Palau: post-Christian society

Saturday, July 15, 2017
    Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
    Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Haven’t you read this scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
    —Mark 12:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is no such thing as a post-Christian society. One generation may reject the Gospel itself, but it cannot reject it for future generations.
    ... Luis Palau (b. 1934), in a private communication from the Luis Palau Association
    See also Mark 12:10-11; Ps. 22:30-31; Matt. 3:9; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:26-29; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, this unbelieving era is but an eye-blink to You, for You have secured the victory for Your people for all time. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Keble: the imperative of conscience

Friday, July 14, 2017
    Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866
Meditation:
    Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
    —1 John 3:18-22 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Once make up your mind never to stand waiting and hesitating when your conscience tells you what you ought to do, and you have got the key to every blessing that a sinner can reasonably hope for.
    ... John Keble (1792-1866), Sermons for the Christian Year, v. XI, Oxford: James Parker, 1880, p. 492 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:18-22; Matt. 25:37-40; Rom. 12:9; 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 5:13; 6:9; Eph. 4:1-3,15; Jas. 2:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that is always ready to do Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bell: the true Christ

Thursday, July 13, 2017
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
    —Matthew 16:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We need to forget the imaginary Christ who has been ours too long and to rediscover the real Christ, the Christ of the prophets and the martyrs and the confessors, the Christ who is not only the lover of souls but also master, a monarch with demands to make in industry, in finance, in education, in the arts, in marriage, in the home; the Christ who is teacher of a social ideology which has eternal validity; the Christ who cries aloud with convincing force, “He who would save his life will lose it; only he who is willing to lose his life, can find it.”
    ... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), Still Shine the Stars, New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1941, p. 52-53 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; Rev. 12:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have heard Your call to life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browne: faith vs. sight

Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Meditation:
    Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
    —John 20:24-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I desire to exercise my faith in the most difficult point; for to credit ordinary and visible objects, is not faith, but persuasion. Some believe the better for seeing Christ’s Sepulchre, and when they have seen the Red Sea, doubt not of the miracle. Now contrarily I bless myself, and am thankful that I lived not in the days of miracles, that I never saw Christ nor His Disciples; I would not have been one of those Israelites that passed the Red Sea, nor one of Christ’s patients on whom He wrought His wonders; then had my faith been thrust upon me; nor should I enjoy that greater blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Religio Medici [1643], W. Murison, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1922, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also John 20:24-29; Luke 1:45; John 4:48; 1 Cor. 13:12; 2 Cor. 5;7; Heb. 11:1,39; 1 Pet. 1:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I and the whole church bless You for the gift of faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: what good is fear?

Tuesday, July 11, 2017
    Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550
Meditation:
    There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
    —1 John 4:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Naturally, the first emotion of man towards the being he calls God, but of whom he knows so little, is fear.
    Where it is possible that fear should exist, it is well that it should exist, cause continual uneasiness, and be cast out by nothing less than love... Until love, which is the truth towards God, is able to cast out fear, it is well that fear should hold; it is a bond, however poor, between that which is and that which creates—a bond that must be broken, but a bond that can be broken only by the tightening of an infinitely closer bond. Verily God must be terrible to those that are far from Him: for they fear He will do, yea, He is doing with them what they do not, cannot desire, and can ill endure... While they are such as they are, there is much in Him that cannot but affright them: they ought, they do well, to fear Him... To remove that fear from their hearts, save by letting them know His love with its purifying fire, a love which for ages, it may be, they cannot know, would be to give them up utterly to the power of evil. Persuade men that fear is a vile thing, that it is an insult to God, that He will have none of it—while they are yet in love with their own will, and slaves to every movement of passionate impulse, and what will the consequence be? That they will insult God as a discarded idol, a superstition, a falsehood, as a thing under whose evil influence they have too long groaned, a thing to be cast out and spit upon. After that, how much will they learn of Him?
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Fear of God”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 158-160 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:18; Pr. 1:7; Luke 1:68-75; Rom. 8:15; 2 Tim. 1:7; 1 John 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, replace all my fear with love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mascall: faith vs. scholarship (II)

Monday, July 10, 2017
Meditation:
    Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
    —Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    In the rare cases where faith appears to be contradicted by scholarship whose conclusions have not been prescribed from the start, [the critical scholar] may be cast down but will not be destroyed. For he will know how temporary and mutable the conclusions of scholarship essentially are, and he will also be conscious that he himself may not have perfectly comprehended the Church’s faith.
    ... E. L. Mascall (1905-1993), The Secularization of Christianity, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966, p. 276 (see the book)
    See also Prov. 3:5; Ps. 62:8; 146:3-5; Pr. 22:19; Isa. 40:31; 55:9; Rom. 11:33-36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in my ignorance, I rely on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mascall: faith vs. scholarship

Sunday, July 9, 2017
Meditation:
    They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
    —Romans 1:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The critical scholar is not committed, within the area of his research, to accepting the Church’s presuppositions about Jesus, but he should not be committed to accepting naturalistic presuppositions either. If he does accept the latter, then the results of his research will in all probability contradict the beliefs of the Church, but this is because he has begged the question from the start. In examining, for instance, the evidence for the virginal conception [of Jesus], if he begins with the presupposition that such an event is impossible he will end with the same conclusion; if he begins with the presupposition that it is possible he may end with the conclusion that the evidence for it is good or that it is bad or that it is inconclusive. This is as far as scholarship can take him. The Christian will accept the virginal conception as part of the Church’s faith. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... E. L. Mascall (1905-1993), The Secularization of Christianity, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966, p. 276 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 1:25; Ps. 89:2;Hos. 14:9; Matt. 11:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me boldness in proclaiming Your eternal truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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