Pascal: impossible?

Saturday, May 25, 2013
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
    —Matthew 22:31-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What reason have [atheists] for saying that we cannot rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to return to it?
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #222, p. 80 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 22:31-32; Gen. 18:14; Luke 1:37; 18:27; John 5:28-29; Acts 4:2; 26:8; 17:30-32; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:12-14; Phil. 3:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we have Your promise of resurrection. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: we are tenants

Friday, May 24, 2013
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
    —James 4:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Without some suffering, we should scarce remember that we are not proprietors here, but only tenants at will, liable to lose all we have at a moment’s warning.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), letter to Ebenezer Blackwell, 28 Jul 1762, Letters of John Wesley, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915, p. 348 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:13-15; Job 7:6-7; 14:1-2; Ps. 39:4-5; 89:47; Isa. 40:6-8; Jer. 17:11; Luke 12:16-21; Jas. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You made me from the dust. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the only good

Thursday, May 23, 2013
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light.
    —Psalm 36:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I believe that there is nothing good for me or for any man but God, and more and more of God, and that alone through knowing Christ can we come nigh to him.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Justice”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 154 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 36:8-9; 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:2; 143:6; Isa. 26:9; Jer. 17:13; John 4:13-14; 7:37-38; 14:9; Rev. 21:6; 22:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people desire Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luccock & Brentano: criticism of the church

Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Meditation:
    [The Lord:] “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.”
    —Isaiah 1:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Expressions of sharp and even violent criticism of religion and the church have been welcomed [in this collection], for they usually imply sincerity of thought. If caustic criticism of religious institutions and practices is irreligious, then Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus were very irreligious men. In fact, that is exactly what many of their contemporaries took them to be.
    ... Halford E. Luccock (1885-1960) & Frances Brentano, The Questing Spirit, New York: Coward-McCann, 1947, p. 42 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 1:13-17; 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16; Pr. 21:27; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Mic. 6:7-8; Matt. 9:13; 12:1-3; 23; 26:64-66; John 19:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, raise my eyes up to see You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hoskyns: substitute for faith

Tuesday, May 21, 2013
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
A voice says, “Cry out.”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God stands forever.”
    —Isaiah 40:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To have heard the Bible speak is to be prepared not for maturity, balance, poise, riches, but for the poverty and distress and uncertainty of thought and action that are so desperately characteristic of human life. The Bible takes human mortality seriously, that mortality which the preacher does not hide from you even when you stand on the threshold of life. To wrestle with the theme of the Scriptures is your proper preparation for the rough things of human life, as we see it, and observe it, and are immersed in it. The Truth which is being spoken to you most clearly in the Scriptures is your only protection against cynicism and skepticism, just as it is your only protection against that false romanticism which is the modern cruel substitute for faith in God.
    ... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We are the Pharisees, London: SPCK, 1960, p. 8 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 40:6-8; Job 13:15; Ps. 90:5-6; 102:11-12; Matt. 24:35; 1 Cor. 1:20-21; Jas. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word banishes the darkness of this world’s wisdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: the Lord does all

Monday, May 20, 2013
Meditation:
    To [the saints] God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
    —Colossians 1:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You feed on Christ and then go and live your life, and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battle, and that wins the crown.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Candle of the Lord [1881], E. P Dutton & Co., New York, 1903, p. 246 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:27; Luke 17:20-21; John 6:56; 14:20; Rom. 8:10; 1 Cor. 3:16; 9:25; Gal. 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17; 4:22-24; Col. 3:11; 2 Tim. 4:8; Jas. 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4; 1 John 4:4; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your presence within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: God's truth is safe

Sunday, May 19, 2013
    Pentecost
Centennial of Robert MacColl Adams
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
    —1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have a Christian friend who is a Roman Catholic, another who belongs to the Church of Christ, others who hold this theology, that loyalty, or the other affiliation... Can I associate, as a Christian, with any of these without endangering my witness to the truth I have received? Because I believe in the Holy Ghost, I believe that I can, because I believe that He will be with me. I may fail to make clear to my Roman Catholic friend the true nature of salvation in Christ, or to my Campbellite friend the true place of the Scriptures in the Christian life; but God’s truth will remain. It may not be safe in my hands, but it is safe in His.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Receiving One Another” (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 2:9-10; Joel 2:28-29; John 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:13; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 John 2:20,27; Jude 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your people hold all truth in common. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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