Wycliffe: speak plainly

Saturday, December 31, 2011
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
    —Luke 21:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thus by the authority of the law of God men should speak her words as God’s law speaketh, and strange not in speech from understanding of the people, and always beware that the people understand well, and so use common speech in their own person; and if they speak in Christ’s person [the] words of his law, look that they declare him, for dread of privy errors.
    And scorn we the arguments that fools make here, that by the same power should we speak thus, for God speaks thus the words of his law. Such apes likeness passes beast’s folly, for they would bring by this that each man were God. And so have we leave to speak as him liketh, [though] we speak not aye so by the same authority; these words that God speaketh should we always grant, and declare to him true understanding.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Select English Works of John Wyclif, v. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869, p. 78-79 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You enable Your people to speak the Gospel clearly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rieu: the Magna Carta of the human spirit

Friday, December 30, 2011
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”
    —Acts 5:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let the Gospels speak. Of what I have learnt from these documents in the course of my long task, I will say nothing now. Only this, that they bear the seal of the Son of Man and God, they are the Magna Charta of the human spirit. Were we to devote to their comprehension a little of the selfless enthusiasm that is now expended on the riddle of our physical surroundings, we would cease to say that Christianity is coming to an end—we might even feel that it had only just begun.
    ... E. V. Rieu (1887-1972), The Four Gospels, London: Penguin Books, 1952, p. xxxiii (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gospel goes forth from the mouths of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: God's majesty

Thursday, December 29, 2011
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
    —Judges 6:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For when we see those, who before his appearance stood secure and firm, so astonished and affrighted at the manifestation of his glory, as to faint and almost expire through fear,—we must infer that man is never sufficiently affected with a knowledge of his own meanness, till he has compared himself with the Divine Majesty.
    ... 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, I.i.3, p. 48 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are small, but You are great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Havergal: A happy, happy Christmas

Wednesday, December 28, 2011
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
    —Luke 1:39-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
A happy, happy Christmas,
    And a happy, happy year!
Oh, we have not deserved it,
    And yet we need not fear.
For Jesus has deserved it,
    And so for Jesus’ sake,
This cup of joy and blessing
    With grateful hand we take.
    ... Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal, New York: E.P. Dutton & co., 1888, p. 168 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    We greet You with joy, Lord! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: mind Heaven

Tuesday, December 27, 2011
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    ... when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
    —1 Peter 5:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 104 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fix my eyes on heaven. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: testing faith

Monday, December 26, 2011
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
    —Hebrews 6:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some relate ... that the eagle tries the eyes of her young by turning them to the sun; which if they cannot look steadily on, she rejects them as spurious. We may truly try our faith by immediate intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness. Direct faith to act itself immediately and directly on the incarnation of Christ and His mediation; and if it be not the right kind and race it will turn its eyes aside to anything else.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 323 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Increase my faith, Lord, so that it will stand the test. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: Christmas

Sunday, December 25, 2011
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
    Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
    —Revelation 5:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
Come let us join our cheerful songs,
    With angels round the throne;
Ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
    But all their joys are one.

Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry,
    To be exalted thus:
Worthy the Lamb, our lips reply,
    For he was slain for us.

Jesus is worthy to receive
    Honour and pow’r divine;
And blessings, more than we can give,
    Be, Lord, for ever thine.

Let all who dwell above the sky,
    And air, and earth, and seas,
Conspire to lift thy glories high,
    And speak thine endless praise.

The whole creation join in one,
    To bless the sacred name,
Of him who sits upon the throne,
    And to adore the Lamb.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book I, hymn 62, p. 321 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken away our sin.

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