Jukes: the untroubled are in danger

Saturday, March 29, 2014
    Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Meditation:
    And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
    —Matthew 9:11-12 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I can tell you for an eternal truth that troubled souls are always safe. It is the untroubled that are in danger. Trouble in itself is always a claim on love, and God is love. He must deny Himself if He does not come to help the helpless. It is the prisoners, and the blind, and the leper, and the possessed, and the hungry, and the tempest-tossed, who are His special care. Therefore, if you are lost and sick and bound, you are just in the place where He can meet you. Blessed are the mourners. They shall be comforted.
    ... Andrew Jukes (1815-1901), [1889], Letters of Andrew Jukes, London: Longman, Green, and Company, 1903, [1889], p. 155 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 9:11-12; Pr. 3:11-12; Matt. 5:4; 6:34; John 14:1; Heb. 12:7; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I complacent? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reeves: meeting Jesus

Friday, March 28, 2014
Meditation:
    We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
    —1 John 3:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What makes life worth living is the mutual enrichment of people through understanding, intelligence and affection.
    It is just here that our awareness that Jesus is our contemporary and that Calvary is relevant to our present human situation ought to help us greatly. And that is not merely because in his relationships with others during his earthly life in Palestine Jesus exemplified all that I have tried to say about human relationships. In every genuine human encounter with another person we may become aware of Jesus, and meet with him. This may sound fanciful, but there is much in the Scriptures and in Christian experience which suggests that Jesus is frequently met in the traffic of person with person, provided that there is a genuine encounter between them. Jesus himself showed that for this to happen demands courage and a willingness to move from a life that is centred in itself. So if we are to pass out of that lon! ely world of isolation then we must be prepared to take the risks that are always involved when we allow persons to confront us as persons and do not regard them as things. Yet, dangerous though it may be to live in this way, it is the only way to live.
    ... Ambrose Reeves (1899-1980), Calvary Now, London: SCM Press, 1965, p. 76-77 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:14; Matt. 19:13-15; 25:34-40; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 10:29-37; 18:15-17; John 13:35; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22; 3:8; 1 John 4:7-8; 5:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Whom do I treat as a thing rather than a person? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: the victory now

Thursday, March 27, 2014
Meditation:
    “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
    —Acts 17:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us not mind what is past. Perhaps it is all failure, and useless struggle, and broken resolves. What then? Settle this first, brethren, Are you in earnest? If so, though your faith be weak and your struggles unsatisfactory, you may begin the hymn of triumph now, for victory is pledged. “Thanks be to God, which”—not shall give, but “giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. III, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859, p. 289 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:29-30; John 16:33; Rom. 8:37; 1 Cor. 15:55-57; 1 John 5:3-5; Rev. 12:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Do I have confidence in God’s victory? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bounds: of prayer

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
    Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
Meditation:
    Therefore honor God with your body.
    —1 Corinthians 6:20b (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer does not stand alone. It is not an isolated performance. Prayer stands in closest connection with all the duties of an ardent piety. It is the issuance of a character which is made up of the elements of a vigorous and commanding faith. Prayer honours God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid... To pray well is to do all things well.
    ... E. M. Bounds (1835-1913), Purpose in Prayer, New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1920, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 6:20; Isa. 26:13; Hos. 6:6; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 4:16; Jude 1:20; Rev. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I living the way I pray? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: practical atheists

Tuesday, March 25, 2014
    Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”
    —Numbers 32:23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I hold that secret sin, if any thing, is the worst of sin; because secret sin implies that the man who commits it has Atheism in his heart. You will ask how that can be. I reply, he may be a professing Christian, but I shall tell him to his face that he is a practical Atheist, if he labors to keep up a respectable profession before man, and then secretly transgresses. Why, is not he an Atheist, who will say there is a God, yet at the same time thinks more of man than he does of God? Is it not the very essence of Atheism—is it not a denial of the divinity of the Most High when men lightly esteem him and think more of the eye of a creature than of the observation of their Creator? There are some who would not, for the life of them, say a wicked word in the presence of their minister, but they can do it, knowing God is looking at them. They are Atheists. There are some who would not trick in trade for all the world if they thought they should be discovered, but they can do it while God is with them; that is, they think more of the eye of man than of the eye of God; and they think it worse to be condemned by man than to be condemned by God. Call it by what name you will, the proper name of that is practical Atheism.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), Sermons of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon of London, third series, New York: Sheldon, Blakeman and Co., 1857, p. 171-172 (see the book)
    See also Num. 32:23; Ps. 19:12; Jer. 23:24; Matt. 6:24; Luke 11:23; 16:13; Rom. 6:16; Jas. 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I excusing a secret sin? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: God who sees all

Monday, March 24, 2014
    Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
    Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
Meditation:
    Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
    —Romans 8:26 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Sorrow for sin and sorrow for suffering are ofttimes so twisted and interwoven in the same person—yea, in the same sigh and groan—that sometimes it is impossible for the party himself so to separate and divide them in his own sense and feeling, as to know which proceeds from the one and which from the other. Only the all-seeing eye of an infinite God is able to discern and distinguish them.
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience [1655], Dialogue I. (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:26; Ps. 6:3; 42:1-4; 69:3; 77:1-3; 119:81; 143:4-7; Isa. 35:10; 53:11; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; 7:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Do I trust God to distinguish sorrow for sin from among my sorrows? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: the music of calling

Sunday, March 23, 2014
Meditation:
    Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
    —1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As our life comes to maturity we discover to our confusion that human ears can pick up from the Infinite many incompatible tunes, but cannot hear the whole symphony. And the melody confided to our care, the one which we alone perhaps can contribute and which taxes our powers to the full, has in it not only the notes of triumph but the notes of pain. The distinctive mark therefore is not happiness but vocation: work demanded and power given, but given only on condition that we spend it and ourselves on others without stint.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today, E.P. Dutton, 1922, p. 225 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 4:10; Matt. 20:25-28; Mark 9:35; 1 Cor. 7:20,24; 13:9-10,12; 2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 6:7-8; Phil. 3:12; Heb. 3:1-2; Jas. 1:23-24; 2 Pet. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I spending my life as God has called me to? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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