Owen: following Jesus

Saturday, April 14, 2012
Meditation:
    Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
    —Hebrews 12:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If ever we intend to take one step towards any agreement or unity, it must be by fixing this principle in the minds of all men,—that it is of no advantage to any man whatever church or way in Christian religion he be of, unless he personally believe the promises, and live in obedience unto all the precepts of Christ; and that for him who doth so, that it is a trampling of the whole gospel under foot to say that his salvation could be endangered by his not being of this or that church or way, especially considering how much of the world hath inmixed itself into all the known ways that are in it.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), “A Vindication of the Animadversions on ‘Fiat Lux’” [1664], in Works of John Owen, v. XIV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 312 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone can lead Your people to unity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Campbell: Lordship

Friday, April 13, 2012
Meditation:
    Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
    Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
    —John 20:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Looking into my heart, which is perhaps the best way of looking into other men’s, I know that the Savior I want is one of whom I can say with Thomas of old, “My Lord and my God.” It would not suffice for my need that He should be only an heroic brother, man divinely inspired. I owe Him my soul, He fills my whole spiritual horizon, I seek to lose myself in Him that I may find myself eternally in life and love divine.
    ... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), The Call of Christ [1932], London: Skeffington & Son, 1942? (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Live in me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: distinguishing the spirits

Thursday, April 12, 2012
Meditation:
    Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
    —Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The criteria [for distinguishing the spirits] which Paul therefore sets forth for the guidance of the Church, that it may know where the Holy Spirit works, and what spiritual phenomena are its gifts, are the first three: the constant recognition of Christ’s lordship in the individual life, the realisation of His love in the Church, and living His life in all moral relations. Where Christ reigns, where brothers serve one another in the order and unity of love, and where they live the high morality of Christ’s gospel, there, and nowhere else, the Spirit always dwells and works. These tests may still be subjective and indefinite, but they have the merit of measuring “spiritual things by spiritual things” (1 Cor. 2:13), and Paul refrained from attempting to delimit the action of the Spirit by any external and formal boundaries, whether of sacrament, order, or dogma.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 90 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send the fullness of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: the reference miracle

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
    Commemoration of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878
Meditation:
    The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
    —Romans 4:23-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All miracles are simply feeble lights like beacons on our way to the port where shines the light, the total light of the resurrection. All miracles finally refer to this one and find their explanation in it. It is the miracle.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 65 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we praise You for Your great mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: goodness towards all

Tuesday, April 10, 2012
    Feast of William Law, Priest, Mystic, 1761
    Commemoration of William of Ockham, Franciscan Friar, Philosopher, Teacher, 1347
    Commemoration of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Priest, Scientist, Visionary, 1955
Meditation:
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.
    —Psalm 100:5
Quotation:
    As the light of the sun has only one common nature towards all objects that can receive it, so God has only one common nature of goodness, towards all created nature, breaking forth in infinite flames of love, upon every part of the creation, and calling everything to the highest happiness it is capable of.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 156 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: belief from obedience

Monday, April 9, 2012
    Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
    —John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Only the obedient believe. If we are to believe, we must obey a concrete command. Without this preliminary step of obedience, our faith will only be pious humbug, and lead us to the grace which is not costly. Everything depends on the first step. It has a unique quality of its own. The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship; it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 64 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lead me, Lord, to step into obedience. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Updike: Let us not mock God

Sunday, April 8, 2012
    Easter
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
    —Acts 17:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
    faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
    ... John Updike (1932-2009), from “Seven Stanzas at Easter”, in Telephone Poles and Other Poems, New York: A. Knopf, 1963, p. 72 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Hallelujah! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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