St. Basil: the uses of hope

Saturday, January 2, 2016
    Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
    Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
    For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
    —Hebrews 6:10-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The labours of the farm do not seem strange to the farmer; the storm at sea is not unexpected by the sailor; sweat causes no wonder to the hired labourer; and so to those who have chosen to live the life of piety the afflictions of this world are not unforeseen. Nay, to each of the aforesaid is joined a labour that is appropriate and well known to those who share it—a labour that is not chosen for its own sake, but for the enjoyment of expected blessings. For hopes, which hold and weld together man’s entire life, give consolation for the hardships which fall to the lot of each of these.
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), Saint Basil, the Letters, tr. Roy Joseph Deferrari, Martin Rawson, Patrick McGuire, London: William Heinemann, 1950, p. 119 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:10-12; Deut. 32:4; Ps. 23:4; Matt. 10:42; 25:40; Mark 9:41; John 13:20; 16:32-33; Acts 10:4; 14:21-22; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 8:1-2; 2 Thess. 1:6-7; 2 Tim. 1:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let that hope bloom ever greater in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Markham: Christus

Friday, January 1, 2016
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
    —John 5:30 (ESV)
Quotation:
Why does He make our hearts so strangely still,
    Why stands He forth so stately and so tall?
Because He has no self to serve, no will
    That does not seek the welfare of the All.
    ... Edwin Markham (1852-1940), New Poems: eighty songs at eighty, Doubleday, Doran, 1933, p. 99 (see the book)
    See also John 5:30; Matt. 11:28-30; John 4:34; 5:19; 6:38; 8:15-16,28,50; 14:10; 17:4; Rom. 2:2; 8:28; 15:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Empty me, Lord, of all selfish ambition. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Wycliffe: in praise of the Psalter

Thursday, December 31, 2015
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
    until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.”
    —Psalm 110:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Psalter comprehendeth all the Old and New Testament, and teacheth plainly the mysteries of the Trinity, and of Christ’s incarnation, passion, rising again, [ascending] in to heaven, and sending down of the Holy Ghost, and preaching of the Gospel, and the coming of Antichrist, and the [leadership] of Christ, and the glory of chosen men to bliss, and the pains of him who should be damned in hell; and oft rehearseth the stories of the Old Testament, and bringeth in the keeping of God’s [commands], and love of enemies... Well were him that could well understand the Psalter, and keep it in his living, and say it devoutly...; for many men that say it undevoutly and live out of charity, lie foully of himself to God, and blaspheme him, when they cry it full loud to men’s ears in the church. Therefore God gave grace to us to live well in charity, and say it devoutly, and understand it truly, and to teach it openly.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments, v. 1, Prologue, Oxford University Press, 1850, p. 37 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 110:1; 2; 22; 23; 51:11; 110:4; 118:25-26; Matt. 21:9; Luke 20:42-43; John 6:31; 10:11; Heb. 2:6-8; 7:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed Your words of praise and knowledge on our lips. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Tozer: facing the new year

Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Meditation:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
...
A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
    —Psalm 91:1,7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Warfare of the Spirit, Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1993, p. 148 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 91:1-7; 23:4-6; 27:4; 37:7; 84:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You I am safe. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

MacDonald: the way out of the dungeon

Tuesday, December 29, 2015
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
    —Mark 12:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Love of our neighbour is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe. The man thinks his consciousness is himself; whereas his life consisteth in the inbreathing of God, and the consciousness of the universe of truth. To have himself, to know himself, to enjoy himself, he calls life; whereas, if he would forget himself, tenfold would be his life in God and his neighbours. The region of man’s life is a spiritual region. God, his friends, his neighbours, his brothers all, is the wide world in which alone his spirit can find room. Himself is his dungeon.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Love thy neighbour”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 214 (see the book)
    See also Mark 12:31; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39; Rom. 13:9-10; Gal. 5:14; Jas. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me the way out of myself. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Whitefield: free grace alone

Monday, December 28, 2015
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
    —James 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To check therefore all suggestions to spiritual pride, let us consider, that we did not apprehend Christ, but were apprehended of him. That we have nothing but what we have received. That the free grace of God has alone made the difference between us and others; and, was God to leave us to the deceitfulness of our own hearts but one moment, we should become weak and wicked, like other men. We should farther consider, that being proud of grace, is the most ready way to lose it.
    ... George Whitefield (1714-1770), The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., v. VI, London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772, p. 247 (see the book)
    See also John 15:15-16; Acts 10:41; Rom. 9:15-16; 2 Cor. 2:11; Jas. 4:6; 1 John 4:10,19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am clay. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Law: narrow enough?

Sunday, December 27, 2015
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If there is nothing in my life and conversation that shows me to be different from ... Heathens; if I use the world, and worldly enjoyments, as the generality of people now do, and in all ages have done; why should I think that I am amongst those few who are walking in the narrow way to heaven?
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 32 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:13-14; 5:16,46-47; John 12:36; Eph. 2:1-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me to the narrow path. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah