Dunstan: reconciliation

Saturday, March 4, 2017
    Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Meditation:
    Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
    —Romans 11:13-15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The reconciliation of man to God begins when God accepts the child of man, exactly as he is, into a relationship with himself—“this grace wherein we stand.” This He does for the sake of what man is to inherit, to become. And for the means, He gives him over to a Person, Christ, and a community, the Church; and in attachment to these, personality grows, freedom is attained, sin is forgiven, estrangement is ended, capacities for relationship extend. Reconciliation is the Spirit’s liberating work of love, exercised through a Person and a community of persons.
    ... G. R. Dunstan
    See also Rom. 11:13-15; Acts 20:32; Rom. 5:1-2,11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:19-22; Heb. 2:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant reconciliation to _____ and _____, for Jesus’ sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lake: faith despite the price

Friday, March 3, 2017
Meditation:
    ... nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
    —2 Timothy 1:12b (KJV)
Quotation:
    Faith is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequences—a courageous trust in the great purpose of all things, and pressing forward to finish the work which is in sight, whatever the price may be.
    ... Kirsopp Lake (1872-1946), Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity, London: Macmillan, 1922, p. 74 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 1:12; Rom. 1:16-17; 4:19-20; 8:28; Heb. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are sovereign over all consequences. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cotterill: Let songs of praise fill the sky

Thursday, March 2, 2017
    Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Meditation:
    When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
    —Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
Let songs of praises fill the sky!
    Christ, our ascended Lord,
Sends down his Spirit from on high,
    According to his word.

The Spirit by his heavenly breath,
    New life creates within:
He quickens sinners from the death
    Of trespasses and sin.

The things of Christ the Spirit takes,
    And shows them unto men;
The fallen soul his temple makes,
    God’s image stamps again.

Come, Holy Spirit, from above,
    With thy celestial fire:
Come, and with flames of zeal and love
    Our hearts and tongues inspire.
    ... Thomas Cotterill (1779-1823), included in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Isaac Watts & ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, p. 672 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:1-4; Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; John 20:22; Acts 1:8-9; 5:20; Rom. 6:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Fill my heart, Spirit of God.

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Law: the Spirit praying through us

Wednesday, March 1, 2017
    Ash Wednesday
    Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
Meditation:
How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
    to the living God.
    —Psalm 84:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    When a man has had so much benefit from the gospel, as to know his own misery, his want of a Redeemer, who he is, and how is he to be found; there everything seems to be done, both to awaken and direct his prayer, and make it a true praying in and by the Spirit. For when the heart really pants and longs after God, its prayer is a praying, as moved and animated by the Spirit of God; it is the breath or inspiration of God, stirring, moving, and opening itself in the heart. For though the early nature, our old man, can oblige or accustom himself to take heavenly words at certain times into his mouth; yet this is a certain truth, that nothing ever did, or can have the least desire or tendency to ascend to heaven, but that which came down from heaven; and therefore nothing in the heart can pray, aspire, and long after God, but the Spirit of God moving and stirring in it.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 152 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 84:1-2; Job 19:25; Ps. 42:1-2; Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone animate me towards the blessings You have in store. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: Yes, Lord!

Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Meditation:
    He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.”
    —Luke 5:36 (ESV)
Quotation:
    May the Lord lead further and further those who do in earnest want to live the Joshua [i.e., transformed] life. It means a daily dying to self and what self wants—a daily turning to our Master with a “Yes, Lord” to everything, even to what is most against the grain. May He quicken those who have not yet begun to live this life to see what they are missing, before it is too late.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Edges of His Ways [1955], London: SPCK, 1957, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:36; Ps. 51:10; 2 Cor. 6:16; Rom. 12:2; 13:14; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:18-19; 4:22-24; Col. 1:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Yes, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: Immortal Love

Monday, February 27, 2017
    Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633
Meditation:
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
    break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
    —Psalm 98:4 (ESV)
Quotation:
Immortal Love, author of this great frame,
    Sprung from that beauty which can never fade;
    How hath man parcel’d out thy glorious name,
And thrown it on that dust which thou hast made,

While mortal love doth all the title gain!
    Which siding with invention, they together
    Bear all the sway, possessing heart and brain
(Thy workmanship), and give thee share in neither.

Wit fancies beauty, beauty raiseth wit:
    The world is theirs; they two play out the game,
    Thou standing by: and though thy glorious name
Wrought our deliverance from th’ infernal pit,

Who sings thy praise? only a scarf or glove
Doth warm our hands, and make them write of love.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Poetical Works of George Herbert, New York: D. Appleton, 1857, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 98; Gen. 1:27; 2:23; Mal. 2:15; Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, to love and praise You is the air I breathe.

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Patmore: seeing my sin

Sunday, February 26, 2017
Meditation:
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
    —1 John 1:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must confess our sins in order to obtain pardon; but we must see our sins in order to confess. How few of those who think that they have confessed and been pardoned have ever seen their sin!
    ... Coventry Patmore (1823-1896), The Rod, the Root, and the Flower [1895], London: G. Bell and Sons, 1907, p. 221 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:9-10; Lev. 26:40-42; 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 32:5; 38:18; 51:2-3,7; Isa. 1;11-17; Luke 15:18-21; Jas. 5:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me, for I cannot bear to look at my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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