Crashaw: Welcome!

Saturday, December 23, 2017
Meditation:
    But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
    —Luke 1:30-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
Welcome! all wonders in one sight!
    Eternity shut in a span!
Summer in winter, day in night!
    Heaven in earth, and God in man!
Great little One, whose all-embracing birth
    Lifts earth to heaven, stoops Heaven to earth!
    ... Richard Crashaw (1613-1649), from “A Hymn of the Nativity, sung by the Shepherds”, in The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, London: J. R. Smith, 1858, p. 40 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:30-33; Isa. 7:14; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:5-7; Heb. 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Welcome into our hearts, Lord! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Latourette: the Gospel

Friday, December 22, 2017
Meditation:
    Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
    —Revelation 1:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    I was confirmed in my conviction that when all the best scholarship is taken into account we can know Christ as He was in the days of His flesh. Although I became familiar with the contemporary and recent studies of honest, competent scholars who questioned them, I was convinced that the historical evidence confirms the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Increasingly, I believed that the nearest verbal approach that we human beings can come to the great mystery is to affirm that Christ is both fully man and fully God. Although now we see Him not, yet believing, we can “rejoice with joy unspeakable” in what the Triune God has done and is doing through Him. This Good News, so rich that it is stated in a variety of ways, but always consistently, in the New Testament, is what we always imperfect children, but children [yet], are privileged—and commanded—to ma ke known and to demonstrate to all mankind.
    ... Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968), Beyond the Ranges, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1967, p. 73-74 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 1:7; Matt. 28:19; Rom. 10:10,17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Latourette: conviction and conclusion

Thursday, December 21, 2017
Meditation:
    I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
    —Revelation 1:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not immediately, but as the months and years passed, increasingly, from experience and thought based on extensive reading, I found the Evangelical faith in which I had been reared confirmed and deepened. Increasingly I rejoiced in the Gospel—the amazing Good News—that the Creator of what to us human beings is this bewildering and unimaginably vast universe, so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting life, I came to see, is not just continued existence, but a growing knowledge—not merely intellectual but wondering through trust, love, and fellowship—of Him who alone is truly God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968), Beyond the Ranges, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1967, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 1:18; John 3:16,19-21; 6:47; Heb. 3:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank you for the confirmation I receive from Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: Psalm 98

Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Meditation:
Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
    he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
    —Psalm 98:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
    Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
    And heav’n and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!
    Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
    Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
    Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
    Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
    And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
    And wonders of his love.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Psalms of David Imitated [1719], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, Ps. 98, second part, p. 200 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 98; 1 Chr. 16:31; Ps. 2:7-9; 96:10; 97:1; Rev. 19:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    I rejoice in God my Savior!

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the necessary forerunner

Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Here is opened to us the true reason of the whole process of our Saviour’s incarnation, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven. It was because fallen man was to go through all these stages as necessary parts of his return to God; and therefore, if man was to go out of his fallen state, there must be a son of this fallen man, who, as a head and fountain of the whole race, could do all this, could go back through all these gates, and so make it possible for all the individuals of human nature, as being born of Him, to inherit His conquering nature, and follow Him through all these passages to eternal life. And thus we see, in the strongest and clearest light, both why and how the holy Jesus is become our great Redeemer.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), An Appeal to All that Doubt [1740], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VI, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 144 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:13-14; Isa. 30:21; 57:14; Matt. 16:24-25; Mark 8:34; John 15:18-20; 16:33; Acts 14:21-22; 1 Cor. 15:22,45-49
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lead Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: God's tools

Monday, December 18, 2017
Meditation:
    If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
    —Psalm 139:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every wise workman takes his tools away from the work from time to time, that they may be ground and sharpened; so does the only-wise Jehovah take his ministers oftentimes away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that he may sharpen and prepare them for harder work in his service.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), The Life and Remains, Letters, Lectures, and Poems of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar, New York: R. Carter, 1866, p. 157 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 139:11-12; Rom. 2:7; 5:3-4; 12:11-12; 15:4; 2 Thess. 1:4; Heb. 12:5-11; Jas. 1:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, if it be Your will, send me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: the whispering of the Lord

Sunday, December 17, 2017
    Advent III
    Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
    Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
    Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
    —1 Kings 19:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is hardly ever a complete silence in our souls. God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God... He is always whispering to us, only that we do not always hear, because of the hurry, noise, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on.
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), “All men have a special vocation” in Spiritual Conferences, London: Thomas Richardson & Son, 1860, p. 408 (see the book)
    See also 1 Kings 19:11-13; Job 33:14-18; Ps. 46:1-3; Zech. 4:6; Acts 2:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me greater sensitivity to the Spirit’s promptings. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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