Rutherford: the trial of faith

Saturday, August 19, 2017
Meditation:
    For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
    —1 Timothy 4:8 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Grace tried is better than grace, and it is more than grace, it is glory in its infancy. I now see godliness is more than the outside and this world’s passments and their buskings [i.e., ornaments and fine dress]. Who knoweth the truth of grace without a trial? Oh how little getteth Christ of us, but that which he winneth (to speak so,) with much toil and pains! And how soon would faith freeze without a cross?
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Jan. 1, 1637, p. 135 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 4:8; Rom. 12:12; 1 Tim. 6:6; Heb. 12:5-11; 2 Pet. 1:5-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, save us from our inclination to sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Briejer: alive and speaking

Friday, August 18, 2017
Meditation:
    And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
    —Genesis 1:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    My biological work convinced me that the One who was declared dead by Nietzsche, and silent by Sartre, actually is very much alive and speaking to us through all things.
    ... C. J. Briejèr
    See also Gen. 1:20-22; Ps. 8:2-3; Rom. 10:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak to us constantly through Your creation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Weil: worthwhile science

Thursday, August 17, 2017
Meditation:
    [Jesus] said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”
    —Luke 12:54-56 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.
    ... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Gravity and Grace, Arthur Wills, tr., Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1997, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:54-56; Matt. 11:25; 16:3; 24:32-33; 1 Cor. 8:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bring me closer to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: permanence

Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Meditation:
    Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
    —Mark 13:31 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience unto Him.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews, pt. IV ff, in Works of John Owen, v. XIX, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1854, p. 483 (see the book)
    See also Mark 13:31; Matt. 10:42; 19:29; Acts 10:4,31; Heb. 6:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know that I will live forever with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Soper: God limited by His goodness

Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Meditation:
    Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
    —Psalm 85:10-11 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I can see no intellectual objection to the statement that God’s power is not limited by anything outside His own creative purpose: in that sense He is omnipotent, but it is even impossible for Him to exercise that power in certain ways without thereby ceasing to be our Father. In that sense God is not omnipotent: He is limited by His own nature, by His perfect goodness and mercy; for the omnipotence of God means nothing apart from His Fatherly love. In particular, this limitation of the power of God is to be found in the measure of freedom which, as His children, we enjoy. God shares His power with us so that, for a time at least, if we so determine, we can break His laws and frustrate His plans, but also so that we can give to Him, if we choose, the free allegiance of our hearts and minds, and become children at His Family Table, drawn together by the compulsion of His love, and not the exercise of His might.
    ... Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 19-20 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 85:10-11; Nah. 1:3; Matt. 7:21; 12:46-50; 19:26; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21; 11:28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your rule and purposes are complete. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: proving the Scriptures

Monday, August 14, 2017
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
    —Isaiah 43:10-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whether God revealed Himself to the patriarchs by oracles and visions, or suggested, by means of the ministry of men, what should be handed down by tradition to their posterity, it is beyond a doubt that their minds were impressed with a firm assurance of the doctrine, so that they were persuaded and convinced that the information they had received came from God... But since we are not favored with daily oracles from heaven, and since it is only in the Scriptures that the Lord hath been pleased to preserve His truth in perpetual remembrance, it obtains the same complete credit and authority with believers, when they are satisfied of its divine origin, as if they heard the very words pronounced by God Himself... Let it be considered, then, as an undeniable truth, that they who have been inwardly taught by the Spirit feel an entire acquiescence in the Scripture, and that it is self-authenticated, carrying with it its own evidence, and ought not to be made the subject of demonstration and arguments from reason; but it obtains the credit which it deserves with us by the testimony of the Spirit.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.vi.2,I.vii.1,5, p. 72-73,75,79-80 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 43:10-13; 59:21; John 15:26-27; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 10:15-17; 1 John 5:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: factions

Sunday, August 13, 2017
    Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
    Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
    Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912
Meditation:
    Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’S assembly?”
    —Numbers 16:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The kingdom of God did not then consist in words, but in power, the power of Godliness; though now we are fallen upon another method, we have turned all religion into faith, and our faith is nothing but the production of interest or disputing;—it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside; and when it is asked of what religion he is, we understand the meaning to be what faction does he follow, what are the articles of his sect, not what is the manner of his life: and if men be zealous for their party and that interest, then they are precious men, though otherwise they be covetous as the grave, factious as Dathan, schismatical as Korah, or proud as the fallen angels.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. VI, London: Ogle, Duncan & Co., 1822, Sermon III, p. 283-284 (see the book)
    See also Num. 16:1-3; Rom. 1:16; 14:17; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; 2:4-5; 4:20; 2 Cor. 10:4-5; 12:20; Gal. 5:19-21; Tit. 3:10; Jas. 2:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us all to look towards Jesus constantly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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