Law: faith and works?

Saturday, September 22, 2012
Meditation:
    Nothing impure will ever enter [the Holy City], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
    —Revelation 21:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ask not, therefore, whether we are saved by faith, or by works; for we are saved by neither of them: faith and works are at first only preparatory to the new birth; afterwards they are the true genuine fruits and effects of it. But the new birth, a life from heaven, the new creature, called Christ in us, is the one only salvation of the fallen soul. Nothing can enter into heaven, but this life which is born of, and comes from heaven.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 32 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone have chosen Your people for salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: the Christian hope

Friday, September 21, 2012
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
    —Romans 15:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian hope is the hope which has seen everything and endured everything, and still has not despaired, because it believes in God. The Christian hope is not hope in the human spirit, in human goodness, in human endurance, in human achievement; the Christian hope is hope in the power of God.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Letter to the Romans, Westminster Press, 1957, p. 215 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You we hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: what to expect

Thursday, September 20, 2012
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
    —John 19:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus [did] not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), Morning by Morning, New York: Sheldon & Co., 1867, p. 96 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am thankful for the grace to endure. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: temptation is not sin

Wednesday, September 19, 2012
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
    —Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Temptation ... cannot be sin; and the truth is, it is no more a sin to hear these whispers and suggestions of Satan in our souls, than it is for us to hear the swearing or wicked talk of bad men as we pass along the street. The sin only comes in either case by our stopping and joining in with them.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, London: F. E. Longley, 1876, p. 139 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me strong while in temptation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: salvation from consequences?

Tuesday, September 18, 2012
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    [Angel:] “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
    —Matthew 1:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The notion that the salvation of Jesus is a salvation from the consequences of our sins, is a false, mean, low notion. The salvation of Christ is salvation from the smallest tendency or leaning to sin. It is a deliverance into the pure air of God’s ways of thinking and feeling. It is a salvation that makes the heart pure, with the will and choice of the heart to be pure. To such a heart, sin is disgusting. It sees a thing as it is,—that is, as God sees it, for God sees everything as it is. The soul thus saved would rather sink into the flames of hell than steal into heaven and skulk there under the shadow of an imputed righteousness. No soul is saved that would not prefer hell to sin. Jesus did not die to save us from punishment; he was called Jesus because he should save his people from their sins.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Justice”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 132-133 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge away my tendency to sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: a good conscience

Monday, September 17, 2012
    Feast of St. Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179
Meditation:
    To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
    —Titus 1:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No man safely rejoiceth but he who hath the testimony of a good conscience within himself. The boldness of the Saints was always full of the fear of God. Nor were they the less earnest and humble in themselves, because they shone forth with great virtues and grace. But the boldness of wicked men springeth from pride and presumption, and at the last turneth to their own confusion.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xx.3, p. 60 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, wash my conscience with Your forgiveness, so that I might not sin again. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: ingratitude

Sunday, September 16, 2012
    Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258
    Commemoration of Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts, c. 430
    Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, tractarian, 1882
Meditation:
    So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
    —Colossians 2:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We do not, of course, any of us, nearly thank God enough. I fear that what will surprise us most, when we see our Lord, will be the extent of our own ingratitude.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Spiritual Letters of Edward Bouverie Pusey, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1898, p. 299 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me thankfulness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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