Wilberforce: Christian diligence

Saturday, March 26, 2011
    Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
Meditation:
    Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
    Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
    —John 6:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study or inquiry! This is the more preposterous, because Christianity, being a revelation from God, and not the invention of man, discovering to us new relations, with their correspondent duties; containing also doctrines, motives, and precepts, peculiar to itself; we cannot reasonably expect to become proficients in it by the accidental [encounters] of life, as one might learn insensibly the maxims of worldly policy, or a scheme of mere morals.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 79-80 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the strength to teach my body to do Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: forget self

Friday, March 25, 2011
    Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
Meditation:
    Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
    —1 Peter 1:13-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To make the improving of our own character our central aim is hardly the highest kind of goodness. True goodness forgets itself and goes out to do the right thing for no other reason than that it is right.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Christian Freedom in the Modern World, London: SCM Press, 1937, p. 27 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cure my unbelief, that I may forget self and love righteousness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Goulburn: the lamp of consciousness

Thursday, March 24, 2011
    Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
    Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
Meditation:
    The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
    —Romans 8:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, though present everywhere, has His special residence, as being a pure Spirit, in our minds. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” He is somewhere in the recesses of our soul, in the springs of our existence, in that mysterious, dark, cavernous region of our nature where the wishes, feelings, thoughts, emotions take their earliest rise... The mind is a sanctuary, in the center of which the Lord sits enthroned, the lamp of the consciousness burning before Him.
    ... Edward Meyrick Goulburn, Thoughts on personal religion, Rivingtons, 1871, p. 257-258 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cleanse my mind that it may be Your temple. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: the limitless patience

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Meditation:
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,
    abounding in love and faithfulness.
    —Psalm 86:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [God’s] patience is infinite. Men, like small kettles, boil quickly with wrath at the least wrong. Not so God. If God were as wrathful, the world would have been a heap of ruins long ago.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), Reality and Religion: meditations on God, man, and nature, London: Macmillan, 1924, p. 24 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a patient mind and heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Shedd: the invisible God

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Meditation:
    No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
    —John 1:18 (NASB)
Quotation:
    Man, here below, lives so entirely among sensible things, and meditates so little upon spiritual objects, that he comes to look upon that which is spiritual as unreal, and upon material things as the only realities. For most men, houses, and lands, and gold are more real than God and the soul. The former address the five senses, whereas "no man hath seen God at any time," and the soul is not apprehensible by any sensuous organ. Yet the invisible God is more real than any other being, for he is the cause and ground of all other existence. It was an invisible Mind that made the material chaos from nothing, and brooded over it, and formed it into an orderly and beautiful cosmos. The invisible is more firmly substantial than the visible.
    ... W. G. T. Shedd (1820-1894), Sermons to the Spiritual Man, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1884, p. 177-178 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by faith we see the invisible truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brunner: nothing for us

Monday, March 21, 2011
Meditation:
    Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
    —Romans 6:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The death of Jesus Christ is for us nothing if we have not died with him; the resurrection of our Lord is for us nothing if we have not been raised with him.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), I Believe in the Living God: sermons on the Apostles’ Creed, Westminster Press, 1960, p. 103 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot live any more for sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: trusting God for the result

Sunday, March 20, 2011
    Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
Meditation:
    We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
    —Hebrews 3:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We distrust the providence of God, when, after we have used all our best endeavours, and begged His blessing upon them, we torment ourselves about the issue and event of things.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. V, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon LXXXIX, p. 77 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made constant provision for Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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