Hallesby: intimate prayer

Saturday, June 27, 2015
Meditation:
    ... pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The spirit of prayer makes us so intimate with God that we scarcely pass through an experience before we speak to Him about it, either in supplication, in sighing, in pouring out our woes before Him, in fervent requests, or in thanksgiving and adoration.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 172 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:17-18; Ps. 5:1; 18:49; 38:9; Luke 18:1; 21:36; Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 4:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with the spirit of prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: die to our will

Friday, June 26, 2015
Meditation:
    Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
    —Ephesians 6:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most perfect preparation for this future, whatever it may be, is to die to every will of our own, and yield ourselves wholly up to his; we shall in this frame of mind, be ready to receive all the grace suitable to whatever state it shall be the will of God to develop in and around us.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Progress: or, Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul, New York: M. W. Dodd, 1853, p. 79-80 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11-17; Matt. 6:24; 10:38; Mark 8:38; 10:21; Luke 9:23; 14:27; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 10:4; 12:9; 1 Thess. 5:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace fills up my weakness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Willard: what kind of gift?

Thursday, June 25, 2015
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:
    On the divine side, I assume that God has been willing and competent to arrange for the Bible, including its record of Jesus, to emerge and be preserved in ways that will secure his purposes for it among human beings worldwide. Those who actually believe in God will be untroubled by this. I assume that he did not and would not leave his message to humankind in a form that can only be understood by a handful of late-twentieth-century professional scholars, who cannot even agree among themselves on the theories that they assume to determine what the message is. The Bible is, after all, God’s gift to the world through the Church, not to the scholars.
    ... Dallas Willard (1935-2013), The Divine Conspiracy, HarperCollins, 1997, p. xvi (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:11; Ps. 1:2; 12:6; 19:7-11; 119:89; Luke 24:27,45; John 5:39-40; Rom. 1:1-4; 3:1-2; 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Col. 3:16; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Heb. 4:12; Jas. 1:21-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word leads me to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: the foolishness of atheism

Wednesday, June 24, 2015
    Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”
    —Luke 12:25-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster?
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. V, London: Ogle, Duncan & Co., 1822, Sermon XX, p. 298-299 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:25-26; Pr. 16:33; Matt. 5:36; 6:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your purposes fill the earth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Simeon: humility

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
    Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678
Meditation:
    Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
    —Romans 7:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cannot have one spark of real humility till we are abased before God, as guilty, helpless, and undone creatures, who have no hope but in the tender mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We must, as far as respects all hope in ourselves, feel ourselves in the very condition of the fallen angels, whose sin we have followed, and whose punishment we are doomed to share. Indeed, indeed, this is our very state, whether we know it or not: and it becomes us to seek the knowledge of it, and to live under a sense of it every day, and all the day long. We should never appear either before God or man in any other dress than this.
    ... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Horae Homileticae, v. XX, London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1833, p. 270 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 7:9-10; Isa. 6:5; Eph. 2:12-13; Heb. 11:1; 1 Pet. 1:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is no hope for me apart from You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eliot: The dove descending breaks the air

Monday, June 22, 2015
    Feast of Alban, first Martyr of Britain, c.209
Meditation:
    Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”
    —John 1:32-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
    ... T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), from Four Quartets, The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1952, p. 143-144 (see the book)
    See also John 1:23-33; Deut. 4:24; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21-22; Acts 2:2-3; Heb. 12:28-29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You burn within me.

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Smith: what if

Sunday, June 21, 2015
Meditation:
Even though I walk
    through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
    —Psalm 23:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the “high tower” of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be “quiet from the fear of evil,” for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the “high tower” of God. Even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the psalmist could say, “I will fear no evil”; and, if we are dwelling in God, we can say so too.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), God of All Comfort, ch. 8 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 23:4-6; Matt. 6:27; Luke 12:25-26; Phil. 4:6-7; 1 Pet. 5:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take away all anxiety. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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