Michelangelo: No mortal object did these eyes behold

Saturday, April 6, 2013
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
    Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
    —1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
No mortal object did these eyes behold
When first they met the placid light of thine
And my Soul felt her destiny divine,
And hope of endless peace in me grew bold:
Heaven-born, the Soul a heavenward course must hold;
Beyond the visible world She soars to seek
(For what delights the sense is false and weak)
Ideal Form, the universal mould.
The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
In that which perishes; nor will he lend
His heart to aught which doth on time depend.
’Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
That kills the soul: love betters what is best,
Even here below, but more in heaven above.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), translated by William Wordsworth in The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 219 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:12-13; Ps. 82:6-7; Mark 12:29-31; John 6:27; 10:34-36; 14:2-3; Gal. 5:14; Col. 3:14; 1 John 4:7-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my thirsty soul drink of Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: contemplate His works

Friday, April 5, 2013
Meditation:
Great are the works of the LORD;
    they are pondered by all who delight in them.
    —Psalm 111:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of His essence, which we ought more to adore than meticulously to search out, but for us to contemplate Him in His works, whereby He renders Himself near and familiar to us, and in some manner communicates Himself.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.v.9, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 111:2; Gen. 1:31; Ps. 8:3-4; 92:4-5; 104:24; 139:14; Eccl. 3:11,14; Jer. 10:12; Eph. 2:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your hand is known to us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Murray: displacing the Spirit

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Meditation:
    I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
    —Galatians 3:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I fear that if you take the preaching throughout the Church of Christ and ask why there is, alas! so little converting power in the preaching of the Word, why there is so much work and often so little result for eternity, why the Word has so little power to build up believers in holiness and in consecration,—the answer will come: It is the absence of the power of the Holy Ghost. And why is this? There can be no other reason but that the flesh and human energy have taken the place that the Holy Ghost ought to have.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Absolute Surrender, Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1897, p. 86 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:2-3; Acts 8:14-17; 10:44-47; Rom. 1:17; 10:16-17; 1 Cor. 3:1; Gal. 5:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to draw the people to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: too much to expect

Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.”
    —Exodus 23:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Is not this at length too much to expect? Will a man ever love his enemies? He may come to do good to them that hate him; but when will he pray for them that despitefully use him and persecute him? When? When he is the child of his Father in heaven. Then shall he love his neighbour as himself, even if that neighbour be his enemy. In the passage in Leviticus (19:18) already referred to as quoted by our Lord and his apostles, we find the neighbour and the enemy are one.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Love Thine Enemy”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 217-218 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 23:4-5; Lev. 19:17-18; Pr. 25:21; Matt. 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-28,35; 23:34; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant Your love for my enemies within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: the hands of the Lord

Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Meditation:
    When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
    —Psalm 56:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), in a letter, April 14, 1940
    See also Ps. 56:3; 22:9-10; 71:6; 139:14-16; Jer. 1:5; Mark 9:23-24; Luke 23:46; Rom. 1:16-17; Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 10:35
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted me refuge. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maurice: individual depravity

Monday, April 1, 2013
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
    —1 John 1:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is far better, safer, truer language to speak of individual depravity than of universal depravity. By individual depravity I mean my own. I find it out in myself; or rather, He who searcheth me and trieth my ways, finds it out in me. That sense of depravity implies the recognition of a law which I have violated, of an order from which I have broken loose, of a Divine image which my character has not resembled. It is the law and the order which are universal. It is this character of Christ which is the true human character. It is easy enough to own [to] a general depravity; under cover of it you and I escape.
    ... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, v. V, London: Macmillan, 1892, p. 267 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:8; Ps. 32:5; 38:18; 41:4; 51:1-10; 106:6; 130:1-3; John 3:19; Rom. 5:18; Jas. 5:16; 1 John 1:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I confess my guilt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Updike: Make no mistake

Sunday, March 31, 2013
    Easter
    Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
Meditation:
    The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
    —Matthew 28:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
    reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
    ... 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)
    See also Matt. 28:1-7; Mark 16:1-7; Luke 24:1-7; John 11:25; 14:19; Phil. 3:10-11; 2 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your resurrection is the deepest truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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