Cloud of Unknowing: that I may perfectly love Thee

Saturday, March 17, 2012
    Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
Meditation:
All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.
    —Psalm 38:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, unto whom all hearts be open, and unto whom all will speaketh, and unto whom no privy thing is hid. I beseech Thee so for to cleanse the intent of mine heart with the unspeakable gift of Thy grace, that I may perfectly love Thee, and worthily praise Thee.
    ... The Cloud of Unknowing 14th century, ed. Evelyn Underhill, prologue (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may be cleansed of sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newton: assurance of victory

Friday, March 16, 2012
Meditation:
    Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
    —Matthew 5:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The life of faith is a happy life, and if attended with conflicts, there is an assurance of victory; if we sometimes get a wound, there is healing balm near at hand; if we seem to fall, we are raised again; and if tribulations abound, consolations shall abound likewise.
    ... John Newton (1725-1807), from a letter, 1773, Letters by The Rev. John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth, Josiah Bull, ed., London: Religious Tract Society, ca. 1860, p. 134 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You heal me of all wrongs. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: basking in the beams of God

Thursday, March 15, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
    —Luke 12:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. Cry after divine knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding. Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Dundee: W. Middleton, 1845, p. 254 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take my eyes, that they may rest on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: nothing is too great

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Meditation:
    Again [Jesus] said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”
    —Mark 4:30-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Obey Him, love Him, and nothing is too great, nothing is too little; for love knows no struggle of great or little. No impulse is too splendid for the simplest task; no task is too simple for the most splendid impulse.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Light of the World, and Other Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1904, p. 120 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me Your care in all things, great and small. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baxter: guarding our reputation

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Meditation:
    How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
    —John 5:44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [There] is a base, man-pleasing disposition that is in us. We are so loth to displease men, and so desirous to keep in credit and favour with them, that it makes us most unconscionably neglect our known duty. A foolish physician he is, and a most unfaithful friend, that will let a sick man die for fear of troubling him; and cruel wretches are we to our friends, that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell, than we will anger them, or hazard our reputation with them. If they did but fall in a swoon, we would rub them and pinch them, and never stick at hurting them. If they were distracted we would bind them with chains, and we would please them in nothing that tended to their hurt; and yet, when they are beside themselves in point of salvation, and in their madness posting on to damnation we will not stop them, for fear of displeasing them.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. XXII, ed. William Orme, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 222 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to proclaim the Gospel to _____. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: indifference

Monday, March 12, 2012
Meditation:
    For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
    —2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are few signs in a soul’s state more alarming than that of religious indifference, that is, the spirit of thinking all religions equally true,—the real meaning of which is, that all religions are equally false.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. IV, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1866, p. 178 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone are the One who is present. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whale: merit vs. grace

Sunday, March 11, 2012
Meditation:
    ... Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
    —Matthew 21:31-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When Jesus Christ speaks of the mystery of the Kingdom of God, the whole conception of merit and reward, so dear to the natural man, sinks into nothingness; I mean that book-keeping conception of religion to which a nation of shopkeepers is all too prone.
    ... John S. Whale (1896-1997), Christian Doctrine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966, p. 80 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are all of grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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