Coleridge: ingrafting

Saturday, November 30, 2013
    Feast of Andrew the Apostle
Meditation:
    If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
    —Romans 11:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There can be no end without means; and God furnishes no means that exempt us from the task and duty of joining our own best endeavors. The original stock, or wild olive tree, of our natural powers, was not given to us to be burnt or blighted, but to be grafted on.
    ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), The Friend: a series of essays, London: Gale & Curtis, 1812, p. 373 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:17-21; Ps. 112:9; Eccl. 11:1-2,6; John 15:5; 2 Cor. 8:9; 9:8-10; Heb. 13:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, from You comes all Your people’s strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Niebuhr: called out and sent back

Friday, November 29, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
    —John 17:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The power and attraction Jesus Christ exercises over men never comes from him alone, but from him as Son of the Father. It comes from him in his Sonship in a double way, as man living to God and God living with men. Belief in him and loyalty to his cause involve men in the double movement, from world to God and from God to world. Even when theologies fail to do justice to this fact, Christians living with Christ in their cultures are aware of it. For they are forever being challenged to abandon all things for the sake of God; and forever being sent back into the world to teach and practice all the things that have been commanded them.
    ... H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), Christ and Culture, New York: Harper, 1951, reprint, Harper & Row, 1956, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also John 17:15-18; Isa. 55:11; Matt. 28:19-20; John 5:19-23; 17:23; Phil. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are always sending me back into the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: the real story

Thursday, November 28, 2013
    Thanksgiving (U.S.)
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
    —John 3:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The New Testament begins with the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. No part of the Bible is so important as this, and no part is so full and complete. Four distinct Gospels tell us the story of Christ’s doing and dying. Four times over we read the precious account of His works and words. How thankful we ought to be for this! To know Christ is life eternal. To believe in Christ is to have peace with God. To follow Christ is to be a true Christian. To be with Christ will be heaven itself. We can never hear too much about Jesus Christ.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. Matthew, Ipswitch: William Hunt, 1856, p. 2 (see the book)
    See also John 3:14-16; Mark 10:29-30; Luke 2:14; John 4:13-14; 5:24; 6:27; 17:3; Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:14-17; Phil. 4:7; Col. 3:15; 2 Thess. 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I ever know more of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hallesby: the Spirit's direction

Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Meditation:
    Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
    —1 John 3:21-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our prayers are rendered ineffectual in the same degree as they take a different course than that in which the Spirit would lead us. And they become even more impotent when we come in conflict with the Spirit and grieve Him.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 117 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:21-22; Ps. 143:10; Matt. 7:11; 21:22; Luke 11:13; 18:10-14; Rom. 8:26-27; Eph. 4:30; 6:18; Jas. 5:16; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead my heart into conformity with Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: When I survey the wond'rous cross

Tuesday, November 26, 2013
    Commemoration of Isaac Watts, Hymnwriter, 1748
Meditation:
    May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
    —Galatians 6:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
When I survey the wond’rous cross,
On which the Prince of glory dy’d;
My richest gain, I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to thy blood.

See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er his body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love, so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, p. 478 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:14; Isa. 53:3-5; Matt. 27:28-29; Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:14-16; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Phil. 1:21; 3:8-9; Col. 3:1-3; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people yield all to You.

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de Dietrich: ready to obey

Monday, November 25, 2013
    Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
Meditation:
    “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
    —Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Bible tells us very clearly that to “know” God is not an affair of the mind only, but an act in which our whole being, heart, mind, and will, is vitally engaged; so that sheer intellectual speculation would enable us to form certain ideas about God but never to “know” Him. To be grasped, God’s will must be met with a readiness to obey.
    ... Suzanne de Diétrich (1891-1981), Discovering the Bible [1953], Coonoor, Nilgiris [India]: India Sunday School Union, 1952, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 31:33-34; Ps. 22:27-31; Pr. 1:7; Isa. 11:9; Hos. 6:6; Hab. 2:14; John 17:3; Rom. 6:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people are ready to obey Your leading. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: the reason for loving God

Sunday, November 24, 2013
Meditation:
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
    apart from you I have no good thing.”
    —Psalm 16:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable. When one asks, Why should I love God? he may mean, What is lovely in God? or What shall I gain by loving God? In either case, the same sufficient cause of love exists, namely, God Himself.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On Loving God, CCEL, ch. 3, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 16:2; Deut. 6:5; Ps. 115:1; Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27; John 3:16; 14:6; 15:13; Rom. 5:10; 8:32; 1 John 4:19; 5:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are worthy of our love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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