Aquinas: our beneficial ignorance

Saturday, January 28, 2012
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.
    —Ecclesiastes 9:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If all the predestined knew they were predestined, then all those not predestined would know they were not predestined from the very fact that they did not know if they were predestined. This would, in some way, lead them to despair. Now, considering those who are predestined, security is the mother of negligence; and if the predestined were certain about their predestination, they would be secure about their salvation. Consequently, they would not exercise so great care in avoiding evil. Hence, it has been wisely ordained by God’s providence that men should be ignorant of their predestination or reprobation.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274), Truth, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1994, p. 281-282 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your assurance is sufficient. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: chosen by God

Friday, January 27, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus] was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
    —Acts 10:41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow. The piercing truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it. God chooses us in order to use us.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of Luke, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I could not bear my cross were You not bearing it with me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: absolutely free

Thursday, January 26, 2012
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
    —Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is atonement that makes repentance, not repentance that makes atonement. Repentance comes because the Father of love has proved Himself a ‘Holy Father.’ He has closed the rent that sin had made; He offers a pardon that is a pardon, and that is absolutely free.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), from “God as Holy Father,” in Homiletic Review, v. XXXIII, I. K. Funk & D. S. Gregory, eds., New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1897, p. 236 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your forgiveness has turned me away from my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sadgrove & Wright: universal salvation?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Any theory which asserts universal salvation in Christ must involve not only the potential notion of “anonymous faith” but also some doctrine of a future state in which those whose religion has not made them “anonymous Christians”, and those who have professed and lived by no faith at all (a category often conveniently ignored in this context), are presented over and over again with the chance of faith in Christ. Such a theory is not only without scriptural warrant; it cuts clean across all that Scripture teaches about the historical nature of Christianity. Those who are saved at the last are those who are genuinely in Christ in this life.
    ... Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, in The Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 78 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only by grace can I be saved. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: honesty in prayer

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
    —Ecclesiastes 12:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... if you lie to God’s Holy Spirit, you can scarcely wonder that He refuses you His comfort.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, p. 334 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have opened up the secrets of my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: sorrow

Monday, January 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
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.”
    They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
    Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
    —John 8:31-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What sort of Christians are we that go about asking for the things of this life first, thinking that it shall make us prosperous to be Christians, and then a little higher asking for the things that pertain to the eternal prosperity, when the Great Master, who leaves us the great law, in whom our Christian life is spiritually set forth, has as His great symbol the cross, the cross, the sign of consecration and obedience? It is not simply suffering too. Christ does not stand primarily for suffering. Suffering is an accident. It does not matter whether you and I suffer. “Not enjoyment and not sorrow” is our life, not sorrow any more than enjoyment, but obedience and duty. If duty brings sorrow, let it bring sorrow. It did bring sorrow to the Christ.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust You with my future. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reeves: the common life of the Body

Sunday, January 22, 2012
Meditation:
    Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
    —Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whatever gifts we possess belong to the Body, and are useful only as they are used in the common life of the Church. All this is made very plain in the New Testament Epistles, for in them we are taught that in each local Christian community is a fellowship in which every member is to live in humility and in love to the brethren. Yet no local church is to live to itself. Again and again, local churches are reminded of their close relationship to one another, in life, work, worship, pain, and death. Not that such a relationship is to be regarded either as a matter of convenience or as a question of organization. On the contrary, this intimate relationship is seen as the direct outcome of the saving work of Christ. This unity with one another, and of local churches with each other, is the unity which belongs to the Body of Christ, arising from the unity of God Himself, uttered in the dying and rising again of Jesus, and now expressed in the order and! structure of the Church.
    ... Ambrose Reeves (1899-1980), Bishop of Johannesburg [1956], Church and Race in South Africa, David M. Paton, London: SCM Press, 1958, p. 31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Spirit, Lord, animates the whole church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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