M. Barth: some strange things

Saturday, October 13, 2012
    Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066
Meditation:
    For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
    —Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is easy to throw angels and demons and the cosmic character and relevance of Christ’s work upon the scrap heap of ancient superstition and mythology, and to consider them but a manner of speech that is utterly irrelevant for our space age. But if we should feel entitled to throw out one part of the witness of Ephesians to Christ, why not the rest of it also: for instance, Christ’s Lordship over the church and in the heart? It is unfair and scarcely honest to consider the Bible or parts of it as a cake from which we can pick out merely the raisins we happen to like. Speaking the truth in love and witnessing to the biblical Christ may imply the necessity to speak also of some very strange things.
    ... Markus Barth (1915-1994), The Broken Wall, Chicago: Judson Press, 1959, Regent College Publishing, 1959, p. 21 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You see what is hidden from me.. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hallesby: struggling in prayer

Friday, October 12, 2012
    Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709
    Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845
Meditation:
    In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
    —Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To strive in prayer means to struggle through those hindrances which would restrain or even prevent us entirely from continuing in persevering prayer. It means to be so watchful at all times that we can notice when we become slothful in prayer and [that we] go to the Spirit of prayer to have this remedied. In this struggle, too, the decisive factor is the Spirit of prayer.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 110 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to guide me in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: imperfect recognition

Thursday, October 11, 2012
    Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
    —Luke 9:44-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What is the Christian? Everywhere the man who, so far as he comprehends Jesus Christ, so far as he can get any knowledge of Him, is His servant, the man who makes Christ a teacher of his intelligence and the guide of his soul, the man who obeys Christ as far as he has been able to understand him... I would know any man as a Christian, would rejoice to know any man as a Christian, whom Jesus would recognize as a Christian, and Jesus Christ, I am sure, in these old days recognized His followers even if they came after Him with the blindest sight, with the most imperfect recognition and acknowledgment of what He was and of what He could do.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 122-123 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may know You far better. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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van Ruysbroeck: setting aside self-will

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
    Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
    —Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    From the renunciation of self-will springs patience; for none can be perfectly patient in all things save the man who has subjected his own will to the will of God, and also in all profitable and seemly things, to the will of all other men.
    ... Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage [1350], I.xv (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, align me with Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Inge: thirst for God

Tuesday, October 9, 2012
    Commemoration of Denys, Bishop of Paris, & his Companions, Martyrs, 258
    Commemoration of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, Philosopher, Scientist, 1253
Meditation:
    On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
    —John 7:37-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The soul of man, when it is healthy, is athirst for God; and God only, through Christ, can slake the soul’s thirst. Longing for God, for the eternally good and true and lovely, is natural to man; it is man’s most divine endowment. The thirst, as well as the living water, is a gift of God. As Christ is both Priest and Victim, so He gives both the thirst and the life-giving draught... This is what Christ always assumed in His teaching. Man wants to find his way to God. That is why we come to Church; that is why we pray. And our Saviour cries to us with a loud voice, as He did on the great day of the feast, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
    ... William R. Inge (1860-1954), Personal Religion and the Life of Devotion, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1924, p. 37 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church seeks You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: guided by the Holy Spirit

Monday, October 8, 2012
Meditation:
    It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
    —Acts 15:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In arriving at a decision in a question of doubt, the apostles in the Acts were guided solely by their sense of the Spirit behind the action, not by any speculations as to consequences which might ensue.
    And so they found the truth. Gradually the results of the action manifested themselves, and, seeing them, they perceived what they had really done, and learnt the meaning of the truth revealed in the action. But if, from fear of the consequences, they had checked or forbidden the action, they would have lost this revelation. They would have missed the way to truth.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Pentecost and the World, London: Oxford University Press, 1917, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 50 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, may You alone be my guide. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: Christian freedom

Sunday, October 7, 2012
Meditation:
    So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
    —1 Corinthians 10:31-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christian freedom, in my opinion, consists of three parts. The first: that the consciences of believers, in seeking assurance of their justification before God, should rise above and advance beyond the law, forgetting all law righteousness... The second part, dependent upon the first, is that consciences observe the law, not as if constrained by the necessity of the law, but that freed from the law’s yoke they willingly obey God’s will... The third part of Christian freedom lies in this: regarding outward things that are of themselves “indifferent,” we are not bound before God by any religious obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and other times not using them, indifferently... Accordingly, it is perversely interpreted both by those who allege it as an excuse for their desires that they may abuse God’s good gifts to their own lust and by those who think that freedom does not exist unless it is used before men, and consequently, in using it have no regard for weaker brethren... Nothing is plainer than this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the edification of our neighbor, but if it does not help our neighbor, then we should forego it.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xix.2,4,7,9,12, p. 63 ff (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the freedom I enjoy be a blessing to all those around me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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