Law: consistent witness

Saturday, June 18, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
    —Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are to love our enemies, we must make our common life a visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If content and thankfulness, if the patient bearing of evil be duties to God, they are the duties of every day, and in every circumstance of our life.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 10 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can make me sustain obedience to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith & Lynn: the end or the means?

Friday, June 17, 2011
    Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936
Meditation:
    A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
    He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
    He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
    They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
    —Mark 4:37-41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Doubt, rather than faith, is high among the causes of the religious boom. And the church’s response to this current situation will reveal, better than anything else, our faith in God—or our faithlessness. If we churchmen interpret such pervasive doubt as a threat, then we will do as the church has done so often in the past: we will substitute the church for God, and make our church-centered activities into an ersatz kingdom of God. Our faithlessness will be evident in the easy paraphrase of the hard truth of the gospel, and in the lapse from the critical loyalty that God requires of us, into the vague and corrupting sentimentalism that has so marred American Protestantism.
    Or the church can interpret the present religious situation as a promise, as God’s recall of His people to a new reformation. Our faithfulness to God-in-Christ will be manifest in the willingness to be honest with ourselves and with the gospel. Then we may view the church, not as an end in itself, but as the point of departure into the world for which the Son of God died.
    Which will it be?
    ... Carl R. Smith & Robert W. Lynn, “Experiment in Suburbia”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 165-166 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the church is Your instrument in the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carson: drifting

Thursday, June 16, 2011
    Feast of Richard of Chichester, Bishop, 1253
    Commemoration of Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Moral Philosopher, 1752
Meditation:
    Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
    —1 John 3:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
    ... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, v. II [1999], reprint, Good News Publishers, 2006, Jan. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, prohibit my drifting away from You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: faithfulness in small things

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
    Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941
Meditation:
    The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.”
    —Luke 12:42-44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Only those who try to live near God and have formed the habit of faithfulness to Him in the small things of our daily life, can hope in times of need for that special light which shows us our path. To do as well as we can the job immediately before us, is the way to learn what we ought to do next.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taught Your people to follow You in small things and great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baxter: none harm

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
    Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691
Meditation:
    But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Will it do you any hurt to leave your beastly, sensual lives, and to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ?” This is the doctrine of saving grace. Would it do you any harm to be assured of salvation, and ready to die, and to know that angels shall conduct your departing souls to Christ, and that you shall live in joy with him for ever? Or to be employed in those holy works that must prepare you for this day, and help you to this assurance? If God be naught for you, if holiness, and righteousness, and temperance be naught for you, then you may as well say, heaven is naught for you.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. VIII, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 181 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the self-control to wait in patience for Your day. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton: free thought

Monday, June 13, 2011
    Commemoration of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Apologist and Writer, 1936, Apologist and Writer, 1936
Meditation:
    To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
    —John 8:31-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We say, not lightly but very literally, that the truth has made us free. They [the denouncers of dogma] say that it makes us so free that it cannot be the truth. To them it is like believing in fairyland to believe in such freedom as we enjoy. It is like believing in men with wings to entertain the fancy of men with wills. It is like accepting a fable about a squirrel in conversation with a mountain to believe in a man who is free to ask or a God who is free to answer. This is a manly and a rational negation, for which I for one shall always show respect. But I decline to show any respect for those who first of all clip the wings and cage the squirrel, rivet the chains and refuse the freedom, close all the doors of the cosmic prison on us with a clang of eternal iron, tell us that our emancipation is a dream and our dungeon a necessity; and then calmly turn round and tell us they have a freer thought and a more liberal theology.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), The Everlasting Man, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1925, Wilder Publications, 2008, p. 157-158 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone have set me free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: Tongues of fire from heaven descend

Sunday, June 12, 2011
    Pentecost
Meditation:
    For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
    —1 Corinthians 1:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Tongues of fire from heaven descend
    With a mighty rushing wind,
        To blow it up and make
                A living fire
    Of heav’nly charity, and pure desire,
    Where they their residence should take.
    On the apostles’ sacred heads they sit;
    Who now, like beacons, do proclaim and tell
    Th’ invasion of the host of hell;
        And give men warning to defend
    Themselves from the enraged brunt of it.
    Lord, let the flames of holy charity,
        And all her gifts and graces, slide
        Into our hearts, and there abide;
    That thus refined, we may soar above
    With it unto the element of love,
            Even unto thee, dear Spirit,—
    And there eternal peace and rest inherit.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), from “Festival Hymns”, in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. XV, London: Ogle, Duncan & Co., 1822, p. 89 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we praise You as the giver of gifts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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