Tillotson: wealth an opportunity for doing good

Saturday, January 31, 2015
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
    —1 John 3:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wealth and riches; that is, an estate above what sufficeth our real occasions and necessities, is in no other sense a blessing than as it is an opportunity put into our hands, by the providence of God, of doing more good.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VI, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CXLII, p. 551 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:17; Luke 12:15; Gal. 6:9-10; Jas. 2:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me more aware of the needs around me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: does culture rule?

Friday, January 30, 2015
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
    —John 15:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus is understood in the light of the assumptions which control our culture. When reason is invoked as a parallel or supplementary authority to “Scripture” and “tradition,” what is happening is that Jesus is being co-opted into the reigning plausibility structure. But the business of the missionary, and the business of the Christian Church in any situation, is to challenge the plausibility structure in the light of God’s revelation of the real meaning of history.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also John 15:18-19; 1:10; 16:33; Acts 2:36; 17:30; Rom. 3:25-26; 2 Cor. 7:10; Tit. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 1:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that we may be used in challenging the world’s view of Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Amiel: ascent to the divine

Thursday, January 29, 2015
Meditation:
    When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
    —1 Corinthians 15:54 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To curse grief is easier than to bless it, but to do so is to fall back into the point of view of the earthly, the carnal, the natural man. By what has Christianity subdued the world if not by the apotheosis of grief, by its marvellous transmutation of suffering into triumph, of the crown of thorns into the crown of glory, and of a gibbet into a symbol of salvation? What does the apotheosis of the Cross mean, if not the death of death, the defeat of sin, the beatification of martyrdom, the raising to the skies of voluntary sacrifice, the defiance of pain?
    ... Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881), The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, tr. Mrs. Humphry Ward, New York: Macmillan, 1885, p. 262 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:54-57; Ps. 30:11; Isa. 25:7-8; Matt. 5:4; Luke 20:36; John 11:35; 16:33; Rom. 8:35-37; 1 John 5:4; Rev. 21:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have transformed all the grief in my life to joy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aquinas: the two natures demonstrated

Wednesday, January 28, 2015
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
    —Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ wished so to show the reality of His body, as to manifest His Godhead at the same time. For this reason He mingled wondrous with lowly things. Wherefore, to show that His body was real, He was born of a woman. But in order to manifest His Godhead, He was born of a virgin, for “such a Birth befits a God,” as Ambrose says in the Christmas hymn.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274), Summa Theologica [1274], Benziger Bros. edition, 1947, p. III, q. xxviii, a. 2 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 7:14; Matt. 4:2; Luke 1:26-35; 24:39-43; John 1:14; Rom. 8:3-4; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 4:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You share our humanity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Weinel: the path of humility

Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Meditation:
    And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.
    —Isaiah 35:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is yet another, a more excellent way: it is to go forward with heart glad and thankful for progress in all that is good, and to look upon increased conviction of sin as a part of such progress. This path true and humble men of heart can alone tread, and neither Philistine, self-satisfied respectability, nor Nietzsche’s “superman” can walk thereon, but only such as gratefully acknowledge that the wiser and the better they become, they receive all from their heavenly Father.
    ... Heinrich Weinel (1874-1936), St. Paul, the Man and His Work, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906, p. 93 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 35:8; Jer. 3:22; Rom. 8:34; 1 Tim. 1:15; 2:5-6; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 1:9; 2:1; Rev. 7:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may walk forgiven with You, despite my sins and flaws. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: our suffering?

Monday, January 26, 2015
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
    —Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ah! our suffering is not worthy the name of suffering. When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking what are they in comparison of the sufferings of my blessed Saviour Christ Jesus.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table-Talk [1566], CXCVI (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:18; Matt. 5:11-12; Acts 20:24; 2 Cor. 4:17-18; Col. 1:24; Heb. 2:9; 12:1-2; 13:12; 1 Pet. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bless my suffering, now and in the future, and help me not to think it great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: the triumphant cross

Sunday, January 25, 2015
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
    —Colossians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For as [Paul] had previously compared the cross to a signal trophy or show of triumph, in which Christ led about his enemies, so he now [in Col. 2:15] also compares it to a triumphal car, in which he shewed himself conspicuously to view. For although in the cross there is nothing but curse, it was, nevertheless, swallowed up by the power of God in such a way, that it has put on, as it were, a new nature. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the cross on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851, p. 190-191 (see the book)
    See also Col. 2:15; John 12:32; Acts 2:23-24; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; Gal. 3:13; Col. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Praise be to the Cross and the Savior Who made it sacred. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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