Ignatius: the soldier's duty

Saturday, October 17, 2015
    Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
    —John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Toil together one with another, struggle together, run together, suffer together, lie down together, rise up together, as God’s stewards and assessors and ministers.
    Please the Captain in whose army ye serve, from whom also ye will receive your pay. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism abide with you as your shield; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as your body armor. Let your works be your deposits, that ye may receive your assets due to you.
    ... Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35-98?), Letter to Polycarp [ca. 108?], par. 6 (see the book)
    See also John 13:34-35; Ps. 68:17-18; Rom. 15:5-6; Eph. 4:3; 6:7-8,11-17; Col. 3:23-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, unite us by love in Your service. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baxter: spending time

Friday, October 16, 2015
Meditation:
    And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
    —Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Spend [time] in nothing which you know must be repented of. Spend it in nothing which you dare not, or may not warrantably pray for a blessing on from God.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. I, ed. William Orme, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 240 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:25-31; Ps. 4:4; 78:40; Matt. 5:22; Rom. 12:19-21; Jas. 1:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, guide me away from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: unity

Thursday, October 15, 2015
    Feast of Teresa of Avila, Mystic, Teacher, 1582
Meditation:
    There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
    —Ephesians 4:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Unity in Christ is not something to be achieved; it is something to be recognized.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), God Tells the Man Who Cares, Moody, 2006, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:4-6; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:44; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:12-13,20; Eph. 2:18; 5:29-30; Col. 3:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place the recognition of our unity in our hearts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watson: grace accounts for all

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Meditation:
    In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
    —Ephesians 1:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us then ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God’s will. God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us he makes us worthy. Proud men are apt to assume and arrogate too much to themselves, in being sharers with God. While many cry out of church-sacrilege, they are in the mean time guilty of a far greater sacrilege, in robbing God of his glory, while they go to set the crown of salvation upon their own head; but we must resolve all into God’s purpose. The signs of salvation are in the saints, but the cause of salvation is in God.
    ... Thomas Watson (c.1620-1686), A Divine Cordial [1657], Religious Tract Society, 1848, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 1:11-12; Ps. 100:3; John 15:16; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:26-30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone save. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wilberforce: God reigns alone

Tuesday, October 13, 2015
    Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066
Meditation:
    How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
    —Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Except the affections of the soul be supremely fixed on God, that unless it be the leading and governing desire and primary pursuit to possess his favour and promote his glory, we are considered as having transferred our fealty to an usurper, and as being, in fact, revolters from our lawful sovereign; if this be indeed the Scripture doctrine, all the several attachments which have been lately enumerated, of the different classes of society, wherever they interest the affections, and possess the soul in any such measure of strength as deserves to be called predominance, are but so many varied expressions of disloyalty. God requires to set up his throne in the heart, and to reign in it without a rival: if he be kept out of his right, it matters not by what competitor.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 163 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 52:7; 1 Chr. 16:31; Ps. 96:10; John 15:19; Rom. 10:10; 12:2; Gal. 1:10; Eph. 2:1-2; Col. 3:1-2; Heb. 3:12; 1 John 2:15; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, call me away from those things that distract me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: the consequences of the curse

Monday, October 12, 2015
    Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709
    Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845
Meditation:
    For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
    —Romans 8:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The life of this planet, and especially its human life, is a life in which something has gone wrong, and badly wrong. Every time we see an unhappy face, an unhealthy body, hear a bitter or despairing word, we are reminded of that. The occasional dazzling flashes of pure beauty, pure goodness, pure love which show us what God wants and what He is, only throw into more vivid relief the horror of cruelty, greed, oppression, hatred, ugliness.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings, Orbis Books, 2003, p. 37 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:20-22; Gen. 3:16-19; 5:29; Ps. 127:2; Eccl. 2:17; Isa. 24:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the only source of light. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Paton: God concerned for the wicked

Sunday, October 11, 2015
    Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675
Meditation:
    But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
    —Jonah 4:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To think of the Communists as the executors of God’s judgment should not strike us as strange if we have read our Bibles. The same study should free us from the assumption that God will always be on our side whatever we do, will always protect His Church from temporal evil, or that He is only concerned with the faithful believers. It was precisely His concern for the wicked Ninevites that so distressed the prophet Jonah.
    ... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also Jon. 4:10-11; Isa. 1:18-20; Luke 15:28-32; Acts 14:27; 17:29-30; Rom. 15:15-16; Eph. 2:1-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your plan is perfect. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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