Calvin: the genuine insignia

Saturday, September 21, 2013
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
    Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless
    and who does what is righteous,
    who speaks the truth from his heart...
    —Psalm 15:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The fulfillment of the Lord’s mercy does not depend upon believers’ works, but... he fulfills the promise of salvation for those who respond to his call with upright life, because in those who are directed to the good by his Spirit, he recognizes the only genuine insignia of his children.
    ... 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.xvii.6, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 15:1-2; 143:10; Isa. 33:14-15; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 4:6; 5:16,22-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit prompts me to goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hauerwas: ethics from creation

Friday, September 20, 2013
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    For this is what the LORD says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
    —Isaiah 45:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The narrative of Christian ethics is determined by the fact that Christian convictions take the form of a story, or perhaps better, a set of stories that constitute a tradition, which in turn creates and forms a community. Christian ethics does not begin by emphasizing rules or principles, but by calling our attention to a narrative that tells of God’s dealing with creation.
    ... Stanley Hauerwas (b. 1940), The Peaceable Kingdom, University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, p. 24-25 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 45:18; Deut. 4:1; 6:20-25; 8:1; Ex. 20:2; Ps. 33:9; Amos 4:13; Rom. 1:20; Heb. 1:1-2; Rev. 4:11; 14:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we have no excuse for not acknowledging You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maurice: called to unity

Thursday, September 19, 2013
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.
    —Philippians 1:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Unless we look upon ourselves as called to unity, we shall never be united. If God does not will that we should be united, what can our devices for producing it avail? Whereas, if we believe that it is His will, and that we are fighting against His will by our divisions, we have a right confidently to hope that He will at last bring us to repentance, or, if we do not repent, will accomplish His purposes in spite of us.
    ... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), Hope for Mankind, Macmillan, 1868, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 133:1; Matt. 23:8; John 17:20,21; Acts 4:32; Rom. 12:16; 15:5-7; Eph. 4:3; Phil. 1:27-28; 2:1-2; Heb. 3:1; 1 Pet. 3:8; 2 Pet. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your Spirit unite Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the time to redeem

Wednesday, September 18, 2013
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
    —Galatians 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are the sons of God the moment we lift up our hearts, seeking to be sons—the moment we begin to cry Father. But as the world must be redeemed in a few men to begin with, so the soul is redeemed in a few of its thoughts and wants and ways, to begin with: it takes a long time to finish the new creation of this redemption. Shall it have taken millions of years to bring the world up to the point where a few of its inhabitants shall desire God, and shall the creature of this new birth be perfected in a day?
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Abba, Father!”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 4:6; Ps. 51:10; Jer. 3:19; Eze. 36:26; Rom. 8:15-17; 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:12; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:5,11-14; 4:22-24; Col. 1:21-23; 3:9-10; Heb. 6:11-12; 12:1; 2 Pet. 1:10-11; 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me headed towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Edwards: the clarity of humility

Tuesday, September 17, 2013
    Feast of St. Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179
Meditation:
    But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
    —James 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility, and so prepares the mind for true divine light without darkness, and so clears the eye to look on things as they truly are.
    ... Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M., v. I, London: William Ball., 1839, p. 399 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 25:9; 51:17; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Mic. 6:8; Matt. 5:3; 11:29; 23:12; Mark 10:43-44; Luke 1:52; John 13:14-16; 1 Cor. 10:13; Jas. 4:6-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the clear vision of humility. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cyprian: Jesus' example in prayer

Monday, September 16, 2013
    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:
    One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
    —Luke 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If He prayed who was without sin, how much more ought sinners to pray; and if He prayed continually, watching through the whole night in uninterrupted petitions, how much more ought we to watch nightly in constantly repeated prayer!
    ... St. Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (?-258), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. V, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, trs., Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1886, p. 455 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:12; Matt. 14:23; 26:39; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:35; Luke 5:16; 9:28; 22:31-32,41; John 17:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, draw me to prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mascall: figurative vs. literal

Sunday, September 15, 2013
Meditation:
    This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
    —Matthew 1:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Even the most traditional theologian will be anxious to point out that the classical images which have been used, with more or less success, to depict different aspects of Redemption—the winning of a battle, the liberation of captives, the payment of a fine or a debt, the curing of a disease, and so on—are not to be interpreted literally, any more than, when we say that the eternal Word “came down from Heaven,” we are describing a process of spatial translation. For here we are dealing with processes and events which, by the nature of the case, cannot be precisely described in everyday language...
    The matter is quite different with such a statement as that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary; for, whatever aspects of the Incarnation outstrip the descriptive power of ordinary language, this at least is plainly statable in it. It means that Jesus was conceived in his mother’s womb without previous sexual intercourse on her part with any male human being, and this is a straightforward statement which is either true or false. To say that the birth... of Jesus Christ cannot simply be thought of as a biological event and to add that this is what the Virgin Birth means is a plain misuse of language; and no amount of talk about the appealing character of the “Christmas myth” can validly gloss this over.
    ... E. L. Mascall (1905-1993), The Secularization of Christianity, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966, p. 157 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 1:18-25; Gen. 3:15; Job 14:4; Ps. 40:6-8; Luke 1:27-38; 2:19; 24:44; John 3:13; 6:38-58; Heb. 7:26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have demonstrated Who You are. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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