Irenaeus: like us

Saturday, December 24, 2011
    Christmas Eve
Meditation:
    Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
    —1 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.
    ... Irenaeus (c.130-c.200), from Adversus Haereses, v. praef. (ad fin.), in The Early Christian Fathers, Henry Scowcroft Bettenson, London: Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 106 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are one of us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Drummond: Bright portals of the sky

Friday, December 23, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
    —John 14:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Bright portals of the sky,
Emboss’d with sparkling stars,
Doors of eternity,
With diamantine bars,
Your arras rich uphold,
Loose all your bolts and springs,
Ope wide your leaves of gold,
That in your roofs may come the King of Kings.

O well-spring of this All!
Thy Father’s image vive;
Word, that from nought did call
What is, doth reason, live;
The soul’s eternal food,
Earth’s joy, delight of heaven;
All truth, love, beauty, good:
To thee, to thee be praises ever given!

O glory of the heaven!
O sole delight of earth!
To thee all power be given,
God’s uncreated birth!
Of mankind lover true,
Indearer of his wrong,
Who doth the world renew,
Still be thou our salvation and our song!
    ... William Drummond (1585-1649), The Poems of William Drummond of Hawthornden, v. II, London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894, p. 21-24 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I praise You forever!

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Bonhoeffer: a picture of Advent

Thursday, December 22, 2011
Meditation:
    The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...
    —Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in a letter, November 21, 1943, A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 490 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have released me from my prison. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jones: the unrespectability of need

Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Meditation:
    While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
    —Mark 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In our Ashrams of East and West, places of spiritual retreat, we begin with what we call “The Morning of the Open Heart,” in which we tell our needs... We give four or five hours to this catharsis. The reaction of one member, who listened to it for the first time, was: “Good gracious, have we all the disrupted people in the country here?” My reply was: “No, you have a cross section of the church life honestly revealed.” In the ordinary church, it is suppressed by respectability, by a desire to appear better than we really are.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Conversion, New York: Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 10-11 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to accept _____ and _____ in the fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: fidelity in little things

Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Meditation:
    Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
    —Philippians 2:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Little things come daily, hourly, within our reach, and they are not less calculated to set forward our growth in holiness, than are the greater occasions which occur but rarely;—in some ways we may turn them to more profit, inasmuch as they do not war against humility, or tend to feed self-conceit. Moreover, fidelity in trifles, and an earnest seeking to please God in little matters, is a test of real devotion and love... Let your aim be to please our dear Lord perfectly in little things, and to attain a spirit of childlike simplicity and dependence.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 2-3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the child-like heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: clothed

Monday, December 19, 2011
Meditation:
    Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
    —Isaiah 53:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours but Christ’s, on whom God hath laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ’s righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays his hand upon us, and we are healed; he casts his mantle on us, and we are clothed; he is the glorious Saviour, blessed for ever.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), remarks on Thesis 37, Resolutiones et Responsiones, 1518, in History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Germany, Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné, London: Walther, 1838, p. 380 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    The Savior is here! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Meynell: Given, not lent

Sunday, December 18, 2011
    Advent IV
Meditation:
    And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
    “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:8-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
Given, not lent,
And not withdrawn—once sent,
This Infant of mankind, this One,
Is still the little welcome Son.

New every year,
New born and newly dear,
He comes with tidings and a song,
The ages long, the ages long.

Even as the cold
Keen winter grows not old,
As childhood is so fresh, foreseen,
And spring in the familiar green.

Sudden as sweet
Come the expected feet.
All joy is young, and new all art,
And He, too, Whom we have by heart.
    ... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), Collected Poems of Alice Meynell, London: Burns & Oates, 1913, p. 32 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given us Your Favor!

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