Owen: the covenant of forgiveness

Saturday, March 17, 2018
    Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
Meditation:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.
    —Psalm 51:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God could, if I may so say, more easily have made a new world of innocent creatures, and have governed them by the old covenant, than have established this new one for the salvation of poor sinners; but then, where had been the glory of forgiveness? It could never have been known that there was forgiveness with Him. The old covenant could not have been preserved and sinners pardoned. Wherefore, God chose to leave the covenant than sinners unrelieved, than grace unexalted and pardon unexercised...
    Will we continue on the old bottom of the first covenant? All that we can do therein is but to set thorns and briars in the way of God, to secure ourselves from His coming against us and upon us with His indignation and fury. Our sins are so, and our righteousness is no better. And what will be the issue? Both they and we shall be trodden down, consumed, and burnt up. What way, then, what remedy is left unto us? Only this of layi ng hold on the arm and strength of God in that covenant wherein forgiveness of sin is provided.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX [1668], in Works of John Owen, v. VI, New York: R. Carter & Bros., 1851, p. 475 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 32:1-2; 51:7-9; 130:4; Isa. 27:2-5; Rom. 4:6-8; 1 John 2:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rest in Your strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carey: baptism in the Spirit

Friday, March 16, 2018
Meditation:
    And this was [John’s] message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
    —Mark 1:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The term “baptism in (or of) the Spirit” conjures up the idea of a separate initiatory experience which every Christian ought to enjoy, whereas evangelicalism is noted for its stress upon a “conversion” experience which marks the beginning of the believer’s relationship to his Lord. Too often, alas, conversion has been the end as well as the beginning, with the result that some Christians have looked back, with mingled delight and wistfulness to a past event that now seems to have diminished relevance to daily living. We can fully understand, then, the appeal of a movement which promises a new dimension of Christian living, there in the New Testament, and now available in everyday experience.
    ... George Carey (b. 1935), “Christian Beginning”, in The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also Mark 1:7-8; Isa. 44:3; Eze. 36:25-27; Joel 2:28; Acts 1:5; 2:4,17; 11:15-16; 1 Cor. 12:13; Tit. 3:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let the fire of the Spirit burn within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the Person behind the Bible

Thursday, March 15, 2018
Meditation:
    Now it came about that while the people came pushing to be near him, and to have knowledge of the word of God, he was by a wide stretch of water named Gennesaret; And he saw two boats by the edge of the water, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, the property of Simon, and made a request to him to go a little way out from the land. And being seated he gave the people teaching from the boat.
    —Luke 5:1-3 (BBE)
Quotation:
    A loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting himself whenever and wherever his people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 48 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:1-3; Gen. 3:8; Luke 24:30-32,36; John 4:6-10; 11:35; 20:14-17,19-20; Heb. 2:17; 4:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You came to me long before I came to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Boice: the unique authority

Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
    —Matthew 5;17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are to believe and follow Christ in all things, including his words about Scripture. And this means that Scripture is to be for us what it was to him: the unique, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God, and not merely a human testimony to Christ, however carefully guided and preserved by God. If the Bible is less than this to us, we are not fully Christ’s disciples.
    ... James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000), “The Preacher & God’s Word”, in Foundation of Biblical Authority, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978, p. 142-143, fn. (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:17-18; 7:12; 22:37-40; Mark 7:12-13; Luke 4:4; 16:29-31
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith to believe Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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The learned and the unlearned

Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Meditation:
    Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
    —2 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Scripture in some places is easy, and in some places hard to be understood. This have I said as touching the fear to read, through ignorance of the person.
    And concerning the hardness of Scripture; he that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong meat, yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk, and defer the rest until he wax stronger, and come to more knowledge. For God receiveth the learned and unlearned, and casteth away none, but [does not discriminate]. And the Scripture is full, as well of low valleys, plain ways, and easy for every man to use and to walk in: as also of high hills and mountains, which few men can climb unto.
    ... “A Fruitful exhortation to the reading of holy Scripture” [1562], from Certain sermons, or, Homilies appointed to be read in churches, Church of England, London: Prayer-Book and Homily Society, 1852, p. 6-7 (see the book)
    See also 2 Pet. 3:15-16; Luke 24:45; Gal. 3:8; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:19-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the mind of Christ to understand Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Approach scripture humbly

Monday, March 12, 2018
Meditation:
    Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
    —Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew; what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God’s hands at length. In these Books we shall find the Father from whom, the Son by whom, and the Holy Ghost in whom all things have their being and keeping up, and these three persons to be but one God, and one substance... Read [Holy Scripture] humbly with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God, and not your self, with the knowledge of it: and read it not without daily praying to God, that he would direct your reading to good effect: and take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it. For, as Saint Augustine saith, ‘the knowledge of holy Scripture is a great, large, and a high place, but the door is very low, so that the high and arrogant man cannot run in; but he must stoop low, and humble himself, that shall enter into it...’ The humble man may searc h any truth boldly in the Scripture, without any danger of error. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... “A Fruitful exhortation to the reading of holy Scripture” [1562], from Certain sermons, or, Homilies appointed to be read in churches, Church of England, London: Prayer-Book and Homily Society, 1852, pp. 2,6 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:15-17; Matt. 26:53-56; Acts 8:27-35; Rom. 3:1-2; 15:4; 1 Tim. 4:16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, defeat sin in my life through Your mighty word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Leo: dictation of the Holy Ghost

Sunday, March 11, 2018
Meditation:
    Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
    —Psalm 119:160 (KJV)
Quotation:
    It is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. For the system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards the things of faith and morals, and nothing beyond, because (as they wrongly think) in a question of the truth or falsehood of a passage, we should consider not so much what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it—this system cannot be tolerated. For all the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost; and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossib le that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true.
    ... Leo XIII (1813-1903), Providentissimus Deus, “On the Study of Holy Scripture” [1893], par. 20 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:160; 19:9; 119:86; Pr. 30:5; John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 6:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You for the reliability of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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