Thomas a Kempis: at rest with the Book

Saturday, May 5, 2018
Meditation:
    Blessed is the man
    who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
    or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD
and on his law he meditates day and night.
    —Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have no rest, but in a nook, with the Book.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), quoted in The Treasury of David, v. I, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1883, p. 7 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 1:1-2; 119:11,15,97-99; Josh. 1:8; Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:14-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rest in Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: even humility is relative

Friday, May 4, 2018
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
    —2 Corinthians 3:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The true way to be humble is not to stoop till thou art smaller than thyself, but to stand at thy real height against some higher nature that will show thee what the real smallness of thy greatness is.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1878, Sermon XIX, p. 341 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 3:3-4; Matt. 20:25-28; Mark 9:35; 10:42-45; 12:41-44; Luke 13:30; 14:10-11; 18:14; Jas. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my life show forth the glory of the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: beauty as an anesthetic

Thursday, May 3, 2018
Meditation:
    As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must sometimes get away from the Authorized Version, if for no other reason, simply because it is so beautiful and so solemn. Beauty exalts, but beauty also lulls. Early associations endear but they also confuse. Through that beautiful solemnity, the transporting or horrifying realities of which the Book tells may come to us blunted and disarmed, and we may only sigh with tranquil veneration when we ought to be burning with shame or struck dumb with terror or carried out of ourselves by ravishing hopes and adorations.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), included in Letters to young churches, J. B. Phillips, Macmillan, 1960, preface, p. vii (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:10-11; Deut. 32:2; Matt. 24:35; John 6:63; Rom. 10:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 5:19; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my heart be swept away by Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Athanasius: witnesses to the Incarnation

Wednesday, May 2, 2018
    Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
    —John 10:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Both from the confession of the evil spirits and from the daily witness of His works, it is manifest, then, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised His own body, and that He is very Son of God, having His being from God as from a Father, Whose Word and Wisdom and Whose Power He is. He it is Who in these latter days assumed a body for the salvation of us all, and taught the world concerning the Father. He it is Who has destroyed death and freely graced us all with incorruption through the promise of the resurrection, having raised His own body as its first-fruits, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as the monument to His victory over death and its corruption.
    ... St. Athanasius (293?-373), The Incarnation of the Word of God [4th century], St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996, XXXII, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also John 10:17-18; Ps. 16:10; Isa. 25:7-8; John 2:19-21 ;Acts 2:31-32; 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 15:20-26,54-55; Heb. 2:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are life’s source. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Edersheim: the purpose of trial

Tuesday, May 1, 2018
    Feast of Philip & James, Apostles
Meditation:
    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
    —Romans 8:35-37 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
    ... Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889), Elisha the Prophet: the lessons of his history and times, Religious Tract Society, 1882, p. 156 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:35-37; John 15:10; Eph. 6:6-8; Jas. 1:22-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant faith in my heart, that I may not doubt in times of trouble. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clough: steadfast

Monday, April 30, 2018
    Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922
Meditation:
The LORD upholds all those who fall
    and lifts up all who are bowed down.
    —Psalm 145:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
It fortifies my soul to know
That though I perish, Truth is so;
That, howsoe’er I stray and range,
Whate’er I do, Thou dost not change.
I steadier step when I recall
That, if I slip, Thou dost not fall.
    ... Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), Arthur Hugh Clough: Selected Poems, New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 23; 37:23-24; 145:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am lost without You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Catherine of Siena: give me Yourself

Sunday, April 29, 2018
    Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380
Meditation:
    “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
    —Jeremiah 23:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O abyss, O eternal Godhead, O sea profound, what more could You give me than Yourself? You are the fire that burns without being consumed; You consume in Your heat all the soul’s self-love; You are the fire which takes away cold; with Your light You illuminate me so that I may know all Your truth... Clothe me, clothe me with yourself, eternal truth, so that I may run this mortal life with true obedience, and with the light of your most holy faith.
    ... Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dialogue 167 from Dialog of Catherine of Siena [1378], Treatise of Obedience, xi. (see the book)
    See also Jer. 23:29; Ex. 3:2; John 1:1-5; Heb. 12:1-2,27-29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, burn my self-pity and indulgence out of me with Your holiness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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