is yet unknown to yourself—an exposure that may redound to the glory of the truth by making you ashamed and humble?... Are you willing to be made glad that you were wrong when you thought others were wrong?... We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future. It will not hurt us so long as we do not try to hide things, so long as we are ready to bow our heads in hearty shame where it is fit that we should be ashamed. For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Shame is a thing to shame only those who want to appear, not those who want to be. Shame is to shame those who want to pass their examination, not those who would get into the heart of things... To be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of truth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Final Unmasking”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 235-236, 238 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, expose all the dark places in my heart to Your cleansing light. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Polycarp: far from sin

Wednesday, February 23, 2011
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
    —1 Corinthians 13:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He that is furnished with love, stands at a distance from all sin.
    ... Polycarp (69?-155?), Letter to the Philippians, 3:3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, displace the sin in me with love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Oden: the deepest need

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Meditation:
    My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
    —James 5:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The deepest need of humanity is for salvation from sin. This is the quandary to which the gospel speaks. The church that forgets the gospel of salvation is finally not the church but its echo. The church that becomes focused upon maintaining itself instead of the gospel becomes a dead branch of the living vine. The church is imperiled when it becomes intoxicated with the spirit of its particular age, committed more to serve the gods of that age than the God of all ages.
    ... Thomas C. Oden (b. 1931), Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology, HarperCollins, 2009, p. 233 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, return all Your church to the true path. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beecher: abstract prayer

Monday, February 21, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
    —Matthew 6:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is remarkable how skilfully men will contrive to avoid all real interests, and express almost wholly those which are not real to them. A man prays for the glory of God, for the advance of His kingdom, for the evangelisation of the world; but, in that very time, he will not allude to the very things in which his own life may stand, nor to the wants which every day are working their impress upon his character. The cares, the petty annoyances, the impatience of temper, pride, self-indulgence, selfishness, conscious and unconscious; or, on the other hand, the gladnesses of daily life, the blessings of home, the felicities of friendship, the joys and success of life—in short, all the things which one would talk of to a venerable mother, in an hour of confidence, are excluded from prayer among the brotherhood.
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Summer in the Soul, Edinburgh: A. Strahan & Co., 1859, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit teaches me to pray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kates: enough knowledge

Sunday, February 20, 2011
    Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906
Meditation:
    After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
    Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
    Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
    Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
    —Mark 9:2-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian clearly understands that Jesus does not reveal all that is signified by the word “God,” but only as much as could be revealed through a perfect human personality living in absolute obedience to God’s will. The knowledge of God that men have by virtue of Jesus’ revelation is quite enough for men to live by in this life, and to live gloriously and thankfully by, Christians maintain—the knowledge that God the Creator, the Almighty and Eternal, the Lord of history, is man’s Heavenly Father, and that love might well be, and indeed is, the ultimate meaning of human existence.
    ... Frederick Ward Kates (1910-1987), A Moment Between Two Eternities, New York: Harper & Row, 1965, p. 3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown us Yourself in Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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