Temple: self-centred vs. God-centred

Saturday, April 28, 2018
    Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841
Meditation:
    Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
    —Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The centre of trouble is not the turbulent appetites—though they are troublesome enough. The centre of trouble is the personality of man as a whole, which is self-centred and can only be wholesome and healthy if it is God-centred.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Nature, Man and God, London: Macmillan, 1934, 1949, p. 367 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 2:12-13; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 12;1-2; 2 Cor. 10:5; 1 Pet. 1:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that You alone shall be the center of my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rossetti: What can I give Him

Friday, April 27, 2018
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
    —John 10:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
What can I give Him
    Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
    I would give Him a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man,
    I would do my part,—
But what I can, I give Him,
    Give my heart.
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 211 (see the book)
    See also John 10:11; Ps. 23; Isa. 40:11; Col. 1:27; 1 Pet. 2:25; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, consecrate my heart to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pollard: speaking to this age

Thursday, April 26, 2018
Meditation:
    Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
    —Exodus 3:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The scientific age with its urban-industrial culture is, for all its magnificent achievements and intoxicating success, in a very real sense a dark age. Its complete bondage to nature has enclosed the mind and spirit of man in a fast prison out of which, try as he may, he can find no way of escape. The inability to perceive any longer the reality of things invisible and unseen is a sickness of the soul which cries out to be cured. The only way to dispel the darkness of the present age and liberate it from the prison within which it has become bound is to restore the proper relationship of nature to supernature and of time to eternity as an essential feature of external reality. Until this can be accomplished, there is really very little that the Church or Christianity in general has to offer to this age.
    ... W. G. Pollard (1911-1989), “Urbanization, Industrialization, Automation,” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 3:13-14; Eccl. 3:10-11; Rom. 1:20; 1 Tim. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown Yourself to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: Christ as the foundation

Wednesday, April 25, 2018
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:05
    Lord Jesus, you are my foundation.
    —1 Peter 2:4-8
Quotation:
    Whoever has Christ in his heart, so that no earthly or temporal things—not even those that are legitimate and allowed—are preferred to Him, has Christ as a foundation. But if these things be preferred, then even though a man seem to have faith in Christ, yet Christ is not the foundation to that man.
    ... 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, XXI.26, p. 460 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:4-8; Isa. 28:16; Luke 6:47-49; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Be in my heart, O Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: no rest here

Tuesday, April 24, 2018
    Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624
Meditation:
    For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
    —2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the way of virtue, there is no standing still; anyone who does not daily advance, loses ground. To remain at a standstill is impossible; he that gains not, loses; he that ascends not, descends. If one does not ascend the ladder, one must descend; if one does not conquer, one will be conquered.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Treatise on the Love of God, Newman Press, 1953, p.128 (see the book)
    See also 2 Pet. 1:5-7,10; 3:18; John 6:27; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 11:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me persistence in love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Glover: new shoot from an old root

Monday, April 23, 2018
    Feast of George, Martyr, Patron of England, c.304
    Commemoration of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1988
Meditation:
    [Jesus] told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
    —Luke 21:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A teacher appears—for whom no one was prepared, and whom no one could have expected. The argument from prophecy, on which the early apologists laid so much weight, was all ex post facto. No one beforehand could have conjectured a tenth of it. But without the background of Jewish prophet and psalmist, of Jewish national history, it would be hard to understand Jesus. If prophet and historian and legislator did not in type and enigma foretell in detail the story of his life, he was none the less their heir. None the less was he their heir in that he was not in bondage to his inheritance, but... a “minister not of the letter but of the spirit,” and the whole of his activity lay “in newness of spirit.” Without conjecturing what he might have been on another soil or of another stock—a type of guesswork always futile in history—we have to recognize the immense spiritual wealth that lay ready to his hand.
    ... T. R. Glover (1869-1943), The Influence of Christ in the Ancient World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929, p. 113-114 (see the book)
    See also Luke 21:29-31; Isa. 53:2-12; Micah 5:2; Matt. 21:42-43; John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made all things new. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lightner: an unavoidable revelation

Sunday, April 22, 2018
Meditation:
    [Jesus’ prayer:] I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
    —John 17:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The sincere student of Scripture cannot avoid the truth of God’s choice of individuals from among the sinful race of men. We may not understand this, but we must never deny it. Scripture is filled with this great truth: it is not an isolated doctrine of the Word.
    ... Robert P. Lightner (b. 1931), The God of the Bible [1973], Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978, formerly published as The First Fundamental: God, p. 133 (see the book)
    See also John 17:6-7; 10:27-29; 15:19; 18:9; Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:4-5,11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have not deserved Your grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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