Owen: living faith

Saturday, May 28, 2011
    Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Meditation:
    In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
    —James 2:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. VI-VII, in Works of John Owen, v. XXII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1855, p. 163 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gift of faith energizes Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: propitiation

Friday, May 27, 2011
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
    —Ephesians 2:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, in order to remove any obstacle to his love towards us, appointed the method of reconciliation in Christ. There is great force in this word propitiation; for in a manner which cannot be expressed, God, at the very time when he loved us, was hostile to us until reconciled in Christ... The nature of this mystery is to be learned from the first chapter to the Ephesians, where Paul, teaching that we were chosen in Christ, at the same time adds, that we obtained grace in him. How did God begin to embrace with his favour those whom he had loved before the foundation of the world, unless in displaying his love when he was reconciled by the blood of Christ?
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, II.xvii.2, p. 477-478 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your ransomed people rejoice. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: falling back on God

Thursday, May 26, 2011
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, spiritual writer, 1954
Meditation:
    In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
    —John 16:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We can do nothing, we say sometimes, we can only pray. That, we feel, is a terribly precarious second best. So long as we can fuss and work and rush about, so long as we can lend a hand, we have some hope, but if we have to fall back upon God, ah, then things must be critical indeed!
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 75 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are not my consolation prize. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: cheap grace

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
    —Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    After all, we are told, our salvation has already been accomplished by the grace of God... It was unkind to speak to men like this, for such a cheap offer could only leave them bewildered and tempt them from the way to which they had been called by Christ. Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred forever from the knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace—whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, London: SCM Press, 1964, p. 14-15 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take my life, for I cannot keep it through my own strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Wesley: give me the book

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    it will be for those who walk in that Way;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
    nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
    and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
    —Isa. 35:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have thought—I am a creature of a day, passing through life, as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf; till a few moments hence, I am no more seen! I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book! O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), preface to The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. V, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1826, p. 5 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your salvation has conquered all obstacles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Isaac of Syria: withdrawing from the world

Monday, May 23, 2011
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
    —1 Peter 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No one can approach God without withdrawing from the world. By withdrawal I do not mean change of physical dwelling place, but withdrawal from worldly affairs. The virtue of withdrawal from the world consists in not occupying your mind with the world.
    ... St. Isaac of Syria (d. c. 700), quoted in Early Fathers from the Philokalia, Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), comp. & E. Kadloubovsky, Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer, trs., Faber and Faber, 1959, p. 183 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my idle mind away from the world’s concerns and towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: leadership of the church

Sunday, May 22, 2011
Meditation:
    Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
    —Acts 8:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Is the leadership of the world-wide church in the hands of men and women who know how to lead others one by one to Jesus Christ? We are so concerned with planning and administration that there is a danger lest we allow these things to serve as an excuse for not doing the one thing on which all else depends.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), “The Church in a Revolutionary World”, in International Review of Mission, v. XXXVI, p. 451 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, do not let our focus stray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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