Whittier: one fixed trust

Saturday, April 16, 2016
Meditation:
O taste and see that the LORD is good:
    blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
    —Psalm 34:8 (KJV)
Quotation:
I see the wrong that round me lies,
    I feel the guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
    The world confess its sin.

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
    And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
    I know that God is good!
    ... John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), The Complete Poetical Works of Whittier, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894, p. 442 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:8; 36:10; 52:1; 84:12; 1 John 4:7-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have tasted Your goodness.

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MacDonald: the signs of His coming

Friday, April 15, 2016
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
    —Matthew 24:44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do those who say, lo here, or lo there, are the signs of His coming, think to be too keen for Him, and spy His approach? When He tells them to watch lest He find them neglecting their work, they stare this way and that, and watch lest He should succeed in coming like a thief!
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Word of Jesus on Prayer”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 61-62 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 24:44; 25:13; Mark 13:33-36; Luke 12:35-40; 1 Thess. 5:1-2; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 16:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I should always be prepared to receive you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Erasmus: where to write the Gospel

Thursday, April 14, 2016
Meditation:
    But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
    —Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV)
Quotation:
    You have... the Gospel written upon vellum; it deserv’d to be set with diamonds, except that the heart of a man were a fitter repository for it.
    ... Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), The Colloquies of Erasmus, v. I, tr. N. Bailey & ed. E. Johnson, London: Reeves & Turner, 1878, p. 197 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 31:33; Deut. 30:6; Ps. 40:8; Eze. 11:19; 36:26; Rom. 2:15; 2 Cor. 3:3; Heb. 8:10; 10:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is nothing good in me save what You have placed there. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chambers: drastic obedience

Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
    —John 9:4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it... Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit when... five minutes of drastic obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam. [We say,] “I suppose I shall understand these things some day.” You can understand them now: it is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of being “wise and prudent.”
    ... Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), My Utmost for His Highest, Leicester: F.A. Thorpe, 1927, p. 284 (see the book)
    See also John 9:4; Matt. 7:21-25; 11:25; 12:50; Luke 11:28; John 13:17; Acts 6:7; Jas. 1:22; 1 John 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I confess to wasting time on meaningless activities and hesitation. Grant me Your grace to focus my energies on following Your word and to let the rest go. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nathan: God of pity and love

Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Meditation:
    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    —John 1:14 (ESV)
Quotation:
God of pity and love, return to this earth.
Go not so far away, leaving us to evil.
Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil
Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth.
Death like a dog runs howling from his lair;
His bite has made men mad, they follow after
All howling too, and their demoniac laughter
Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer.
Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day,
Come with the light, that men may see once more
Across this earth’s uncomfortable floor
The kindly paths, the old and loving way.
Let us not die of evil in the night.
Let there be God again. Let there be light.
    ... Robert Nathan (1894-1985), Selected Poems of Robert Nathan, A. A. Knopf, 1935, p. xiii (see the book)
    See also John 1:14; Gen. 1:3; Isa. 9:2; John 1:19; 8:12; 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 22:20
Quiet time reflection:
    You took me out of darkness, Lord, and into Your light. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: seeking Him

Monday, April 11, 2016
    Commemoration of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878
Meditation:
    [Jesus] told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
    ”‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
        and ever hearing but never understanding;
    otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
    —Mark 4:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God wanted to redeem men and open the way of salvation to those who seek Him. But men make themselves so unworthy of it that it is only just that God should refuse to some, because of the hardness of heart, what He gives to others from a compassion that they do not deserve. If He had wanted to overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened, He could have done so by revealing Himself to them so obviously that they could not have doubted the truth of His Being—just as He will appear at the last day with such a clap of thunder and such an upheaval of nature that the dead will revive and the blindest will see.
    It is not in this way, however, that He willed to appear at His gentle coming: because so many men had made themselves unworthy of His mercy, He willed to leave them deprived of the good which they did not desire. And so it would not have been fair for Him to have appeared in an obviously divine manner, absolutely capable of convincing all men. But also it would not have been fair for Him to appear in a manner so hidden that even those who were sincerely seeking Him should not be able to recognize Him... So He has tempered His knowledge, by giving marks of Himself which were visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #430, p. 143-144 (see the book)
    See also Mark 4:11-12; Ex. 33:19; Isa. 6:9-10; Matt. 7:7; 11:25; 13:11-12; Luke 8:10; 10:21; Rom. 9:15-16; Jas. 1:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I pray that the blindness be lifted from ____ and ____, that they may see Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: reform or rebirth?

Sunday, April 10, 2016
    Feast of William Law, Priest, Mystic, 1761
    Commemoration of William of Ockham, Franciscan Friar, Philosopher, Teacher, 1347
    Commemoration of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Priest, Scientist, Visionary, 1955
Meditation:
    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
    —Romans 6:5-7 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Perfection [1726], London: W. Baynes, 1807, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:4-7; Isa. 26:13; John 8:34-36; Rom. 8:3-4; 12:1-2; Col. 2:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given me freedom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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