Moule: unity

Saturday, December 3, 2016
    Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
    —John 17:22-23 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Poor and unsatisfying are the results where “Unity,” “Corporate Life,” and the like are the perpetual watchwords, but where they bear a primary reference to order, function, and succession in the ministry of the Church. One can not but ask the question sometimes, when contemplating phenomena of an ardent ecclesiasticism, is this the worthy goal of ten thousand efforts, of innumerable assertions of “catholicity”—this spirit and tone, these enterprises and actions, so little akin either to the love or to the simplicity, the openness, of the heavenly Gospel? Suppose such unity to be attained to the uttermost, beyond even the dreams of Rome: would it contribute at all to making “the world believe that the Father hath sent the Son, and hath loved us even as He loved Him”?
    ... Handley Moule (1841-1920), Ephesians Studies, New York: A. C. Armstrong, 1900, p. 184-185 (see the book)
    See also John 17:22-23; Matt. 9:10-13; John 14:20; 1 John 3:24; 4:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the center of all that happens. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: danger in contentment

Friday, December 2, 2016
Meditation:
I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous,
    and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
    —Psalm 119:75 (ESV)
Quotation:
    This insensibility of ours is a bad symptom. For one thing, it implies that we have no spiritual ambition, else we should not be satisfied with such poor lives; that we cannot have thought out the fact of Jesus Christ, and how immeasurably He has raised the standard. Will you hang your wretched daubs beside the works of Titian and Michelangelo and not be shamed by the enormous contrast, stand back and say, with a satisfied smirk, “That is pretty good, you know!” And can you live face to face with Jesus Christ, and be content with what you are?
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 31 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:75; Hos. 8:1; Phil. 4:11-13; Heb. 12:3-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am ashamed of my sins. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: the unexplored audience

Thursday, December 1, 2016
    Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916
Meditation:
    So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
    —1 Peter 5:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Beautiful sanctuaries, paved parking lots, and new liturgies will do very little for people who sit in worship with their fingers crossed and do not really believe the faith which is expounded. Often the layman dismisses what the preacher says as something irrelevant to his situation and generation. When he joins a group where he is no longer afraid to be frank, the supposedly faithful member often admits that he has never really accepted what he thinks he has heard. He has, for example, grave reservations about the idea of creation. Did not the world evolve of itself? Do we really need the hypothesis of Infinite Purpose to make sense of the physical, biological, and psychological development? These questions seldom come to the surface when the Church provides merely a one-way preaching. There is little chance of renewal if all that we have is the arrangement by which one speaks and the others listen. One trouble with this conventional system is th at the speaker never knows what the unanswered questions are, or what reservations remain in the layman’s mentality.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Incendiary Fellowship, New York: Harper, 1967, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 5:1-3; Eze. 34:4; Matt. 20:25-26; 23:8-10; Mark 10:42-45; Luke 22:25-27; 1 Cor. 3:5; 2 Cor. 4:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant my pastor and my elders wisdom, discernment, and a listening ear. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: He was the Word

Wednesday, November 30, 2016
    Feast of Andrew the Apostle
Meditation:
    Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
    “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
    —John 6:32-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
He was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that Word did make it
I do believe, and take it.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), but also ascribed by contemporaries to Elizabeth I (see the book)
    See also John 6:32-35, 47-51; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:23-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: not as the world gives

Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Meditation:
    You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
    —Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    He who has found his soul’s life in God is happy—not in truth with perfect happiness; that is not granted to men in this world, but a foretaste thereof—he has a secret joy which is beyond the reach of temptation, unrest and sorrow; a quiet confidence and steadfastness which abide even while the waves and storms of life sweep over him... When the soul has sincerely given itself up to God, He fills it with His own peace, a peace which makes all earthly things indifferent—as before His Presence, absorbing the heart. It is our strength, our comfort, our guide, the deeper and more confirmed it becomes, the greater our spiritual perfection; so that in truth to obtain and preserve this peace is the real secret of the interior life.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 143,145-146 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 26:3; Ps. 85:8; John 14:27; 16:33; Eph. 2:14; Phil. 4:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your Presence is my peace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Olds: the bottomless purse

Monday, November 28, 2016
Meditation:
    Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
    —Luke 17:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is through dying to concern for self that we are born to new life with God and others; in such dying and rebirth, we find that life is lent to be spent; and in such spending of what we are lent, we find there is an infinite supply.
    ... Glenn Olds
    See also Luke 17:33; Matt. 10:39; Rom. 6:4-13; 7:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your mercy is inexhaustible. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: Speech in season and out

Sunday, November 27, 2016
    Advent I
Meditation:
    When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
    —Matthew 10:19 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Ability of speech in time and season is an especial gift of God, and that eminently with respect unto the spiritual things of the Gospel; but a profluency of speech, venting itself on all occasions and on no occasions, making men open their mouths wide when indeed they should shut them and open their ears, and to pour out all that they know and what they do not know, making them angry if they are not heard and impatient if they are contradicted, is an unconquerable fortification against all true spiritual wisdom.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 459 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:19-20; Mark 12:36; Luke 21:14-15; 2 Tim. 4:17; Jas. 1:26; 3:5-10; 1 Pet. 3:10; 2 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a good listener. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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