St. Hilary: precursor to eternity

Saturday, January 14, 2017
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
    —1 Corinthians 15:26 (KJV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    In this calm assurance of safety did my soul gladly and hopefully take its rest, and feared so little the interruption of death, that death seemed only a name for eternal life. And the life of this present body was so far from seeming a burden or affliction that it was regarded as children regard their alphabets, sick men their draughts, shipwrecked sailors their swim, young men the training for their profession, future commanders their first campaign; that is, as an endurable submission to present necessities, bearing the promise of a blissful immortality.
    ... St. Hilary (ca. 300-367?), On the Trinity, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. IX, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1902, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:26; Isa. 25:7-8; Hos. 13:14; 2 Cor. 4:17-18; Rev. 21:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, this time in my body is the beginning of eternity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Hilary: the death of death

Friday, January 13, 2017
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
    —1 Corinthians 15:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He took upon Him the flesh in which we have sinned, that by wearing our flesh He might forgive sins; a flesh which He shares with us by wearing it, not by sinning in it. He blotted out through death the sentence of death, that by a new creation of our race in Himself He might sweep away the penalty appointed by the former Law... For Scripture had foretold that He who is God should die; that the victory and triumph of them that trust in Him lay in the fact that He, who is immortal and cannot be overcome by death, was to die that mortals might gain eternity. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... St. Hilary (ca. 300-367?), On the Trinity, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. IX, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1902, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:21,26,53-55; Luke 20:35-36; 2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 5:5-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have conquered death forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grigg: faith

Thursday, January 12, 2017
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
    I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
    —Philemon 1:4-6 (ESV)
Quotation:
    “The clergy,” says Canon Rhymes, “are called to give to the laity the benefit of their theological understanding and so help them to account for and understand the faith which is in them.” But surely there is no point in trying to account for faith: the moment it is accounted for rationally, it is no longer faith. Those whose hearts are filled with the Christian spirit... are best left to proclaim the Gospel in their own words and, above all, through the example of their own lives.
    ... John Grigg (1924-2001)
    See also Philemon 1:4-6; 1 Thess. 1:6-8; 1 Pet. 2:11,12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gift of faith has no equal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the workings of the self

Wednesday, January 11, 2017
    Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
Meditation:
    If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
    —Galatians 5:25-26 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Covetousness, pride, and envy are not three different things, but only three different names for the restless workings of one and the same will or desire...
    Wrath, which is a fourth birth from these three, can have no existence till one or all of these three are contradicted, or have something done to them that is contrary to their will...
    These four properties generate ... their own torment. They have no outward cause, nor any inward power of altering themselves. And therefore all self or nature must be in this state until some supernatural good comes into it, or gets a birth in it...
    Whilst man indeed lives among the vanities of time, his covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath may be in a tolerable state, may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble: they may have at times their gratifications as well as their torments. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not born again of the Supernatural Word and Spirit of God, must find itself unavoidably devoured, or shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VIII, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 115-116 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:25-26; John 6:63; Rom. 8:1-2; Gal. 5:16; Phil. 2:1-3; 1 Pet. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me my pride, that I may know how I offend You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Atkinson: church focus

Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
    —Mark 8:36-38 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The Gospel commission is the key to all problems of church history, large or small. It is the key to the success or failure of the many organisations built up to form the channels of witness to the world. Churches, societies, individuals, ... have concerned themselves with this or that theological problem. They have made worship central instead of the Gospel commission. They have concerned themselves with their relations with the State. They have concentrated on philanthropy and social service. Wherever they have done this and have forgotten the purpose for which the Master has placed them in the world, wherever they have lost the Master’s vision of a perishing humanity, wherever they have become inattentive to the cry of spiritual anguish, the Spirit has passed them by, and when they have persisted He has extinguished the light of their witness. And the pages of church history are strewn with their wreckage. They may have shouted their loyal ty to Christ, they may even have suffered for Him. But if once they have forgotten that our Lord combined in a single phrase “for My sake and the Gospel’s,” devotion to Himself and loyalty to His commission, they have lost their influence and sunk into spiritual death.
    ... B. F. C. Atkinson (1895-1971), Valiant in Fight, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions, 1937, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Mark 8:35-38; Matt. 5:10-12; 19:29; Luke 6:22-23; Acts 9:15-16; 1 Cor. 9:23; 2 Tim. 1:8-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant an opening to share the Gospel with _____ and _____. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kilmer: Why do the nations rage?

Monday, January 9, 2017
Meditation:
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
    today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
    and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break[a] them with a rod of iron
    and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
    —Psalm 2:7-9 (ESV)
Quotation:
Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells
That the wind sways above a ruined shrine.
Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells
Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.

Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath
Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod.
They shall not live who have not tasted death.
They only sing who are struck dumb by God.
    ... Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), Joyce Kilmer: Memoir and Poems, v. I, New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918, p. 211 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 2:7-12; Matt. 11:4-5; Luke 1:28,59-64,67-79
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your reign begin in me.

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Elliot: to gain what he cannot lose

Sunday, January 8, 2017
    21st anniversary of CQOD
    Commemoration of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, martyrs, Ecuador, 1956
Meditation:
    For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
    —Philippians 1:21 (KJV)
Quotation:
    He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
    ... Jim Elliot (1927-1956), Shadow of the Almighty: the life & testament of Jim Elliot, Elisabeth Elliot, Harper, 1958, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 1:21; Matt. 10:39; Luke 18:29-30; John 3:16; Rom. 8:35-39; 2 Cor. 5:1; Col. 3:4; Rev. 14:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I place my life in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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