de Sales: peace in conversation

Saturday, January 24, 2015
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
    —Romans 15:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be at peace regarding what is said or done in conversations: for if good, you have something to praise God for, and if bad, something in which to serve God by turning your heart away from it.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Spiritual Maxims, Longmans, Green, 1954, p. 179 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 15:7; Matt. 10:40; Mark 9:37; Luke 9:48; 15:2; John 6:37; 13:34; Rom. 14:1; 1 Tim. 6:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive peace from You concerning the past. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bunyan: still forgiven

Friday, January 23, 2015
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
Meditation:
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
    —1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness.
    ... John Bunyan (1628-1688), The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. I, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 155 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:9; Lam. 3:22-23; 1 Tim. 1:15; Heb. 10:23; 1 John 2:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You can correct all my faults and sins. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: security

Thursday, January 22, 2015
Meditation:
    And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
    —1 Corinthians 15:45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past, it is possible to be sure of the future, it is possible to be diligent in the present. Then how blessed such a life! For the past—“I was the chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy;” for the future—“We shall bear the image of the heavenly;” for the present—” I press toward the mark.”
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), Sermons preached in Manchester: Second series, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1902, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:49; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:13-14; 1 Tim. 1:13-15; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have set me free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: not of the world

Wednesday, January 21, 2015
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    [Jesus praying:] “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.”
    —John 17:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Even though I am in the midst of danger, temptation, sin and sorrow of this world, through Him who gave His life I am saved. The sea is salty and the fish lives all its life in it. But it never gets salty, because it has life. Even so if we receive life from Him, though in the world, we are not of the world. Not only here, but also in Heaven we shall find ourselves in Him.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 42 (see the book)
    See also John 17:14-18; 1:4; Rom. 6:23; 8:1-2,35; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 2:14; 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my eternal source of life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rolle: avoid profitless disputes

Tuesday, January 20, 2015
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
    —1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us seek rather that the love of Christ burn within us than that we take heed to unprofitable disputation. Whiles truly we take heed to unmannerly seeking, we feel not the sweetness of the eternal savour. Wherefore many now so much savour in the burning of knowledge and not of love, that plainly they know not what love is, or of what savour; although the labour of all their study ought to spread unto this end, that they might burn in the love of God.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), Fire of Love [1343], tr. Richard Misyn, I.v (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 8:1; Matt. 24:12-13; John 5:39-40; Col. 3:16; Eph. 3:16-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, renew my love once more. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sayers: not our kind of peace

Monday, January 19, 2015
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
    —Luke 4:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offence in it. Seeing that Christ went about the world giving the most violent offence to all kinds of people it would seem absurd to expect that the doctrine of His Person can be so presented as to offend nobody. We cannot blink [at] the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in His opinions and so inflammatory in His language that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever His peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference; and He said in so many words that what He brought with Him was fire and sword.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Creed Or Chaos?: and Other Essays in Popular Theology, Methuen, 1957, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 4:28-30; Matt. 10:22,34-35; Mark 13:13; John 7:43-44; 8:37-40,44,59; 14:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will leave no idol intact. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: second place

Sunday, January 18, 2015
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    —Luke 14:8-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 32 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:8-11; Pr. 25:6-7; Matt. 19:30; 24:12; Mark 9:35; Luke 13:30; Phil. 2:5-7; Jas. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extinguish all resentment in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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