Shepherd: magic

Saturday, October 21, 2017
Meditation:
    When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
    —Deuteronomy 18:9-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Magic] is not mere superstition. It can corrupt people who otherwise carry on their daily duties with apparent reasonableness and common sense... It exploits man’s urgent desire for all the material good things of life—health, prosperity, success, “good luck”—and at times, it may even descend to aggressive acts against one’s competitors and supposed enemies and rivals. It rests upon an assumption, not always explicit, that divine power can be manipulated and used for human ends. And it is the more dangerous among people who assume that since God is love, He will do whatever they ask, provided they use the right formula in asking.
    Magic mocks God’s freedom no less than His purpose. For it binds men more and more in a prison of fear and selfishness. Far from liberating divine power, it shuts out the free and creative forces of love and self-sacrifice that alone ennoble life and rem ove the alienation of men one from another. Love, not compulsion, casts out fear.
    ... Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. (1913-1990), Far and Near
    See also Deut. 18:9-13; Isa. 8:19-20; Acts 19:19; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 5:19-22; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 12:28-29; 1 John 4:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my heart to fear nothing but You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Denney: the double action of love

Friday, October 20, 2017
Meditation:
    If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
    —2 Timothy 2:13 (KJV)
Quotation:
    “He cannot deny Himself,” means at the same time He cannot deny His grace to the sinful, and He cannot deny the moral order in which alone He can live in fellowship with men; and we see the inviolableness of both asserted in the death of Jesus. Nothing else in the world demonstrates how real is God’s love to the sinful, and how real the sin of the world is to God. And the love which comes to us through such an expression, bearing sin in all its reality, yet loving us through and beyond it, is the only love which at once forgives and regenerates the soul.
    ... James Denney (1856-1917), The Atonement and the Modern Mind, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903, p. 86 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 2:13; John 3:16-17; Rom. 3:3; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 9:27-28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have borne the penalty for my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: silence gives consent

Thursday, October 19, 2017
    Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812
Meditation:
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
    I do not seal my lips,
    as you know, O LORD.
I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
    I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
    from the great assembly.
    —Psalm 40:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), in a letter, Calvin: his life, his labours, and his writings, Laurence Louis Felix Bungener, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1863, p. 205 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 40:9-10; 119:171-172; Luke 2:30-32; 3:6; Acts 20:20-21,27; 1 Thess. 1:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the words to refute Your adversaries. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: heaven today

Wednesday, October 18, 2017
    Feast of Luke the Evangelist
Meditation:
    Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, [Jesus] answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
    —Luke 17:20-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It is to be feared that the most of us know not how much of glory may be in present grace, nor how much of heaven may be obtained in holiness on the earth.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), V.1 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 583 (see the book)
    See also Luke 17:20-21; Ps. 17:15; Luke 20:36; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given me eternal life from this moment forward. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: dominion

Tuesday, October 17, 2017
    Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107
Meditation:
    For this perhaps is why [Onesimus] was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
    —Philemon 1:15-16 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Having made man in His own image, a rational being, He meant him to be lord only over irrational beings: not man set over man, but man set over beasts... The first cause of servitude is sin, by which man is subjected to man by the bonds of his condition... But by that nature in which God formerly created man, nobody is slave either to man or to sin.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), The City of God, v. II, Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. 2 of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1871, XIX.xv, p. 324-325 (see the book)
    See also Philemon 1:15-16; Dan. 9:5-19; John 8:34; Rom. 6:19-23; 7:14,25; 2 Pet. 2:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Make plain to me, Lord, my mistreatment of those under me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Henry: the Lord shall have them in derision

Monday, October 16, 2017
    Commemoration of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer, bishops and martyrs, 1555
Meditation:
Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
    and the rulers gather together
    against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say,
    “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my King
    on Zion, my holy hill.”
    —Psalm 2:1-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sinners’ follies are the just sport of God’s infinite wisdom and power; and those attempts of the kingdom of Satan, which in our eyes are formidable, in his are despicable.
    ... Matthew Henry (1662-1714), An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments [1828], Ps. 2, in loc. v. 1-6, II.1 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 2:1-6; 37:12-13; 59:8; Isa. 37:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, beef up my faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Teresa of Avila: memories of grace

Sunday, October 15, 2017
    Feast of Teresa of Avila, Mystic, Teacher, 1582
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
    “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
    “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
    “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
    “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
    “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
    “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
    —Matthew 18:23-3 5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, v. I, Sheed & Ward, 1944, p. 310 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:21-35; Isa. 55;7; Mic. 7:19; Matt. 5:44; 6:12,14-15; Mark 11:25; Rom. 12:21; Col. 3:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me Your way of forgiving. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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