Law: it was not anger

Saturday, January 19, 2013
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
    —Romans 5:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God himself was not angry at all, or at a small act of eating a fruit, and so in anger turned man out of paradise, into a world cursed for that sin. But man freely and voluntarily chose, against the will and command of God, to be in the world in its cursed state, unblessed by paradise; for he chose to enter into a sensibility and feeling of its good and evil, which is directly choosing to be where paradise is not; for nothing that is in paradise, can be touched, or hurt by anything of the outward world. Therefore the first state of man was a state of such glory, and heavenly prerogatives... and his fall was a fall into or under the power of this outward world.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 21-22 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 3:6-13; Eccl. 7:29; Hos. 6:7; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have redeemed us from this fall. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: speaking the truth in love

Friday, January 18, 2013
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
    —Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, “You do not understand,” or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other’s highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying Peace, peace, where there is no peace; if I forget the poignant words, “Let love be without dissimulation” [Rom. 12:9] and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 24-25 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 55:21; Rom. 12:9-18; Eph. 4:14-16; 1 Tim. 1:5; Jas. 2:15-16; 1 Pet. 1:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, before the Cross, I am broken. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: the test for prayer

Thursday, January 17, 2013
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’“
    —Matthew 6:913 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whatever particular object we may want to pray for, we have never prayed for it aright till we have prayed for it in the words and spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. That, I repeat, is not one prayer among many. It covers all legitimate Christian praying, and indeed the saying of it affords the best test whether our wants of the moment can become a prayer offered ‘in the name of Christ.’
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Sermon on the Mount [1910], London: John Murray, 1905, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:9-13; 21:22; Mark 11:24; John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-26; 1 John 3:21-22; 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive Your instruction in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: walking in the Spirit

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Meditation:
    For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
    —Romans 8:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    The sovereign antidote against strife and confusion, the supreme principle of unity and service in the Church, was also the greatest gift of the Spirit, and the perfect and abiding proof of its presence, namely, love. This introduces a third criterion of the Spirit, and on the wider stage of the moral life. It is loyalty to the moral ideal of Christ. “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk” (Gal. 5:25). Where the Spirit dwells, it produces a new, a higher, a unique type of moral life. For Paul, the Christian life was not the normal and natural product of human activity (Rom. 8:18), but a gracious divine gift, received by the descent of the Spirit into the human heart, for “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23). And there is yet one higher manifestation of the Spirit, the participation in the divine sonship of Jesus Christ. “And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). Where sonship is, there the Spirit is. On the other hand, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Where the Spirit leads, there sonship is... The possession of the Spirit and participation in Christ’s sonship are but two aspects of the same experience. Here, the phenomenon, if it may be so called, bears its own credentials. Sonship is a self-evident work of the Spirit. But the evidence is available only for its owner. In order that the Spirit of adoption may attest itself to others, it must issue in the life according to the Spirit, by walking in the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also John 13:34; Rom. 7:14; 8:13-19; Gal. 4:6; 5:22-25; Phil. 1:9-11; 2:14-16; Col. 1:10-12; 1 John 4:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit of adoption has changed everything for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: unity, order, and edification

Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Meditation:
    For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
    —1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Another criterion was loyalty to the community of Christ both as gathered congregation and as organised church. The pride of spiritual gifts had led the Corinthians to jealousy and strife. They had divided into factions owning the leadership, one of Paul, another of Apollos, another of Cephas, and another of Christ. But such factions, the apostle tells them, were not characteristics of the “spiritual,” but of the carnal. To divide the Church was to destroy the temple of God, where the Holy Spirit dwelt among them (I Cor. 3:1, 3, 16). And the very gifts about which they quarrelled should have been a power to unite them, for they all proceeded from one and the same Spirit, from one and the same Lord, from one and the same God, who worketh all in all (I Cor. 12:4 ff). The Spirit was indeed the principle of unity in the Church, “for in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13). Therefore to divide the Church was to drive away the Spirit... The tests of spiritual phenomena in the life of the community, and the proofs that they were of the Holy Spirit, were unity, order, and edification. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 88-89 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 3:1-6,16; 12:4-13; Eph. 2:18,22; 4:3-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the whole, undivided church is Yours through Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: testing the spirits

Monday, January 14, 2013
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
    —1 Corinthians 12:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The first principle of differentiation was laid down by Paul, when dealing with the problems of the spiritual phenomena that had arisen at Corinth... In the confusion of spiritual phenomena, ... it was possible that evil spirits, as well as the Holy Spirit, inspired some of the manifestations. One in particular Paul singles out as being in obvious contradiction to the work of the Spirit of God: “No man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema (cursed be Jesus).” On the other hand, “No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). It is difficult to conceive the state of mind of a member of a Christian congregation who would curse the name of Jesus. Yet it is evident that at Corinth, people gave way to such uncontrollable frenzy, that either in folly, or in momentary reversion to Judaism or heathenism, they cursed the name in whose honour they had met... But the spirit that inspired disloyalty to Jesus Christ could not be the Holy Spirit, for in Paul’s experience and theology, the two beings were, if not identical, at least in perfect harmony of principle and action. This, then, was Paul’s first criterion for deciding which spiritual phenomena could be approved by Christians as the work of the Holy Spirit. They must be loyal to Jesus Christ as Lord of life, and as the object of faith and love for every believer. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 87-88 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 16:16-17; Mark 9:39-40; John 15:26; 1 Cor. 12:3; 1 John 4:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit proclaims You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: faith not an illusion

Sunday, January 13, 2013
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
    —Romans 8:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is not that human illusion and dream that some people think it is. When they hear and talk a lot about faith and yet see that no moral improvement and no good works result from it, they fall into error and say, “Faith is not enough. You must do works if you want to be virtuous and get to heaven.” The result is that, when they hear the Gospel, they stumble and make for themselves with their own powers a concept in their hearts which says, “I believe.” This concept they hold to be true faith. But since it is a human fabrication and thought and not an experience of the heart, it accomplishes nothing, and there follows no improvement.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), “Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans”, par. 13 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:21-23; Rom. 7:18-23; 8:6-11; 1 Cor. 13:2; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Tim. 1:3-11; 1 John 5:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit alone gives true life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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