Grou: the Vision

Saturday, December 21, 2013
Meditation:
    [The Angel:] “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    —Luke 2:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Remember, too, who they were who were admitted into His Manger. None without a special, miraculous call, as though to teach us that we cannot attain to an interior life without our vocation be of God, and that those He calls must resemble the Shepherds in lowliness and freedom from worldly longings; in vigilance, for it was during their night watch that they were called; in faith, for had they doubted the Heavenly Vision, they would never have found Christ.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:12,16-18; 1 Sam. 3:10; Matt. 4:18-23; 9:9; John 15:16; Rom. 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 2:11-12; Heb. 3:1; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3,10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility to hear You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: smothering Christmas

Friday, December 20, 2013
Meditation:
    O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
    —Isaiah 40:9 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The particular danger which faces us as Christmas approaches is unlikely to be contempt for the sacred season, but nevertheless our familiarity with it may easily produce in us a kind of indifference. The true wonder and mystery may leave us unmoved; familiarity may easily blind us to the shining fact that lies at the heart of Christmastide. We are all aware of the commercialisation of Christmas; we can hardly help being involved in the frantic business of buying and sending gifts and cards. We shall without doubt enjoy the carols, the decorations, the feasting and jollification, the presents, the parties, the dancing and the general atmosphere of goodwill which almost magically permeates the days of Christmas. But we may not always see clearly that so much decoration and celebration has been heaped upon the festival that the historic fact upon which all the rejoicing is founded has been almost smothered out of existence.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Good News: Thoughts on God and Man, New York: Macmillan, 1963, p. 161 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 40:9; 9:6; 52:7; 61:1-2; Luke 1:19; 2:10; 8:1; Acts 13:32-33
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep Your advent uppermost in my mind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?

Thursday, December 19, 2013
Meditation:
    The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
    —Luke 2:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
    My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too: a flock it feeds
    Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy Word, the streams, Thy Grace
    Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
    Out-sing the daylight hours.
Then we will chide the sun for letting night
    Take up his place and right:
We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
    Himself the candle hold.
I will go searching, till I find a sun
    Shall stay, till we have done;
A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,
    As frost-nipt suns look sadly.
Then we will sing, and shine all our own day,
    And one another pay:
His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,
Till ev’n his beams sing, and my music shine.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Poetical Works of George Herbert, New York: D. Appleton, 1857, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:20; Ps. 33:1-4; 98:1-8; 104:33; 119:105; 1 Cor. 15:14; Eph. 5:19-20; Col. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    May Your people ever sing Your praises, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: gifts

Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Meditation:
    On coming to the house, [the Magi] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
    —Matthew 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Gifts are servants, not rulers, in the mind; are bestowed on us to be serviceable unto grace, not to lead, but to follow it, and to be ready with their assistance on its exercise.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. VII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 250 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 2:11; 1 Cor. 1:5-7; 7:7; 12:4-11; Eph. 2:8-9; 4:7-8; Jas. 1:5; 1 Pet. 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Son is the ultimate gift to sinners. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Keble: What sudden blaze of song

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
    Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What sudden blaze of song
        Spreads o’er th’ expanse of Heav’n?
    In waves of light it thrills along,
        Th’ angelic signal given—
    “Glory to God!” from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry choir;

    Like circles widening round
        Upon a clear blue river,
    Orb after orb, the wondrous sound
        Is echoed on for ever:
    “Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
“And love towards men of love—salvation and release.”
    ... John Keble (1792-1866), The Christian Year [1827], G. W. Doane, ed., Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842, p. 35-36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:13-14; 19:38; Ps. 85:9-12; 96:11-13; Isa. 44:23; 49:13; Eph. 3:20-21; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 5:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent Your salvation.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: who can be against us?

Monday, December 16, 2013
Meditation:
    What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
    —Romans 8:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing can touch us except with His knowledge and by His permission. It may be the sin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot be said to be the will of God; but by the time it reaches us, it has become God’s will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands. No man or company of men, no power in earth or heaven, can touch that soul which is abiding in Christ, without first passing through Him, and receiving the seal of His permission. If God be for us, it matters not who may be against us; nothing can disturb or harm us, except He shall see that it is best for us, and shall stand aside to let it pass.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, London: F. E. Longley, 1876, p. 86-87 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:31; Ps. 27:1-3; 46:1-3; 56:11; Luke 21:17-18; John 10:28-30; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 John 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my constant protector. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Drummond: Run, shepherds, run

Sunday, December 15, 2013
    Advent III
Meditation:
    But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
    —Galatians 4:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
Run, shepherds, run where Bethlem blest appears,
We bring the best of news, be not dismay’d,
A Saviour there is born, more old than years,
Amidst heaven’s rolling heights this earth who stay’d
In a poor cottage inn’d, a virgin maid
A weakling did him bear, who all upbears;
There is he poorly swaddl’d, in manger laid,
To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres:
Run, shepherds, run, and solemnize his birth,
This is that night—no, day, grown great with bliss,
In which the power of Satan broken is;
In heaven be glory, peace unto the earth!
    Thus singing, through the air the angels swam,
    And cope of stars re-echoed the same.
    ... William Drummond (1585-1649), The Poems of William Drummond of Hawthornden, v. II, London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894, p. 7-8 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 4:4-5; Isa. 7:14; Luke 2:6-16; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 8:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your poverty has made Your people rich indeed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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