Ryrie: faith and works

Saturday, January 25, 2014
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
    But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
    Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
    —James 2:14-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What is said in the passage [James 2:14 ff.] is like a two coupon train or bus ticket. One coupon says, “Not good if detached” and the other says, “Not good for passage.” Works are not good for passage; but faith detached from works is not saving faith.
    ... Charles C. Ryrie (b. 1925), Ryrie Study Bible, Moody Publishers, 1986, note on James 2:24 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:14-18; Matt. 7:16-17; Rom. 14:23; 1 Cor. 13:2; Gal. 5:6; 1 Thess. 1:3; Jas. 2:26; 3:13; 2 Pet. 1:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forbid my heart to grow cold. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: wait patiently

Friday, January 24, 2014
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
    —2 Corinthians 4:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If any trouble comes upon you, use the remedies with which God supplies you. Not to do this is to tempt Him; but having done so, wait whatever result He wills with perfect resignation. If He pleases to let the evil be remedied, thank Him humbly; but if it be His will that the evil grow greater than the remedies, patiently bless His Holy Name.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, p. 138 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:8-11; Job 1:21; Ps. 25:16-19; 66:11-12; 119:75; Lam. 3:32; Amos 3:6; John 9:1-3; Rom. 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; 1 Thess. 3:2-3; Jas. 1:2-3; 5:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me patience in infirmity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: the largest prayers

Thursday, January 23, 2014
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
Meditation:
    [The Disciples:] “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
    —Acts 4:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not wish that you had made it larger.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The More Abundant Life: Lenten Readings, Dutton, 1906, p. 103 (see the book)
    See also Acts 4:29-30; Ex. 33:18; Ps. 27:1-3; 56:4; John 17:20-21; Rom. 8:15-17; Eph. 2:18; 3:12; 2 Thess. 3:1; Heb. 4:16; 10:23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enlarge my confidence in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mott: power for evangelization

Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Meditation:
    Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.
    —2 Thessalonians 3:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is possible [through prayer] for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions.
    ... John R. Mott (1865-1955), The Pastor and Modern Missions, New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1904, p. 203 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:1; Matt. 9:37-38; Luke 10:2; Eph. 6:19-20; Phil. 1:18-19; Col. 4:2-4; Heb. 13:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make straight and smooth the road of those who bear good new to the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: meaninglessness

Tuesday, January 21, 2014
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
    —2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Men and women can bear hardship, poverty, physical hunger and pain, but there is one thing which they cannot bear very long, and that is meaninglessness. If they are not provided with meaning in one connection, they will seek it in another. The parable of the impossibility of the permanently empty house is more applicable to our society today than it has ever been in our lives.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Future of the Christian, Harper & Row, 1971, p. 13-14 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 2:9-12; Ps. 81:11-12; Matt. 12:43-45; 24:10-13; 1 Tim. 4:1; 6:9-10; 2 Pet. 2:3; 1 John 2:18-19; Jude 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have filled the hearts of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rolle: Come into me, my Beloved!

Monday, January 20, 2014
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he browses among the lilies.
    —Song of Solomon 6:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Come into me, my Beloved!
All that I had I gave for Thee, and that I should have,
    for Thee I have forsaken,
    that Thou in my soul mightest have a mansion for to comfort it.
Never forsake Thou him that Thou feelest so sweetly glow with desire for Thee;
    so that with most burning desire I desire,
    to be ever within Thy embrace.
So grant me grace to love Thee, and in Thee to rest,
    that in Thy kingdom I may be worthy for to see Thee withouten end.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), Fire of Love [1343], tr. Richard Misyn, I.ii (see the book)
    See also Song of Solomon 6:3; 2:6,10-13,16; John 14:2; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, set the fire of love for You within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: grafted onto Christ

Sunday, January 19, 2014
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
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:
    It is only by being grafted into Christ that we produce good fruit. Other religions say, “Do good and you will become good.” Christianity says, “Be in Christ, and you will do good.” The meaning of the Atonement and the Blood that washes away our sins is that we are grafted into Christ, I in Him, and He in me. It is a bitter sprig which is grafted into the tree, but, once it is grafted in, the sweet juice of the tree flows through the bitter sprig and makes it sweet.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:17-18; Ps. 51:7; Matt. 7:17-20; 12:33; Luke 6:43-45; John 15:5; 1 Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:4-5; Heb. 10:19-22; Rev. 7:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your goodness flows into Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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