Calvin: firm knowledge

Saturday, September 5, 2015
Meditation:
    For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
    —2 Corinthians 5:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.ii.7, p. 496 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:4-5; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:14-17; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:13-14; Heb. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed in my heart confidence in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: faith in Christ alone

Friday, September 4, 2015
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
    Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
    —Matthew 9:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All that Christ wanted was faith in Himself. He had no interest in any institutional organization with worldly offices and laws. Neither did He give any dogmas or creeds which may be used to distinguish believers from non-believers. When He praised the faith of people, it was not because of their orthodox theology, or the fact that they belonged to some organization, but on account of their simple faith in His person.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 6 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 9:20-22; 8:5-13; 9:28-30; 15:22-28; Mark 5:25-34; 10:46-52; Luke 7:2-10,50; 8:43-48; 17:12-19; 18:35-43; John 9:35-38; 11:25-27,45; 12:44; 14:1; 1 Tim. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Marshall: mere belief

Thursday, September 3, 2015
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
    —James 2:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel no personal loyalty to Him at all—indeed, pay no attention whatever to His commandments and His will for one’s life. One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.
    ... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 71 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:19; Matt. 23:23-24; Rom. 1:18-23; 1 Cor. 8:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, touch the hearts of _____ and ____ that they may truly know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Messiaen: All encompassing in all places

Wednesday, September 2, 2015
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
    —Psalm 139:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
All encompassing in all places,
All encompassing in each place,
Bestowing being upon each place,
On all that occupies a place,

The successive for You is simultaneous,
In these spaces and times that you created,
Satellites of your Gentleness.
Alight yourself like a seal, on my heart.
    ... Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Three Small Liturgies of the Divine Presence [1944], Paris: Editions Durand & Cie., c1952, sec. III
    See also Ps. 139; Job 38:4-5; Ps. 20:6; Ps. 34:18; Matt. 4:17; Col. 1:27; Jas. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enfold me in Your Spirit.

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Baillie: disengaged

Tuesday, September 1, 2015
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 10:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The apologetic of the New Testament, and of the early centuries generally, was addressed to men who had been brought up within one or other of the great pre-Christian religious systems and who staunchly defended their own inherited traditions against the innovation of the Christian outlook; whereas any apologetic that is to be effective in this country today must be addressed to men who stand within the inheritance of the Christian tradition and know nothing, save by hearsay, of any other, but who have now in varying degrees disengaged themselves from this tradition and whose quarrel with Christianity is therefore undertaken from the point of view either of no religion at all or of some very vague and tenuous residuum of Christian religiosity.
    ... John Baillie (1886-1960), Invitation to Pilgrimage, Oxford University Press, 1942, and New York: Scribner, 1942, p. 7-8 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:1-12; Matt. 12:39; Acts 2:40; 17:21; Rom. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 4:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak to the present generation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bunyan: our Advocate

Monday, August 31, 2015
    Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
    Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
    Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Meditation:
    Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
    —Hebrews 7:23-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The advocateship of Jesus Christ declares us to be sorry creatures; for that office does, as it were, predict that some time or other we shall basely fall, and by falling be undone, if the Lord Jesus stand not up to plead. And as it shows this concerning us, so it shows concerning God that he will not lightly or easily lose his people. He has provided well for us—blood to wash us in; a priest to pray for us, that we may be made to persevere; and, in case we foully fall, an advocate to plead our cause, and to recover us from under, and out of all that danger, that by sin and Satan, we at any time may be brought into.
    ... John Bunyan (1628-1688), “The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate”, in The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. I, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 157-158 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 7:23-25; Ps. 23:3; Lam. 3:58; Rom. 8:34; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 1 John 2:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You are my only recourse. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: proof of conversion

Sunday, August 30, 2015
Meditation:
    The Lord told [Ananias], “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”
    —Acts 9:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Of all the evidences of the real work of the Spirit, a habit of hearty private prayer is one of the most satisfactory that can be named. A man may preach from false motives. A man may write books and make fine speeches and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is in earnest. The Lord himself has set his stamp on prayer as the best proof of true conversion.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), A Call to Prayer, published in the 1850’s as a pamphlet, American Tract Society, 1867, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Acts 9:11; Deut. 4:29; Ps. 32:6; 130:1-3; Pr. 15:8; Jon. 2:2; Luke 11:9-10; Acts 2:21; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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