Betz: faith over sight

Saturday, February 4, 2017
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
    Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
    Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
    —John 20:27-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus was the representative of the Lord who forgives sins and heals all infirmities; the disciples acknowledged him as “Lord” and transferred to him the position ascribed to the “Lord” in the Old Testament. Just as Jesus placed the penitent heart and the saving will of God higher than the pride of the godly and the letter of the Torah, so Paul preached faith in Christ as the only way to salvation and rejected striving after righteousness through the works of the Law. Above all, Jesus knew himself to be the Messiah and he acted in messianic authority; hence the risen and glorified Jesus was acknowledged as the king of the last days. It is still faith, not sight, that is demanded from men.
    ... Otto Betz (1917-2005), What Do We Know About Jesus?, translation of Was wissen wir von Jesus?, 1965, London, S.C.M. Press, 1968, p. 115 (see the book)
    See also John 20:27-29; Rom. 8:23-25; 1 Cor. 13:12; 2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7; Heb. 10:38; 11:1; 1 Pet. 1:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my weak faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: imperfect offerings

Friday, February 3, 2017
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
    —James 1:25 (ESV)
Quotation:
    But sons who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers do not hesitate to offer them incomplete and halfdone and even defective works, trusting that their obedience and readiness of mind will be accepted by their fathers, even though they have not quite achieved what their fathers intended. Such children ought we to be, firmly trusting that our services will be approved by our most merciful Father, however small, rude, and imperfect these may be.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xix.5, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 1:25; Ps. 119:2-3; Mark 12:41-44; Luke 6:47-49; 11:28; 1 Cor. 15:58
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, it is You who transforms my imperfect offerings into glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kraemer: the primary loyalty of Christians

Thursday, February 2, 2017
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
    —1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Most Christians live in confusion in regard to their scales of values and priorities. Many honest Christian people experience the shock of a revelation when they are brought to realize that their membership of the Church constitutes a loyalty prior to their loyalty to the nation to which they belong. Patriotism is one of the powerful underground pseudo-religions of to-day, not merely nationalism. The fundamental notion that the Christians are a “peculiar people” that never is identical, or even can be, with a people in the biological, national sense of the word, is largely asleep. It can only become awake by a new grasp of the biblical truth that the Church is the “people of God,” an elect race composed of people out of all nations, transcending all nations and races.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958, p. 157 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:9; Deut. 4:20; 7:6; Isa. 43:20-21; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 2:14-16; Tit. 2:12-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the blessing of Your presence spreads into all of life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brunner: love

Wednesday, February 1, 2017
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
    —Hebrews 13:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Love] does not inquire into the character of the recipient but it asks what he needs. It does not love him because he is such-and-such a person but because he is there. In all this it is quite the opposite of natural love: it “does not seek its own.” It does not perform the characteristic natural impulse of love and life. Therefore it is basically independent of the conduct of the other person; it is not conditional but absolute. It wants nothing for itself but only for others. Therefore it is also not vulnerable. It never “reacts” but is always “spontaneous,” emerging by its own strength—rather, from the power of God. Love is the real God-likeness of man for which he has been created. In so far as love is in man he really resembles God and shows himself to be the child of God.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Letter to the Romans, Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1959, p. 155 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:45-48; Rom. 12:13-21; 1 Cor. 13:4-5; Eph. 5:1; Phil. 2:4; Col. 3:10-14; Heb. 13:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make a reflector of Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: you are a sanctuary

Tuesday, January 31, 2017
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
    —1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wherever... thou shalt be, pray secretly within thyself. If thou shalt be far from a house of prayer, give not thyself trouble to seek for one, for thou thyself art a sanctuary designed for prayer. If thou shalt be in bed, or in any other place, pray there; thy temple is there.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Selections from His Letters, Meditations, Sermons, Hymns and Other Writngs, tr. Horatio Grimley, CUP Archive, n.d., p. 194 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Ps. 3:5; 63:6; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21-22; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Pray within me, Spirit of God. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: a visible fellowship

Monday, January 30, 2017
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
    —Matthew 18:20 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We can all call to mind movements which have begun as pure upsurges of fresh spiritual vitality, breaking through and revolting against the hardened structure of the older body, and claiming, in the name of the Spirit, liberty from outward forms and institutions. And we have seen how rapidly they develop their own forms, their own structures of thought, of language, and of organization. It would surely be a very unbiblical view of human nature and history to think—as we so often, in our pagan way, do— that this is just an example of the tendency of all things to slide down from a golden age to an age of iron, to identify the spiritual with the disembodied, and to regard visible structure as equivalent to sin. We must rather recognise here a testimony to the fact that Christianity is, in its very heart and essence, not a disembodied spirituality, but life in a visible fellowship, a life which makes such total claim upon us, and so engages our total powers, that nothing less than the closest and most binding association of men with one another can serve its purpose.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 76-77 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:20; 13:45-46; 1 Cor. 12:12,13; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 John 1:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant to our fellowship the continual presence of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: the devotional habit

Sunday, January 29, 2017
Meditation:
    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
    —1 John 5:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Devotion is not a passing emotion—it is a fixed, enduring habit of mind, permeating the whole life, and shaping every action. It rests upon a conviction that God is the Sole Source of Holiness, and that our part is to lean upon Him and be absolutely guided and governed by Him; and it necessitates an abiding hold on Him, a perpetual habit of listening for His Voice within the heart, as of readiness to obey the dictates of that Voice.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:16; 12:1-2; Gal. 5:22-25; Phil. 1:9-11; 1 John 5:1-4; 2 John 1:6; Jude 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are speaking to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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