Law: the world a hospital

Saturday, July 28, 2012
    Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, musician, 1750
Meditation:
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;
    save me and I will be saved,
    for you are the one I praise.
    —Jeremiah 17:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most sober Reason thus acquainted with the nature of our fall, must be forced to consider this world as having merely the nature of an hospital, where people only are, because they are distempered, and where no happiness is sought for, but that of being healed, and made fit to leave it.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 18 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your healing power has touched me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stott: count the cost

Friday, July 27, 2012
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”
    —Luke 14:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. All too many people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of so-called nominal Christianity.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Basic Christianity, Nottingham, U.K.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008, third edition, p. 132 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am prepared to pay whatever price You require. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the church not a movement

Thursday, July 26, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.”
    —Matthew 10:40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society... but rather where it understands itself as being a part of the one, holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively in the sufferings and struggles of the whole Church. Every principle of selection, every separation connected with it that is not necessitated quite objectively by common work, local conditions, or family connections is of the greatest danger to a Christian community. When the way of intellectual or spiritual selection is taken, the human element always insinuates itself and robs the fellowship of its spiritual power and its effectiveness for the Church, and drives it into sectarianism.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 45 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to accept the least of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Davidman: the burden of sin

Wednesday, July 25, 2012
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
    —1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nowadays the conviction of sin is widely misunderstood—secularists pity Christians, whom they picture as men bowed to the ground under an enormous burden of self-condemnation, men who go around all the time feeling guilty. Actually, of course, as anyone who has experienced conversion knows, the Christian is the only man who does not go around all the time feeling guilty. For him, sin is a burden he can lay down; he can admit, repent, and be forgiven. It is the unfortunate creature who denies the existence of sin in general, or his own in particular, who must go on carrying it forever.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1955, reprint, Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p. 113 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the forgiveness of my sins has made me free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: when things go ill

Tuesday, July 24, 2012
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous,
    and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
    —Psalm 119:75 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Count not thyself to have found true peace, if thou hast felt no grief; nor that then all is well if thou hast no adversary; nor that this is perfect if all things fall out according to thy desire.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.xxv.3, p. 163 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist me to see Your hand in my troubles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jones: rediscovering the Kingdom

Monday, July 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
    —1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Church union set in the framework of denominational relativisms becomes a tug of war as to which denominational truth is recognized as uppermost, and therefore church union becomes impossible. But church union set in the framework of the Kingdom puts each denomination in its place, not as the Truth, but as a phase of something beyond itself. Church union is an almost inevitable corollary of the rediscovery of the Kingdom.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), The Christ of the American Road, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1944, p. 222 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place Your Kingdom first in our hearts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trench: If that in sight of God is great

Sunday, July 22, 2012
    Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
Meditation:
    When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
    —Exodus 34:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
If that in sight of God is great
    Which counts itself for small,
We by that law humility
    The chiefest grace must call;
Which being such, not knows itself
    To be a grace at all.

How glorious was that meekest man
    In all eyes save his own,
When from his splendid countenance
    On all the people shone
A glory insupportable,
    Unto himself unknown.
    ... Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), Poems, London: Macmillan, 1874, p. 148 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your radiance scatters humility on all Your people.

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