Guinness: the offense of the Cross

Saturday, November 14, 2015
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    “Teacher,” he declared, “all these [commandments] I have kept since I was a boy.”
    Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
    —Mark 10:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In an age when comfort and convenience are unspoken articles of our modern bill of rights, the Christian faith is not a license to entitlement, a prescription for an easy-going spirituality, or a how-to manual for self-improvement. The cross of Jesus runs crosswise to all our human ways of thinking. A rediscovery of the hard and the unpopular themes of the gospel will therefore be such a rediscovery of the whole gospel that the result may lead to reformation and revival.
    ... Os Guinness (b. 1941), Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, Baker Books, 2003, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also Mark 10:20-21; Matt. 7:13-14; 18:2-3; 19:20-21; Luke 13:23-24; 18:21-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your Cross be known to all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Simeon: to carry the cross

Friday, November 13, 2015
    Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Meditation:
    As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.
    —Matthew 27:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Many years ago, when I was an object of much contempt and derision in this University, I strolled forth one day buffeted and afflicted with my little Testament in my hand. I prayed earnestly to my God, that He would comfort me with some cordial from his word, and that on opening the book I might find some text which should sustain me... The first text which caught my eye was this, “They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his Cross.” You know Simon is the same name as Simeon. What a word of instruction was here—what a blessed hint for my encouragement! To have the Cross laid upon me, that I might bear it after Jesus—what a privilege! It was enough. Now I could leap and sing for joy as one whom Jesus was honouring with a participation in His sufferings.
    ... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, Pittsburgh: R. Carter, 1847, p. 395 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 14:27; 23:26; 2 Cor. 1:5; 4:10; Phil. 3:10-11; Col. 1:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable me to carry the cross. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gwatkin: misunderstanding the gospel

Thursday, November 12, 2015
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
    —Matthew 5:21-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is a complete misunderstanding of the Gospel if we find the substance of it in the moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Lofty as that teaching is, the speaker’s claims are still more commanding... Christ’s Person, not his teaching, is the message of the Gospel. If we know anything for certain about Jesus of Nazareth, it is that he steadily claimed to be the Son of God, the redeemer of mankind, and the ruler of the world to come, and by that claim the Gospel stands or falls.
    ... Henry M. Gwatkin (1844-1916), Early Church History to A.D. 312, v. I, London: Macmillan, 1912, p. 54 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:21-22,27-28,31-39,43-44; 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 6:26-27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carson: how we understand

Wednesday, November 11, 2015
    Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397
Meditation:
    None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
    —1 Corinthians 2:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There has not only been an objective, public act of divine self-disclosure in the crucifixion of God’s own Son, but there must also be a private work of God, by his Spirit, in the mind and heart of the individual. That is what distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, the “mature” from the people of this age and the rulers of this age. If we “see” the truth of the gospel, therefore, it has nothing to do with our brilliance or insight; it has to do with the Spirit of God. If we should express unqualified gratitude to God for the gift of his Son, we should express no less gratitude to God for the gift of the Spirit who enables us to grasp the gospel of his Son...
    Unless the Spirit enlightens us, God’s thoughts will remain deeply alien to us.
    ... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), The Cross and Christian Ministry: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians, Baker Book, 2004, p. 52,61 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 2:8-10,14; Matt. 11:25-27; 13:11; 16:17; Luke 10:21; Eph. 3:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we know You through Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nouwen: compassion

Tuesday, November 10, 2015
    Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461
Meditation:
    He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.
    —Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For a compassionate man nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.
    This compassion is authority because it does not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries between languages and countries, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the large world where they can see every human face is the face of a neighbor. Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility of man to forgive his brother, because forgiveness is only real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friends and the sins of his enemy in his own heart.
    ... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society [1979], New York: Doubleday, 2013, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 19:17; Matt. 9:36; Rom. 12:15; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 4:15; 5:2; 13:3; 1 Pet. 3:8; 1 John 3:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am weak and sinful, like those to whom You send me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: the grand fact

Monday, November 9, 2015
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
    —Ephesians 1:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The grandest fact under heaven is this—that Christ by his precious blood does actually put away sin, and that God, for Christ’s sake, dealing with men on terms of divine mercy, forgives the guilty and justifies them, not according to anything that he sees in them or foresees will be in them, but according to the riches of his mercy which lie in his own heart.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), All of Grace, New York: R. Carter, 1886, p. 22 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 1:7-8; Ps. 25:7; 103:10; Matt. 1:21; 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Gal. 1:3-5; 1 Tim. 1:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your mercy is full. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pinnock: recalling the existential darkness

Sunday, November 8, 2015
    Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
Meditation:
    Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
    —Isaiah 9:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    H. J. Blackham, formerly director of the British Humanist Association, posed the great problem to his own position as “the pointlessness of it all.” How can one escape from the “unyielding despair” of Bertrand Russell, the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the absurdity of Jean-Paul Sartre if at the foundations of our existence there is nothing but blind chance. There is, indeed, a certain bleakness to humanism, for God has been removed and nothing comparable has yet been found to take his place.
    It is easy for believers to forget this, sustained as they are by such powerful symbols of hope: the love of the Father, the plan of salvation, the coming of the kingdom, and everlasting life. But they must not allow themselves to forget it for the sake of those who lack these supports and are searching for these foundations. Christians who have been converted early in their lives and never go through the experience of existential darkness before entering into the light of God’s coming kingdom have much to learn about these feelings of despair and doubt.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010), Reason Enough, Exeter: Paternoster, 1980, p. 24-25 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 9:1-2; Ps. 107:10-14; Isa. 42:6-7; 60:1-3; Matt. 4:15-16; Luke 2:30-32; 1 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You grant us the words to speak to those without hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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