Bonhoeffer: repaying enemies

Saturday, April 9, 2011
    Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
Meditation:
    Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
    —Romans 12:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When evil befalls you, it is not you who are in danger, but the others who do you evil; and if you don’t help them, they will perish in it. Therefore, for the others’ sake, and because of your responsibility to them—repay no one evil for evil. For has God ever repaid you in such a way?
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 286 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to remember Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hoskyns: the beam in our eye

Friday, April 8, 2011
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
    —Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are to rid ourselves of pseudo-religion and of an irreligion that is equally spurious, it must be done with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Our Lord bids His disciples pull out first the beam that is in their own eyes. Only then shall we be able to see clearly the tiny splinters which have gotten into the eyes of the poor whom we are called to serve.
    ... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We are the Pharisees, London: SPCK, 1960, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove my hypocrisy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: fragment of a psalm

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Meditation:
    And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
    —Colossians 3:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is good to have some brief words of a Psalm, some thought of prayer, which thou mayest use at any moment of leisure. Ye would often have prayed, had ye known what to pray; while ye have been thinking what to pray, the time was gone.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), “Do all to the Lord Jesus” in Parochial Sermons, preached and printed on various occasions, London: Walter Smith, 1884, p. 92 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant Your word in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: the essential offertory

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
    Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
    —Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The offertory is the first essential action of the Liturgy, because in it we make the costly and solemn oblation, under tokens, of our very selves and all our substance; that they may be transformed, quickened, and devoted to the interests of God.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Mystery of Sacrifice, New York: Longmans, Green, 1938, p. 29 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my offering holy before You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jones: belonging to a Person

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Meditation:
    When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
    —John 10:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In conversion you are not attached primarily to an order, nor to an institution, nor a movement, nor a set of beliefs, nor a code of action—you are attached primarily to a Person, and secondarily to these other things... You are not called to get to heaven, to do good, or to be good—you are called to belong to Jesus Christ. The doing good, the being good, and the getting to heaven, are the by-products of that belonging. The center of conversion is the belonging of a person to a Person.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Conversion, New York: Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 244 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people belong only to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: God has work to do

Monday, April 4, 2011
Meditation:
    You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
    —Galatians 5:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority... It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him, is to oppose Him.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. IX, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, Sermon XIII, p. 171 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Teach me Lord, not to hinder the work You are doing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: the new control center

Sunday, April 3, 2011
Meditation:
    But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
    —1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer frees us to be controlled by God. To pray is to change. There is no greater liberating force in the Christian life than prayer. To enter the gaze of the Holy is never to be the same. To bathe in the Light in quiet wonder and glad surrender is to be slowly, permanently transformed. There is a richer inward orientation, a deep hunger for communion. We feel as if we are being taken over by a new control Center, and so we are.
    ... Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, HarperCollins, 1989, p. 58 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, center my life on prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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