Augustine: God is not deceiver

Saturday, May 20, 2017
Meditation:
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.
    —Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
    See also Ps. 46:1-3,7,10; Pr. 14:26; 18:10; Ps. 62:7-8; 91:1-10; 142:5; Heb. 6:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, through faith, I know that I can rely on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: amateur minister?

Friday, May 19, 2017
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
    —2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Can the love of Christ move a Christian to fruitful, effective, full-time, unpaid service to those who belong to Him? I have no hesitation in answering, Yes, it can, and it must. St. Paul wrote, “The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ. We look at it this way: if one died for all men, then in a sense, they all died; and his purpose in dying for them is that their lives should now be no longer lived for themselves but for Him who died and rose again for them.” There is the motive. Can anyone doubt that St. Paul’s ministry was fruitful—in wisdom, in Christ-like character, in testimony to the power of the Spirit of Christ—or effective—in conversions, in churches planted, in men raised up to carry on the work? Yet St. Paul spent long hours working with his hands to support himself. He served Christ, therefore, as an “amateur.” Dare we say he was not really a “full time” worker? Or was he not really “unpaid”?
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Amateur Ministry” (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Cor. 4:12; 9:6-18; 2 Cor. 12:14-16; 1 Thess. 2:6-9; 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to examine my ministry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: the love of the sufferer

Thursday, May 18, 2017
Meditation:
    But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
    —Acts 9:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything? He had enemies and defamers; do you want everyone to be your friend, your benefactor? How can your patience be rewarded if no adversity tests it? How can you be a friend of Christ if you are not willing to suffer any hardship? Suffer with Christ and for Christ if you wish to reign with Him.
    Had you but once entered into perfect communion with Jesus or tasted a little of His ardent love, you would care nothing at all for your own comfort or discomfort but would rejoice in the reproach you suffer; for love of Him makes a man despise himself.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.i..5, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also Acts 9:15-16; Isa. 53:3; Mark 13:13; John 4:34; 6:38; 12:27-28; Rom. 15:3; Phil. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me what I must do for Your Name’s sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: friends with God

Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
    —Matthew 5:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A man can not be “friends with” God on any other terms than complete obedience to Him, and that includes being “friends with” his fellow man. Christ stated emphatically that it was quite impossible, in the nature of things, for a man to be at peace with God and at variance with his neighbor. This disquieting fact is often hushed up, but it is undeniable that Christ said it, and the truth of it is enshrined in the petition for forgiveness in the “Lord’s Prayer.”
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Your God is Too Small [1953], Simon and Schuster, 2004, p. 90 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:23-24; 6:12,14-15; Rom. 12:18; 14:19; Eph. 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be a peace with all my neighbors. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newton: three wonders of heaven

Tuesday, May 16, 2017
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
    —1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If ever I reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third—the greatest wonder of all—to find myself there.
    ... John Newton (1725-1807), The Amazing Works of John Newton, Bridge Logos Foundation, 2009 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:9-10; Eph. 2:8-9; 3:7-8; 1 Tim. 1:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Hallelujah! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Williams: contrition

Monday, May 15, 2017
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
    —Matthew 23:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Every] contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable wish that other people should exhibit a similar contrition.
    ... Charles Williams (1886-1945), The Descent of the Dove: a history of the Holy Spirit in the church, Meridian Books, 1956, p. 86-87 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:2-12; 6:1-8; 7:1; Rom. 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with Your Spirit; otherwise I am defeated by pride. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: humanity and divinity mingled

Sunday, May 14, 2017
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
    —Mark 2:24-28 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    We might have said beforehand, if we had been told that God was coming into a man’s life, ... “That must be something very terrible and awful. That certainly must rend and tear the life to which God comes. At least, it will separate it and make it unnatural and strange. God fills a bush with His glory and it burns. God enters into the great mountain, and it rocks with earthquake. When he comes to occupy a man, He must distract the humanity which He occupies into some inhuman shape.” Instead of that, this new life into which God comes, seems to be the most quietly, naturally human life that was ever seen upon the earth. It glides into its place like sunlight. It seems to make it evident that God and man are essentially so near together, that the meeting of their natures in the life of a God-man is not strange. So always does Christ deal with His own nature, accepting His Divinity as you and I accept our humanity, and letting it shine out through the envelope with which it has most subtly and mysteriously mingled, as the soul is mingled with and shines out through the body.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Life and letters of Phillips Brooks, v. III, Alexander V. G. Allen, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1901, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also Mark 2:24-28; 10:45; John 5:27; 13:31; Acts 7:56; 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 2:9-10,14-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your authority is unlimited. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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