Bernard of Clairvaux: love

Saturday, August 20, 2016
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
    —1 John 5:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Honor and glory are indeed due to God and to Him alone, but He will accept neither of them if they be not preserved in the honey of love. Love is sufficient of itself; it pleases by itself and on its own account. It is itself merit and is itself its own reward. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit. It is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love that I may love. Love is a great thing provided it recurs to its beginning, returns to its origin, and draws always from that fountain which is perpetually in flood. Of all the feelings and affections of the soul, love is the only one by which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to respond to the Creator and to repay what it has received from Him... For when God loves us He desires nothing but to be loved. He loves for no other reason, indeed, than that He may be loved, knowing that by their love itself those who love Him are blessed.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Cantica Canticorum (Sermons of the Song of Songs), in Bernard of Clairvaux: selected works, Gillian Rosemary Evans, tr., Paulist Press, 1987, 83:4, p. 272-273 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:1-3; Mark 12:32-34; Rom. 5:5; 8:28; Rev. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, quicken love within me, that I may love You above everything. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Peabody: the decisive factor

Friday, August 19, 2016
Meditation:
    Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
    —Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    However important it may be to have a creed that is sound or an emotion that is warm, the Christian life, according to the Gospels, is primarily determined by the direction of the will, the fixing of the desire, the habit of obedience, the faculty of decision. Are you determined in your purpose? Have you the will to do the will? Then, even with half a creed and less than half a pious ecstasy, you are at least in the line of the purpose of Jesus Christ, and as you will to do the will, may come some day to know the teaching.
    ... F. G. Peabody, Mornings in the College Chapel, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1907, p. 201-202 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:21; Isa. 30:20-21; Jer. 31:33-34; Matt. 11:26-27; Mark 4:23; John 10:27; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 11:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, press me towards obedience, that I may learn Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Selden: giving to God

Thursday, August 18, 2016
Meditation:
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
    let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
    and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all the peoples see his glory.
    —Psalm 97:1-6 (ESV)
Quotation:
    All things are God’s already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service: just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord’s before as now.
    ... John Selden (1584-1654), Table-Talk [1689], Whitefriars: Davidson, 1821, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 97:1-6; 93:1; 96:10-11; 99:1; Obad. 1:21; Matt. 6:10; Luke 17:7-10; Rev. 11:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You own everything. All my possessions are at Your disposal for the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sundar Singh: how the center stays dry

Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Meditation:
    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
    “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
    Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
    “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
    lest they see with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart, and turn,
    and I would heal them.”
    —John 12:37-40 (ESV)
Quotation:
    While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh, Friedrich Heiler & Olive Wyon, G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1927, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also John 12:37-40; Isa. 6:9-10; 53:1; Matt. 11:20; 13:3-23; Luke 16:31; John 1:11; 9:39; 15:24; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be instrumental in breaking the hard shell of indifference for those whom You choose. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: God's action, our reaction

Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Meditation:
    And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
    —John 12:44-48 (ESV)
Quotation:
    By a man’s reaction to Jesus Christ, that man stands revealed. By his reaction to Jesus Christ his soul is laid bare. If he regards Christ with love, even with wistful yearning, for him there is hope; but if in Christ he sees nothing lovely he has condemned himself. He who was sent in love has become to the man, judgment.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John, v. 1, Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1965, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also John 12:44-48; Matt. 10:40; Mark 9:37; John 13:20; 1 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I want to see You, my Savior. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: better sermons

Monday, August 15, 2016
Meditation:
    Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
    —1 Timothy 4:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... I heard a good man say long since, “Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame, if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.”
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. IV, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1826, p. 24 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 4:13-16; Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2; 77:12; 119:15; Phil. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to ever deeper knowledge of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buchanan: the one New-Testament church

Sunday, August 14, 2016
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
    And I will show you a still more excellent way.
    —1 Corinthians 12:27-31 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The doctrine of the “body” in First Corinthians... is a picture of the local church, [which] is distinguished by a great variety of gifts, outlooks, and cultures. The various members belong organically to each other in Christ, and are to exhibit that harmony practically in their common life. The recognition of how they differ from each other, and are yet one, is to enrich their worship, inspire their ministry, and quicken their love. To divide the local church is... to witness to a divided Christ, or to a discipleship to lesser masters than Christ, such as Paul or Apollos. Both implications are equally unthinkable. There is no New Testament pattern of serving the one Christ, except in one local body, formed by the incorporation given in the one baptism, and the continued life sustained by breaking and sharing the one bread.
    ... C. O. Buchanan (b. 1934), “The Unity of the Church”, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 117-118 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:27-31; Acts 2:42; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17; Gal. 3:26-28; Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant us unity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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