Croucher: please Christ first

Saturday, September 27, 2014
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
What the wicked dreads will overtake him;
    what the righteous desire will be granted.
    —Proverbs 10:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Above all, desire to please Christ; dread his disapproval above everything else.
    ... Rowland Croucher (b. 1937), Sunrise, Sunset, San Francisco: Harper, 1997 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 10:24; Luke 16:13; John 16:24; 2 Cor. 5:10-11; Heb. 10:26-27; 1 John 5:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my desire is to please You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Bell: the evil of riches

Friday, September 26, 2014
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”
    —Luke 12:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The evil of riches, then, for institutions, for nations, for individuals, is that those who possess or seek to possess almost invariably overvalue possessions and so cease to live creatively. They stop loving God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength and all the mind. They stop loving their neighbors, too. When you find a person of means who is not either a self-centered bore or a low creature, you may know that God has worked a miracle.
    ... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), God is Not Dead, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:27-34; Lev. 19:18,34; Deut. 6:5; Matt. 19:23-24; Mark 10:24-25; 12:30-31; Luke 12:15; 16:13; 18:24-25; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Jas. 1:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, work a miracle of love within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Andrewes: seeing Jesus

Thursday, September 25, 2014
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    Therefore, we also having so great a cloud of witnesses set around us, every weight having put off, and the closely besetting sin, through endurance may we run the contest that is set before us, looking to the author and perfecter of faith—Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him—did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down...
    —Hebrews 12:1-2 (YLT)
Quotation:
    What is more kindly to behold “the Author” of faith, than faith? or more kindly for faith to behold, than her “Author” here at first, and her “Finisher” there at last? Him to behold first and last, and never to be satisfied with looking on Him, Who was content to buy us and our eye at so dear a rate.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), preached March 29, 1605, on Good Friday, Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 177 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:1-3; Ps. 138:8; John 8:56; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; 6:19-20; 7:23; Eph. 1:18-19; 2 Tim. 4:8; Heb. 7:18-19; 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:17-18; 1 John 1:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people will see You in the flesh. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Nouwen: divestiture

Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Meditation:
    Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
    —Matthew 19:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is the act by which we divest ourselves of all false belongings and become free to belong to God and God alone.
    ... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), originally in “Letting go of all things” in Sojourners8, May 1979, p. 5-6, The Only Necessary Thing, p. 39
    See also Matt. 19:21; 6:6; 10:37-38; 16:24-25; Mark 8:34; 10:21; Luke 9:34-35; 14:26; Rom. 8:26; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 3:7-9;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my belief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Muggeridge: the Lamb

Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Meditation:
    The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
    —John 1:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The cross for the first time revealed God in terms of weakness and lowliness and suffering; even, humanly speaking, of absurdity. He was seen thenceforth in the image of the most timid, most gentle and most vulnerable of all living creatures—a lamb. Agnus Dei! [The Lamb of God!]
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), Jesus Rediscovered, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969, p. xi (see the book)
    See also John 1:29; Ex. 12:3-4; Matt. 11:29; John 1:36; 10:17-18; 2 Cor. 13:4; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken our weakness on Yourself. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Wilberforce: whose throne?

Monday, September 22, 2014
Meditation:
    Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
    —1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God insists that He set up His throne in the heart, and reign in it, without a rival. If we keep Him from His right, it will not matter by what competitor.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Real Christianity, ed. James Houston, Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2005, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Matt. 6:24; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 10:21-22; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19-22; Col. 3:5; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I reject all other claims on my allegiance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Law: not good enough

Sunday, September 21, 2014
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    “Consider carefully what you hear,” [Jesus] continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.”
    —Mark 4:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Shall I withhold a little money or food from my fellow-creature, for fear he should not be good enough to receive it of me? Do I beg of God to deal with me, not according to my merit, but according to His own great goodness; and shall I be so absurd, as to withhold my charity from a poor brother, because he may perhaps not deserve it? Shall I use a measure towards him, which I pray God never to use towards me?
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also Mark 4:24; Ps. 31:9; Matt. 5:42; 7:1-2; Luke 6:30,38; 14:12-14; Rom. 8:28; 2 Thess. 1:6-7; Heb. 13:16; Jas. 2:12-13; 1 John 1:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, loosen my grip on things, that I may be charitable. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt