Wesley: stewards

Saturday, May 24, 2014
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
    —Luke 14:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not at liberty to use what he has lodged in our hands as we please, but as he pleases, who alone is the possessor of heaven and earth, and the Lord of every creature. We have no right to dispose of any thing we have but according to his will, seeing we are not proprietors of any of these things.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. I, New York: J. Emory and B. Waugh, 1831, p. 449 (see the book)
    See also Deut. 15:7-14; Ps. 37:21; 112:5; Pr. 19:17; Matt. 5:42; 22:16-21; 25:35-40; Luke 6:30; 8:1-3; 14:12-14; Rom. 13:7; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; 1 Pet. 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all things You have given me are Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wallis: no other way

Friday, May 23, 2014
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
    Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
    —Matthew 26:38-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have no reason or right to choose another way than the way God chose in Jesus Christ. The cross is both the symbol of our salvation and the pattern of our lives.
    ... Jim Wallis (b. 1948), The Call to Conversion, Harper & Row, 1981, p. 87 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 26:38-39,42; Luke 22:42; John 12:27; 14:5-6; Acts 2:36-39; 17:30-31; Rom. 5:15-18; Phil. 2:5-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone are our Savior. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ferguson: the coming fruition

Thursday, May 22, 2014
Meditation:
    And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
    —2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The progress of mankind has always depended upon those who, seemingly isolated and powerless in their own day, have seen their vision and remained true to it. In the darkening corridors of time, they preserved integral their vision of the daylight at the end. This is a matter not of calculation but of faith. Our work may be small and its results invisible to us. But we may rest assured it will come to fruition in God’s good time.
    ... John Ferguson (b. 1921), The Enthronement of Love: Christ the Peacemaker, London: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1951, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:13; Ps. 27:13; Matt. 5:8; Luke 18:1; 2 Cor. 4:1,16; Rev. 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have encouraged Your people in everything. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: getting the whole blessing

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
    But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
    The man asked him, “What is your name?”
    “Jacob,” he answered.
    Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
    Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
    But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
    So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
    —Genesis 32:26-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whoever hath an interest in any one promise hath an interest in them all, and in the fountain-love from whence they flow. He to whom any drop of their sweetness floweth may follow it up into the spring. Were we wise, each taste of mercy would lead us to the ocean of love. Have we any hold on a promise?—we may get upon it, and it will bring us to the main, Christ Himself and the Spirit, and so into the bosom of the Father. It is our folly to abide upon a little, which is given us merely to make us press for more.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance Explained and Confirmed [1654], in Works of John Owen, v. XI, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1853, ch. V, p. 223 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 32:26-30; Zech. 14:8; Ps. 46:4; Isa. 35:6; Matt. 5:6; John 4:10,13-14; 7:38-39; 14:16-17,26; Gal. 4:6; Rev. 7:17; 22:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You refresh Your people with living water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Babcock: life tools

Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
    —John 9:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A Christian should hold his tools in general with a loose hand, but in particular with a firm hand. No man knows when he may be deprived of his health, his money, his position, his friends; he must not set his heart on any one of them as a final good, as an essential blessing. But upon the tools he has, he must set his heart with great appreciation and concentration, that he may learn how to use each one so as to get the best results inside and out. Love not tools less but craftsmanship more. Work while you have your tools; the hour cometh when you may not have them.
    ... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 31 (see the book)
    See also John 9:4; Ex. 31:2-11; Matt. 9:37-38; Rom. 12:11; 13:11-12; 1 Cor. 7:29-31; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:7-13; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me craft to do my work for You well. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: second class?

Monday, May 19, 2014
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
    —2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I don’t see how any Christian can read the New Testament and still go on insisting that his relationship to other Christians makes no demands on him, or that his Lord has no call on a life which He has bought and paid for. Does anyone really think they are at liberty to “go second-class” if they wish? Do they truly expect to be “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease”? Do they possibly intend to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and offer, for His approval, deeds done by hands other than theirs? If so, they need to read the New Testament again, for the Holy Spirit has not yet taught them anything out of it: they have not yet found their place in the Body of Christ.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Amateur Ministry” (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Matt. 20:25-29; John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:2,10; 15:27; 1 Cor. 3:17; 6:19-20; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2,11-13; Col. 1:24; Jas. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2:5-9; Rev. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I will use my own hands to work for the Kingdom and the Body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pike: God will deliver

Sunday, May 18, 2014
Meditation:
    The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
    —Galatians 6:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    But since cause-and-effect is under the personal control of God, He can introduce into the situation other causes than the ones which we ourselves can control. When in faith we come to God for cleansing from the mess we have made of things, and when we ask for power to reverse causes we have set in motion, God sends in other causes by His Holy Spirit. It may be by direct intervention, or by a combination of circumstances which He controls. We can, therefore, be delivered from the wrath to come, because God will add other causes than those that we have initiated.
    ... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), With Heart and Mind, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:8-9; Ps. 92:5; Rom. 6:13; 8:13-14; 11:33; 1 Cor. 15:28,58
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I place the events of my life in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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