Wesley: in debt to the rich

Saturday, March 5, 2011
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
    —Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let all our chapels be built plain and decent; but not more expensively than is absolutely unavoidable: otherwise the necessity of raising money will make rich men necessary to us. But if so, we must be dependent upon them, yea, and governed by them. And then farewell to the Methodist-discipline, if not doctrine too.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), instructions to Methodists in the U.S. [1784], in A Constitutional History of American Episcopal Methodism, John James Tigert, Nashville: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1908, p. 592 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people fidelity to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: humanism does not heal

Friday, March 4, 2011
    Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Meditation:
    “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”
    —Isaiah 57:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Humanism is not wrong in its cry for sociological healing, but humanism is not producing it.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), Pollution and the Death of Man [1970], reprint, Good News Publishers, 1992, p. 74 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the world is crying out for Your healing touch. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: world reconciliation to God

Thursday, March 3, 2011
Meditation:
    All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
    —2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are, as God’s “ambassadors,” ... cheerfully and constantly to bear our share of the cost of that work of reconciliation. In all humility, we can say that ... God is in every true Christian “reconciling the world unto Himself.”
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 43 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to proclaim Your message of reconciliation by word and life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stott: becoming human

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
    Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
    —Mark 7:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To become Christian is in a real sense to become human because nothing dehumanizes more than rebellion against God or humanizes more than reconciliation to God and fellowship with God. But to assert joyfully that salvation includes humanization is not at all the same thing as saying that humanization (rescuing men from the dehumanizing process of modern society) equals salvation.
    ... John R. W. Stott (b. 1921), Christian Mission in the Modern World, London: Falcon; Downers Grove: IVP, 1975, p. 105 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have promised to the spirit as well as the body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foxe: discomfort in the pews

Tuesday, March 1, 2011
    Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
    When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
    Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
    —Matthew 19:23-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    With his continual doctrine [Bishop Hooper] adjoined due and discreet correction, not so much severe to any as to them which for abundance of riches, and wealthy state, thought they might do what they listed. And doubtless he spared no kind of people, but was indifferent to all men, as well rich as poor, to the great shame of no small number of men now-a-days; whereof many we see so addicted to the pleasing of great and rich men, that in the mean time they have no regard to the meaner sort of poor people, whom Christ hath bought as dearly as the other.
    ... John Foxe (1516-1587), The Book of Martyrs, v. III, London: George Virtue, 1844, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forbid that I discriminate against the poor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: confidence in God alone

Monday, February 28, 2011
Meditation:
Have no fear of sudden disaster
    or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the LORD will be your confidence
    and will keep your foot from being snared.
    —Proverbs 3:25-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 88 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me the foolishness of trusting anything apart from You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: the bridge of forgiveness

Sunday, February 27, 2011
    Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your sins.”
    —Mark 11:25-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.
    ... Edward Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648), The Autobiography of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, London: Walter Scott, 1888, p. 40 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant in me a heart that desires to forgive. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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