Moody: Jesus is the light

Saturday, January 21, 2017
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
    —Psalm 23:4 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The valley of the shadow of death holds no darkness for the child of God. There must be light, else there could be no shadow. Jesus is the light. He has overcome death.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899)
    See also Ps. 23:4; Isa. 25:8; Hos. 13:14; Matt. 4:15-16; Luke 20:36; John 1:9-14; 8:12; 16:33; 1 Cor. 15:26,55; 2 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 21:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Jesus, my light! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Drummond: the urgency of loving

Friday, January 20, 2017
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
    “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
    “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”
    —Matthew 18:4-7 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Some of us have not much time to lose [to begin loving]. Remember, once more, that this is a matter of life or death. I cannot help speaking urgently, for myself, for yourselves. “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” That is to say, it is the deliberate verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to have lived than not to love.
    ... Henry Drummond (1851-1897), “The Greatest Thing in the World”, in Addresses, H. Altemus, 1891, p. 46-47 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:4-7; Mark 9:41; Luke 9:48; 17:1-2; 1 Cor. 13:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart of love, a heart like Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: temporal vs. eternal

Thursday, January 19, 2017
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
    —Matthew 19:21-22 (ESV)
Quotation:
    For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.iii.3, p.118 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 19:16-26; Ps. 49:16-19; Matt. 6:5-6; 13:22; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 12:15-21; 18:18-27; 1 Tim. 6:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You admonish my sloth. Grant that I may be energetic in the causes of the Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: love and giving

Wednesday, January 18, 2017
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
    —Luke 12:33-34 (ESV)
Quotation:
    One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), attributed (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:33-34; Matt. 6:1-4; 1 Cor. 13; 2 Cor. 8:7-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create a heart in me like Christ’s. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: praying in His name

Tuesday, January 17, 2017
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
    —John 14:13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Many people have a very strangely childish notion, that “praying in the name of Christ” means simply the addition of the words “through Jesus Christ our Lord” at the end of their prayers. But depend upon it, they do not by adding these words, or any words, bring it about that their prayers should be in the name of Christ. To pray in the name of Christ means to pray in such a way as represents Christ. The representative always must speak in the spirit and meaning of those for whom he speaks. If Christ is our representative, that must be because He speaks our wishes, or what we ought to make our wishes; and if we are to pray in the name of Christ, that means that we are, however far off, expressing His wishes and intentions.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Sermon on the Mount [1910], London: John Murray, 1905, p. 132-133 (see the book)
    See also John 14:13; Matt. 7:5; 21:22; Mark 11:24; Luke 11:9; John 15:16; 16:23,26-27; 1 John 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Help me, Lord, never to speak Your Name in vain as I pray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hammarskjold: life from God

Monday, January 16, 2017
Meditation:
    [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
    —Acts 17:26-28 (ESV)
Quotation:
    God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
    ... Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Markings, tr. Leif Sjöberg & W. H. Auden, (q.v.), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964 (post.), p. 56 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:26-28; Ps. 36:9; Luke 20:38; John 11:25-26; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    My only source of life is You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Shoemaker: the source of power

Sunday, January 15, 2017
Meditation:
    For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
    —Colossians 3:3 (KJV)
Quotation:
    True spiritual power of the Christian order is a kind of possessedness. It arises in and flows through a life hid with Christ in God. Its source is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the potency of the Holy Spirit. True spiritual power is the child of two parents: the truth as it is revealed in Jesus and our own experience resulting upon our acceptance of Him and His truth. The objective factor is that whole set of facts and truths, of historic events, and of interpretation of them, which is held by the church and set forth in the Bible. The subjective factor is what happens in the crucible of your life and mine when we accept the set of facts and truths and interpretations, and it begins to work in us.
    ... Samuel M. Shoemaker (1893-1963), Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1965, p. 138-139 (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:3; John 3:16; 4:13-14; 5:24; Rom. 6:8,11; 2 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 7:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your Spirit, help me to lay down my old life and take up the new one. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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