Wycliffe: understanding of Scripture

Saturday, December 31, 2016
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
    —1 Corinthians 13:13 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Christian men and women, old and young, should study well in the New Testament, for it is of full authority, and open to understanding by simple men, as to the points that are most needful to salvation. Each part of Scripture, both open and dark, teaches meekness and charity; and therefore he that keeps meekness and charity has the true understanding and perfection of all Scripture. Therefore, no simple man of wit should be afraid to study in the text of Scripture. And no cleric should be proud of the true understanding of Scripture, because understanding of Scripture without charity that keeps God’s commandments, makes a man deeper damned... and pride and covetousness of clerics is the cause of [the Church’s] blindness and heresy, and deprives them of the true understanding of Scripture.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Wycliffe: Select English Writings, AMS Press, 1976, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:13; Matt. 5:5; 22:43; Rom. 15:4; Gal. 3:8; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant in me a meek heart, that I may imitate our Savior throughout the coming year. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hanson: the nature of service

Friday, December 30, 2016
Meditation:
    Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
    —1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the last analysis, the service the Christian does is not his, but Christ’s. Therefore he must not feel too keenly the burden of responsibility, because at the end of the day all he can say is, “We are unprofitable servants.” This knowledge, far from inhibiting action, actually releases the Christian from that appalling feeling of responsibility that has driven so many high-minded humanists to despair, even to suicide... Work done conscientiously by the Christian is his share in Christ’s service; but it is Christ’s service, and therefore the Christian need neither be proud because it has succeeded or overwhelmed because it has failed. The service of Christ is supremely expressed in the apparent failure of the Cross.
    ... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 88-89 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:22-29; Rom. 14:4-8; Gal. 2:20; 1 Thess. 5:10; 1 Pet. 4:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant in me a heart for Christian service, to Your glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: a terrifying ignorance

Thursday, December 29, 2016
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    ... thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
    —Romans 15:20-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    To me there is a much more frightening ignorance in our modern world than the “ignorance of the heathen.” I am referring to the almost total ignorance of the content and implication of the Christian Faith shown by many “clever” people today. Frankly, I find it horrifying to discover that men who are experts in their own line, in astronomy, genetics, or nuclear physics, for example, have no adult knowledge of what the Church of Christ stands for, and a complete blank ignorance of what the Church is achieving today. It is the more horrifying because people who rightly respect the expert for his knowledge in his own field have no idea that he has not carefully examined and reluctantly discarded Christianity; but in all probability he has never studied it at all!
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), The Church Under the Cross, London: Macmillan, 1956, p. xii (see the book)
    See also Rom. 15:20-21; Isa. 52:15; 65:1; 2 Cor. 10:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let me not presume; lead me to speak the Gospel boldly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: Christ in the desert

Wednesday, December 28, 2016
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.
    —Isaiah 35:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation—a rock rising above the storm.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), The Life and Remains, Letters, Lectures, and Poems of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar, New York: R. Carter, 1866, p. 253 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 35; Hos. 14:5-6; John 7:38; Rom. 10:15; Rev. 19:6-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my years in the desert have ended with finding You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: the reason of everything

Tuesday, December 27, 2016
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    For by [the Son] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
    —Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus Christ is the end of all, and the centre to which all tends. Whoever knows Him knows the reason of everything.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #556, p. 185 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:16-17; John 1:3; 1 Cor. 8:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all praise be to You! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lloyd: the need to be forgiven

Monday, December 26, 2016
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.
    —Romans 4:5-8 (Message)
Quotation:
    If Christianity is what Jesus taught and lived and died for, then nothing can be truly the Gospel which lays less stress than he did upon every human being’s need of forgiveness by God, and upon our human need to be perpetually forgiving each other... Sooner or later, the modern adult man, like all other men everywhere, must come to know his need to be forgiven, and that by God.
    ... Roger Lloyd (1901-1966), The Ferment in the Church, London: SCM Press, 1964, p. 120-121 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 4:5-8; Ps. 32:1-2; 51:8-9; 85:2; Jer. 33:8; Mic. 7:18-20; Matt. 6:12,14-15; 9:2; 18:21-22; Luke 7:47-50; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 3:13
Quiet time reflection:
    I do not reject my sins strongly enough. Lord, lead me to deeper repentance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonar: a Bethlehem hymn

Sunday, December 25, 2016
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
    —Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV)
Quotation:
He has come! the Christ of God;—
Left for us His glad abode;
Stooping from His throne of bliss,
To this darksome wilderness.

He has come! the Prince of Peace;—
Come to bid our sorrows cease;
Come to scatter, with His light,
All the darkness of our night.

He, the Mighty King, has come!
Making this poor world His home;
Come to bear our sin’s sad load,—
Son of David, Son of God.

He has come whose name of grace
Speaks deliverance to our race;
Left for us His glad abode,—
Son of Mary, Son of God!

Unto us a Child is born!
Ne’er has earth beheld a morn
Among all the morns of time,
Half so glorious in its prime.

Unto us a Son is given!
He has come from God’s own heaven;
Bringing with Him, from above,
Holy peace and holy love.
    ... Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), Hymns of Faith and Hope, first series, New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1866, p. 160-161 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 9:6-7; 7:14; 1 John 4:2-3; Matt. 1:23; Luke 2:4-14; 1 Tim. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Hallelujah! and may the Lord richly bless you as we all receive Him in our hearts.

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