Merton: the most personal contact

Saturday, December 10, 2016
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
In my anguish I cried to the LORD,
    and he answered by setting me free.
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?
    —Psalm 118:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth, and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help that we all need. The man whose prayer is so pure that he never asks God for anything does not know who God is, and does not know who he is himself: for he does not know his own need of God.
    All true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on the Lord of life and death. It is, therefore, a deep and vital contact with Him whom we know not only as Lord but as Father. It is when we pray truly that we really are. Our being is brought to a high perfection by this.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 118:5-6; 46:1; 56:11; 146:5-6; Rom. 8:26-27,31; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, wring from me the prayer of the heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the successful missionary

Friday, December 9, 2016
Meditation:
    For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
    —2 Thess. 3:7-9 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The missionary work of the non-professional missionary is essentially to live his daily life in Christ, and therefore with a difference, and to be able to explain, or at least to state, the reason and cause of the difference to men who see it. His preaching is essentially private conversation, and has at the back of it facts, facts of a life which explain and illustrate and enforce his words...
    It is such missionary work, done consciously and deliberately as missionary, that the world needs today. Everybody, Christian and pagan alike, respects such work; and, when it is so done, men wonder, and inquire into the secret of a life which they instinctively admire and covet for themselves... The spirit which inspires love of others and efforts after their well-being, both in body and soul, they cannot but admire and covet, unless, indeed, seeing that it would reform their own lives, they dread and hate it, because they do not desire to be reformed. In either case, it works.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Non-Professional Missionaries, privately printed, 1929, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 84 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:7-9; Acts 18:2-3; 20:34; 1 Cor. 4:12-13; 9:12; 2 Cor. 11:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me to show forth Your grace to one who needs it today. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Backhouse and Jansen: the impregnable temple

Thursday, December 8, 2016
Meditation:
    But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
    —Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
Quotation:
    It is of great importance that you endeavour, at all times, to keep your hearts in peace; that you may keep pure that temple of God. The way to keep it in peace is to enter into it by means of inward silence. When you see yourself more sharply assaulted, retreat into that region of peace; and you will find a fortress that will enable you to triumph over all your enemies, visible and invisible, and over all their snares and temptations. Within your own soul resides divine aid, and sovereign succour. Retreat within it, and all will be quiet, secure, peaceable, and calm. Thus, by means of mental silence, which can only be attained with divine help, you may look for tranquillity in tumult: solitude in company; light in darkness; forgetfulness in pressures: vigour in despondency; courage in fear; resistance in temptation; and quiet in tribulation.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Mme. Guyon (1648-1717), William Backhouse (1779/80-1844) & James Jansen (1784-1821), A Guide to True Peace [1813], Pendle Hill by Harper & Brothers, 1946, p. 47-48 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 40:31; Ps. 46:10; 103:2-5; Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13; 2 Cor. 4:16; 12:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rest my eyes on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ambrose: obedience unto death

Wednesday, December 7, 2016
    Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
    —John 10:17-18 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It is a great mystery of divine love, that not even in Christ was exception made of the death of the body; and although He was the Lord of nature, He refused not the law of the flesh which He had taken upon Him. It is necessary for me to die; for Him it was not necessary.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. X, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1896, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also John 10:17-18; Isa. 53:10-12; Hos. 13:14; Matt. 23:53-56; John 2:19-21; 19:11; Acts 2:24; Phil. 2:6-8; Heb. 2:9, 14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You have become one of us, that we may become like You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Target: evangelism

Tuesday, December 6, 2016
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
    —Acts 2:37-39 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The paradox is that a genuine “love for souls” which allows itself to be diverted by fashionable modes into a mere “winning” of them to this or that mutually exclusive version of the “Truth,” very often descends to a use of people for more-or-less irrelevant ends (already an evil), and can then so easily degenerate into a total misuse of people for alleged evangelical “results” with the consequent loss of all respect for people and their souls, and the withering of the original concern and love.
    ... G. W. Target (b. 1924), Evangelism Inc., London: Penguin Press, 1968, p. 88 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:37-39; Phil. 1:15; 1 Cor. 1:22-23; 9:19-23; 2 Cor. 4:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the heart that loves the lost. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: made for God or not?

Monday, December 5, 2016
Meditation:
    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
    —Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God?
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #438, p. 150 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 1:26-27; Matt. 10:22; Acts 17:23; Rom. 1:20-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your likeness is both burden and blessing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hoskyns: ignoring Biblical discipline

Sunday, December 4, 2016
    Advent II
    Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637
Meditation:
    Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
    —1 Timothy 4:13-16 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Owing to the pressure of an ever-increasing number of subjects introduced into the curriculum of a school, it is only too possible for men to be held to be educated and intelligent without ever having seriously tested their intelligence upon, say, the Book of Job, or upon the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. No doubt there are very good excuses for this lack of discipline. Many forward-thinking men will tell you that the Bible is not worth serious attention, that it is simple, trivial, and out-of-date; and so, even though you may hear the Bible read, read it yourselves, or even study it, the tension of your energy may be relaxed—subtly relaxed. But it is quite certain that a widespread relaxation of the tension of Biblical interpretation has disastrous effects. For there is no corruption that threatens a country so surely as the corruption or sentimentalizing of its religion; and there is no corruption of the Christian religion so swift as that which sets in when the Church loses its strict Biblical discipline.
    ... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We are the Pharisees, London: SPCK, 1960, p. 5 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 4:13-16; Ps. 21; Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 4:22; 1 John 5:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open Scripture to me that I may understand Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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