Wycliffe: condemning the word

Saturday, April 25, 2015
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    ... so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The clerks of the law have great need [of penance], which have been ever against God the Lord, both in the old law, and in the new, to slay the prophets that spake to them the Word of God. Ye see that they spared not the Son of God... and so forth of the apostles and martyrs that hath spoken truly to the word [of] God to them, and they say it is heresy to speak of the holy Scripture in English, and so they would condemn the Holy Ghost that gave it in tongues to the apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Wyckett, in Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe, Robert Vaughan, ed., London: Blackburn and Pardon, 1845, p. 275 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:11; Matt. 4:4; 23:27; 27:24; Isa. 40:8; Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:4; 1 John 2:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word go forth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: to banish sin

Friday, April 24, 2015
    Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
    —Luke 22:42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire. To say, ‘Father, I should like this or that,’ would be enough at once, if the wish were bad, to make us know it and turn from it... Was it not thus the Lord carried himself towards his Father when he said, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me’? But there was something he cared for more than his own fear—his Father’s will: ‘Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.’
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Word of Jesus on Prayer”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also Luke 22:42; Ps. 10:17; Matt. 10:19-20; 26:39; Rom. 8:15,26-27; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Jas. 4:3; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You change my heart while in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dodd: the adventure

Thursday, April 23, 2015
    Feast of George, Martyr, Patron of England, c.304
    Commemoration of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1988
Meditation:
    For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
    —Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That appearance on earth as an individual is the crisis in the history both of Christ Himself and of the humanity He saves and leads. The ministry of Jesus, therefore, culminating in His death, is essential to Paul’s whole thought. If in certain aspects of his theology it is the death that bulks most largely—because it seemed to him to be the purest and most moving expression of what the whole life meant—he is quite aware that the ethical impulse given by the example and teaching of Jesus is of the very stuff of the Christian life. He alludes to the Gospel story but sparingly, but those who study his teaching most closely become aware that he is himself acting and speaking all through under the impulse of the life and teaching of Jesus. If he refuses to “know Christ after the flesh,” it means that he will not risk a harking back to the temporary conditions of the Galilean ministry when the Spirit of Christ is clearly leading out into new fields. The issues of that ministry have been gathered up in the new experience of “Christ in me,” and that experience gives a living Christ, who leads ever onward those who will adventure with Him, and not a prophet of the past, whose words might pass into a dead tradition.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 92 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:19-22; Luke 17:20-21; John 6:56; 14:16-17; 17:26; Rom. 8:10; Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:27; 2:2-3; 3:11;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lead and I follow. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: complacency

Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
    —John 14:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A Christian can never say, “I knew the power of the Holy Spirit yesterday, so today I can be at rest.” It is one of the existential realities of the Christian life to stand before God consciously recognizing our need.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), No Little People, Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974, reprint, Crossway, 2003, p. 66-67 (see the book)
    See also John 14:26; Ps. 42:1-2; Luke 12:31; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 2:14; Heb. 6:4-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You constantly renew Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: the one lifted up

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
    Feast of Anselm, Abbot of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1109
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
    —John 12:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is true that we are sinners;—but Christ has suffered for us. It is true that we deserve death;—but Christ has died for us. It is true that we are guilty debtors;—but Christ has paid our debts with His own blood. This is the real Gospel! This is the good news! On this let us lean while we live. To this let us cling when we die. Christ has been “lifted up” on the cross, and has thrown open the gates of heaven to all believers.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. John, v. I, Robert Carter and brothers, 1874, p. 143 (see the book)
    See also John 12:32; Ps. 22:16; Matt. 26:54; Luke 18:31-33; John 3:14-15; 6:44; 8:28; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Heb. 9:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Heaven shines on Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Flavel: desertion?

Monday, April 20, 2015
Meditation:
    About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    —Matthew 27:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Did God really forsake Jesus Christ upon the cross? Then from the desertion of Christ’s, singular consolation springs up to the people of God... Christ’s desertion is preventive of your final desertion. Because He was forsaken for a time you shall not be forsaken forever. For He was forsaken for you... Though God deserted Christ, yet at the same time He powerfully supported Him. His omnipotent arms were under Him, though His pleased Face was hid from Him. He had not indeed His smiles, but He had His support. So Christian, just so shall it be with thee. Thy God may turn away His face, He will not pluck away His arm.
    ... John Flavel (1628-1691), The Fountain of Life [1671], in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. I, Paisley: A. Weir and A. McLean, 1770, p. 170 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 27:46; Ps. 22:1; 37:28; 71:11-12; Matt. 28:20; Mark 15:34; Heb. 5:7; 12:2; 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will never leave me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: evil in a good world

Sunday, April 19, 2015
    Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012
Meditation:
    Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
    He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
    —Matthew 17:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The heavens and the earth, and the waters, and the things that are therein, the fish, and birds, and trees, are not evil. All these are good: but it is evil men who make this evil world. Yet as we cannot be without evil men, let us, as I have said, whilst we live pour out our groans before the Lord our God, and endure the evils, that we may attain to the things that are good. Let us not find fault with the Master of the household; for He is loving to us. He beareth us, and not we him. He knoweth how to govern what He made; do what He hath bidden, and hope for what He hath promised.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Sermon XXX [Ben 80], in Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, v. I, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1844, p. 243-244 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 17:15-21; Gen. 1:31; Ps. 94:18; Matt. 18:7; Luke 17:5; John 1:14; Rom. 8:22,26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my trust in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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