Arndt: crucified with Him

Saturday, November 9, 2013
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
    —Galatians 5:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If thou believest that Christ was crucified for the sins of the world, thou must with Him be crucified... If thou refusest to comply with this order, thou canst not be a living member of Christ, nor be united with Him by faith.
    ... John Arndt (1555-1621), True Christianity, tr. A. W. Boehm, Boston: Lincoln & Edmands, 1809, II.iv.18, p. 383 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:24; Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; John 1:29; Rom. 1:16; 6:6-7; Gal. 2:20; 6:14; Eph. 2:4-5; 1 John 2:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I daily bear my cross for Your sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

MacDonald: forgiveness

Friday, November 8, 2013
    Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
Meditation:
    [Jesus’ example prayer:] “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
    —Matthew 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who forgives not is not forgiven, and the prayer of the Pharisee is as the weary beating of the surf of hell, while the cry of a soul out of its fire sets the heart-strings of love trembling.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Sir Gibbie, v. I [1879], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1880, p. 60 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:12,14-15; 18:21-35; Mark 11:25; Luke 11:4; 18:10-14; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Jas. 2:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may learn truly to forgive. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Sundar Singh: the end of sin

Thursday, November 7, 2013
    Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739
Meditation:
    This [intercession] is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
    —1 Timothy 2:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As men have chosen sin, they must die in sin. God does not bring about this death. God sends no one to hell. The sinner himself brings this punishment down on himself. Let us look at the case of Judas Iscariot. When he betrayed the Lord, Pilate did not hang him, nor did the High Priest, nor did our loving Savior, nor did the Apostles. He hanged himself. He committed suicide. He died in his sin. This is the end of him who lives in sin.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 124-125 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 2:3-4; Ps. 55:23; Matt. 21:32; 27:5; Acts 1:18-19; Rom. 2:4; 3:19; 2 Pet. 3:9; Rev. 2:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You only are the source of salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Temple: gambling

Wednesday, November 6, 2013
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”
    —Luke 6:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Gambling challenges that view of life which the Christian Church exists to uphold and extend. Its glorification of mere chance is a denial of the Divine order of nature. To risk money haphazard is to disregard the insistence of the Church in every age of living faith that possessions are a trust, and that men must account to God for their use. The persistent appeal to covetousness is fundamentally opposed to the unselfishness which was taught by Jesus Christ and by the New Testament as a whole. The attempt (inseparable from gambling) to make a profit out of the inevitable loss and possible suffering of others is the antithesis of that love of one’s neighbour on which our Lord insisted.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), before the Royal Commission on Lotteries and Betting, 1932, Punch, v. 240, Mark Lemon, et al., Punch Publications Ltd., 1961, p. 671 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 20:17; Eccl. 5:10-11; Ps. 119:36; Isa. 33:15-16; Matt. 5:42; 6:19-21; 22:39; Luke 6:30,38; 12:15,33; 1 Tim. 6:6-10; Heb. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to use money to glorify You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Griffiths: God in everything

Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Meditation:
[Job:] “My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”
    —Job 42:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God, but God who had been seeking me. I had made myself the centre of my own existence and had my back turned to God. All the beauty and truth which I had discovered had come to me as a reflection of his beauty, but I had kept my eyes fixed on the reflection and was always looking at myself. But God had brought me to the point at which I was compelled to turn away from the reflection, both of myself and of the world which could only mirror my own image. During that night the mirror had been broken, and I had felt abandoned because I could no longer gaze upon the image of my own reason and the finite world which it knew. God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn. I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.
    ... Bede Griffiths (1906-1993), The Golden String [1954], Bede Griffiths, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1979, p. 97 (see the book)
    See also Job 42:5-6; Ps. 39:4-7; 51:17; Matt. 7:7; Acts 20:24; 1 Cor. 13:1-3; 2 Cor. 12:11; Gal. 6:3; Jas. 4:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me acknowledge my smallness to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Law: devotion

Monday, November 4, 2013
Meditation:
    “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
    Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
    —Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God.
    He therefore is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life, parts of piety, by doing everything in the name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 1-2 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 22:36-40; Deut. 6:5; 10:12-13; Mark 12:30; John 15:19; Rom. 12:2; 1 Thess. 5:15-23; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to devote my life to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Hooker: the remedy for fear

Sunday, November 3, 2013
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”
    —Psalm 91:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is nature which teacheth a wise man in fear to hide himself, but grace and faith doth teach him where... Where should the frighted child hide his head, but in the bosom of his loving Father? Where a Christian, but under the shadow of the wings of Christ his Saviour.
    ... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600), The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, Oxford: University Press, 1841, p. 526 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 91:1-2; 46:1; 62:7-8; Pr. 14:26; 18:10; Isa. 26:20; Matt. 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35; Heb. 6:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You alone is true security. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt