Bonhoeffer: for this world

Saturday, May 21, 2016
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
    —Romans 8:32 (KJV)
Quotation:
    What do I mean by “interpret in a religious sense?” In my view, that means to speak on the one hand metaphysically, and on the other individualistically. Neither of these is relevant to the Bible message or to the man of today. Is it not true to say that individualistic concern for personal salvation has almost completely left us all? Are we not really under the impression that there are more important things than bothering about such a matter? (Perhaps not more important than the matter itself, but more than bothering about it). I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But is it not, at bottom, even Biblical?... It is not with the next world that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved and set subject to laws and atoned for and made new. What is above the world is, in the Gospel, intended to exist for this world—I mean that not in the anthropocentric sense of liberal, pietistic, ethical theology, but! in the Bible sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 504 (see the book)
    See also Mark 12:28-31; Deut. 6:4; 10:12; 30:6; John 3:16-17; Rom. 8:32; 1 Tim. 1:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace saves our world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Henry: the meaning of affliction

Friday, May 20, 2016
Meditation:
    Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
    —Job 5:17-18 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.
    ... Matthew Henry (1662-1714), An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments [1828], Job 8, in loc. v. 1-7,II.2 (see the book)
    See also Job 5:17-18; 8:1-7; Matt. 5:11-12; Luke 6:22-23; Rom. 8:18; Jas. 5:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your healing to my broken life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Adams: Eternal Lord, how faint and small

Thursday, May 19, 2016
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
O LORD, you have searched me
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you know it completely, O LORD.
    —Psalm 139:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
Eternal Lord, how faint and small
Our greatest, strongest thoughts must seem
To Thee, who overseest all,
And leads us through Life’s shallow stream.

How tangled are our straightest ways;
How dimly flares our brightest star;
How earthbound is our highest praise
To Thee, who sees us as we are.

Our feet are slow where Thine are fast;
Thy kiss of grace meets lips of stone;
And we admit Thy love at last
To hearts that have none of their own.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985)
    See also Ps. 139:1-4; Matt. 22:36-37; Eph. 2:1-2; Rom. 5:5; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, spread Your love within my heart.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Bell: human depravity

Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Meditation:
    You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
    —1 Corinthians 7:23-24 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Whenever man decides that he is competent to do as he pleases he is soon enjoying Hell on earth, partly because much of what he pleases, except he know he must obey God, is low-down disgusting and partly because, even when he pleases to do something decent, he is mostly too weak-willed and too addle-pated to bring the same to good effect. Man must be redeemed by a power outside himself... I do not regard the overdetermined “optimists” as silly; they seem to me only the victims of a wishful thinking which disregards plain facts.
    ... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), God is Not Dead, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. xiv (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 7:23-24; Rom. 6:21; 7:5; 8:1,4-6; Eph. 5:3-5; Col. 3:5-6; Jas. 1:13-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rely on You for all goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Shoemaker: God at work in all things

Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Meditation:
    For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
    —1 Timothy 6:10-11 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Anybody with any maturity knows that an experienced Christian is more eager to have God use him than he is to use God for his own ends; but this does not mean that God is absent from the processes of business and livelihood, nor unconcerned about them, nor unable to reveal Himself through them. When we begin to look upon work, business, money, as potential sacraments through which God can work, we shall make better use of them.
    ... Samuel M. Shoemaker (1893-1963), The Experiment of Faith, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 6:10-11; Ps. 2:11; Rom. 12:11; Eph. 4:28; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:7-12; Tit. 3:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, sanctify the things in my life, so that they may serve You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Be Thou my vision

Monday, May 16, 2016
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
    —James 3:17 (ESV)
Quotation:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save what Thou art:
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise;
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all!
    ... Anonymous, medieval Irish hymn, Eriu, Journal of the School of Irish Learning, v. 2-3, Kuno Meyer, John Strachan, Dublin: School of Irish Learning, 1905, p.90 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 3:17; Isa. 6:9-10; 9:2; 60:1-2; 61:1-3; John 1:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I see by Your light!

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Phillips: God's Living Spirit

Sunday, May 15, 2016
    Pentecost
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
    —Acts 1:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every time we say, ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit,’ we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality, and change it.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Plain Christianity, London: Macmillan, 1954, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also Acts 1:8; Ps. 51:10; Acts 2:4; Rom. 5:5; 8:13-14; 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:12; Col. 3:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, conform me to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth