Calvin: resistance to tyrants

Saturday, May 27, 2017
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
    —Romans 13:1-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    However these deeds of men are judged in themselves, still the Lord accomplished his work through them alike when he broke the bloody scepters of arrogant kings and when he overturned intolerable governments. Let the princes hear and be afraid. But we must, in the meantime, be very careful not to despise or violate that authority of magistrates, full of venerable majesty, which God has established by the weightiest decrees, even though it may reside with the most unworthy men, who defile it as much as they can with their own wickedness. For, if the correction of unbridled despotism is the Lord’s to avenge, let us not at once think that it is entrusted to us, to whom no command has been given except to obey and suffer.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, IV.xx.31, p. 661-662 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 13:1-7; Ps. 2:7-12; Tit. 3:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility to obey Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: camping on the border

Friday, May 26, 2017
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
Meditation:
    As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
    —Luke 17:12-19 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We come to Jesus Christ: and He does for us what He promised; and the thing works out. To our amazement, it works out. And then we settle down. We have had our own first-hand and irrefutable experience. But, instead of opening the windows to the glory of the sunshine so evidently there, instead of being incited to a hugeness of faith by what Christ has already done for us, we can’t believe that there can be anything more, or that even He can work for us anything better. That first foretaste satisfies us. And so we camp for life out on the confines of the Kingdom, and never press on, to inherit what is there, and meant for us.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 119 (see the book)
    See also Luke 17:12-19; Ps. 106:12-13; Mark 4:16-17; John 8:7-10; Rom. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant a hunger in my heart for more of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Edge: the ministry of the clergy

Thursday, May 25, 2017
    Ascension
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.”
    —Acts 8:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God has called the laity to be his basic ministers. He has called some to be “player-coaches” ... to equip the laity for the ministry they are to fulfill. This equipping ministry is of unique importance. One is appointed to this ministry by the Holy Spirit; therefore it must be undertaken with utmost seriousness.
    This is a radical departure from the traditional understanding of the roles of the laity and the clergy. The laity had the idea that they were already committed to a “full-time” vocation in the secular world, [and] thus they did not have time—at least, much time—to do God’s work. Therefore they contributed money to “free” the clergy to have the time needed to fulfill God’s ministry. This view is rank heresy. If we follow this pattern, we may continue to do God’s work until the Lord comes again and never fulfill God’s purpose as it ought to be done.
    ... Findley B. Edge (1916-2002), The Greening of the Church, Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1971, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Acts 8:20-21; 6:2-4; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 13:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge me of vain presumptions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Wesley: follow-up

Wednesday, May 24, 2017
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
    “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
    “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’”
    —Luke 13:24-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an Apostle, without joining together those that are awakened, and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline, no order or connection; and the consequence is, that nine in ten of the once-awakened are now faster asleep than ever.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), entry for Aug 25, 1763, Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, v. III, London: J. Kershaw, 1827, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Luke 13:24-27; Matt. 13:18-23; 28:17; Mark 4:14-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a disciple. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: O taste and see

Tuesday, May 23, 2017
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
    —Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song of gladness in the heart.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On the love of God, Newman Press, 1951, p. 110 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 2:5-11; Isa. 42:1-3; 45:23-25; Matt. 28:18; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 4:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, it shall be so. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Glover: the historicity of Jesus

Monday, May 22, 2017
Meditation:
    But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
    —2 Timothy 1:8b-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If the ordinary canons of history, used in every other case, hold good in this case, Jesus is undoubtedly an historical person. If he is not an historical person, the only alternative is that there is no such thing as history at all—it is delirium, nothing else; and a rational being would be better employed in the collection of snuff-boxes. And if history is impossible, so is all other knowledge.
    ... T. R. Glover (1869-1943), The Christian Tradition and its Verification, New York: Macmillan, 1913, p. 198 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 1:8-10,12; Ps. 119:46; Isa. 51:7; Rom. 1:16; 10:9-11; 1 Pet. 4:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have acted decisively in history. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: hearts closed

Sunday, May 21, 2017
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
    —Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If the heart is devoted to the mirage of the world, to the creature instead of the Creator, the disciple is lost... However urgently Jesus may call us, His call fails to find access to our hearts. Our hearts are closed, for they have already been given to another.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 174 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:17-19; Ps. 115:4-8; Matt. 11:25; Acts 17:30; Rom. 1:21-23,28; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 4:8; Heb. 12:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take my heart for Your own. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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