Calvin: to God be the glory

Saturday, July 16, 2016
    Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099
Meditation:
    At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.
    —2 Timothy 4:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must always speak of the efficacy of the ministry in such a manner that the entire praise of the work may be reserved for God alone.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, v. I, W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1948, p. 289 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 4:16-17; Matt. 10:29-31; 1 Cor. 9:1-12; Eph. 4:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit is the author of all true ministry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: Was Palestine the right choice?

Friday, July 15, 2016
    Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
    Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274
Meditation:
    But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
    —Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If we once accept the doctrine of the Incarnation, we must surely be very cautious in suggesting that any circumstance in the culture of first-century Palestine was a hampering or distorting influence upon His teaching. Do we suppose that the scene of God’s earthly life was selected at random?—that some other scene would have served better?
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The World’s Last Night [1960], Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 97 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 4:4-5; Gen. 49:10; Mal. 3:1; Mark 1:15; 1 Cor. 2:6-8; Eph. 1:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me from being seduced by the worldly authorities into doubting Your wisdom in all things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the unforgivable sin?

Thursday, July 14, 2016
    Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”
    —Luke 12:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some misapprehension, I say, some obliquity, or some slavish adherence to old prejudices, may thus cause us to refuse the true interpretation, but we are none the less bound to refuse and wait for more light. To accept that as the will of our Lord which to us is inconsistent with what we learned to worship in him already, is to introduce discord into that harmony whose end is to unite our hearts, and make them whole.
    “Is it for us,” says the objector who, by some sleight of will, believes in the word apart from the meaning for which it stands, “to judge the character of our Lord?” I answer, “This very thing he requires of us.” He requires of us that we should do Him no injustice. He would come and dwell with us, if we would but open our chambers to receive Him. How shall we receive Him if, avoiding judgment, we hold this or that daub of authority or tradition hanging upon our walls to ! be the real likeness of our Lord?
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “It Shall Not Be Forgiven”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 68-69 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:10; Ps. 34:8; Eze. 33:11; Matt. 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29; John 7:37-39; Heb. 10:26-29; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; 1 John 2:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know Your goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: the rewards of virtue

Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
    —Acts 20:35 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Do right, and God’s recompense to you will be the power of doing more right. Give, and God’s reward to you will be the spirit of giving more: a blessed spirit, for it is the Spirit of God Himself, whose Life is the blessedness of giving. Love, and God will pay you with the capacity of more love; for Love is Heaven—Love is God within you.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Expository Lectures on St. Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians, London: Smith, Elder, 1860, p. 481 (see the book)
    See also Acts 20:35; Matt. 10:8; Luke 14:12-14; 2 Cor. 8:16-24; 9:1-15; Heb. 13:1-2,16; 1 John 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send the Spirit of Love to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Erasmus: full-time Christianity

Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Meditation:
    We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    —Romans 6:9-11 (ESV)
Quotation:
    I take it that every Christian delivers himself up wholly to God in his baptism, when he renounces all the pomps and vanities of Satan, and enlists himself as a soldier to fight under Christ’s banner all his life after. And Saint Paul, speaking of those that die with Christ, that they may live no longer to themselves, but to Him that died for them; does not mean this of monks only, but of Christians universally.
    ... Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), The Colloquies of Erasmus, v. II, London: Reeves & Turner, 1878, p. 286 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:9-11; 14:7-8; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 5:15; Phil. 1:21; 1 Thess. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to a life lived for You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the will to goodness

Monday, July 11, 2016
    Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550
Meditation:
    And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
    —Romans 8:28 (KJV)
Quotation:
    No creature can be a child of God but because the goodness of God is in it; nor can it have any union or communion with the goodness of the Deity till its life is the Spirit of Love. This is the one only band of union betwixt God and the creature... Here the necessity is absolute; nothing will do instead of this will; all contrivances of holiness, all forms of religious piety, signify nothing, without this will to all goodness. For as the will to all goodness is the whole nature of God, so it must be the whole nature of every service or religion that can be acceptable to him.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VIII, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 5 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:28; Gen. 50:20; Ps. 46:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:15-17; 5:1; 1 Pet. 1:7-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are held in Your goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: true path to peace

Sunday, July 10, 2016
Meditation:
    Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
    —James 4:7-8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The soul which gives itself wholly and without reserve to God is filled with His own Peace; and inasmuch as we are prone to grow like that to which we are closely united, the closer we draw to our God, so much the stronger and more steadfast and more tranquil shall we become.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 2 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:7-8; Ps. 73:28; 145:18; Isa. 55:6-7; Hosea 6:1-2; Matt. 11:29; Rom. 14:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me what I may be in You. Grant this also to ____ and to ____, that they may have renewed peace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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