Hatch: the composition of a church

Saturday, June 9, 2018
    Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597
    Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373
Meditation:
    Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
    —Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Although it is indisputable that our Lord founded a church, it is an unproved assumption that that church is an aggregation of visible and organized societies... The theory upon which the public worship of the primitive churches proceeded was that each community was complete in itself, and that, in every act of public worship, every element of the community was present.
    ... Edwin Hatch (1835-1889), The Organization of the Early Christian Churches [1880], London: Longmans, Green, 1918, preface, p.xii,79 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Cor. 3:16; 12:14-28; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break down all divisions in Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: examination by life experience

Friday, June 8, 2018
    Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711
    Commemoration of Roland Allen, Mission Strategist, 1947
Meditation:
    [An overseer] must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.
    —1 Timothy 3:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We demand, as [St. Paul] did, that the candidate must be of good moral character; at least, so far as that he can produce testimonials to his good conduct. We demand, as the apostle demanded, that he must hold fast the faithful word; at least, so far as that he shall not write deliberate heresy in his examination papers, and shall profess belief in the Creed. We demand, as he demanded, that the candidate must be apt to teach; at least, so far as an examination of his verbal memory can prove that he knows what he ought to teach. But there is some difference between the “without reproach” of the apostle and our testimonials; and there is a difference between the holding fast of the faith by a man tried in the furnace of life, and the soundness in the faith of a youth fresh from a theological school; and the aptness to teach of a man of experience and social authority is not quite the same thing as the aptness to teach of a young man who h as just passed an examination in the subject-matter.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Case for Voluntary Clergy, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 141 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Acts 20:17,28; 1 Tim. 6:11-14; Tit. 1:5-7; 1 Pet. 5:1-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead those who are mature in faith into Your service. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Harper: the Potter's gentle touch

Thursday, June 7, 2018
Meditation:
    But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
    —Isaiah 64:8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    There are a number of Hebrew words about salvation which also mean “to bring into a spacious environment,” “to be at one’s ease,” “to be free to develop.” “Salvation” can be seen then as the new life in Christ, in which we are to be “free to develop” into Christ-like people. For this maturing to take place, there needs to be a breaking down of barriers, a breaking up of the soil of our personalities, and a healing of inner wounds and hurts. The soil is softened, the clay becomes malleable through the experience of the tender love of God and the accepting, non-judgmental love of Christians. We cannot be beaten into shape.
    ... Michael C. Harper (1931-2010), “Christian Maturing”, 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. 151 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 64:8; Ps. 119:73; Jer. 18:2-6; Rom. 9:20-24; Gal. 3:26-29; Eph. 2:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You give the growth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Caussade: the present moment

Wednesday, June 6, 2018
    Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945
Meditation:
    There [on Mt. Horeb] the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
    When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
    And Moses said, “Here I am.”
    “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
    —Exodus 3:2-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The present moment always reveals the presence and the power of God.
    ... Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Abandonment to Divine Providence, I.ii.10 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 3:2-6; Isa. 6:1-5; Luke 12:56; Rom. 13:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are present with Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hodge: the power of sin

Tuesday, June 5, 2018
    Feast of Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton, Archbishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany, Martyr, 754
Meditation:
    Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
    —Mark 14:38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are... few stronger indications of ignorance of the power and evil of sin, than the confident assertion of our ability to resist and subdue it.
    ... Charles Hodge (1797-1878), Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Philadelphia: W. S. & A. Martien, 1864, p. 363 (see the book)
    See also Mark 14:38; Matt. 26:41; Luke 20:40,46; Gal. 5:17; 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may seek only You when in temptation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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O'Donovan: Christian submission

Monday, June 4, 2018
Meditation:
    Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
    —Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The difficulties arise when we ask how much this polar complementarity [of the sexes] should be reflected in the structure of social life, both domestic and public. The New Testament (again, and notoriously, in the person of St Paul) assumes that there will be places other than the bedroom in which men and women assume consciously differentiated roles. They will do so in the affairs of the home, in which the wife is to “submit” to her husband (Eph. 5:22ff) as head. They will do so even outside the context of family life, since man is “head” of woman in some sense in quite another context, when the Church is at worship (I Cor. 11:2ff).
    fn. In order that St Paul should not be misjudged, we must note:—(a) that this relational ordering of male and female presupposes a fundamental generic equality (I Cor. 11:1 ff); and (b) that the “submission” of the wife is a special case of a “submission” of all Christians to one another, and complements a husband’s love that is to be expressed in self-sacrifice (Eph. 5:2lff, 25ff). The apostle is not an apologist for male tyranny.
    ... Oliver O’Donovan (b. 1945), “Marriage and the Family”, in The Changing World, Bruce Kaye, ed., vol. 3 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 102-103,112-113 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:25-28; Col. 3:19; 1 Pet. 3:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let the model of Your love invade my whole life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clowney: the life of holiness

Sunday, June 3, 2018
    Feast of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, Teacher, 1910
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Uganda, 1886 & 1978
Meditation:
    We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
    —1 John 5:18-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The life of holiness is the life of faith in which the believer, with a deepening knowledge of his own sin and helplessness apart from Christ, increasingly casts himself upon the Lord, and seeks the power of the Spirit and the wisdom and comfort of the Bible to battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
    ... Edmund P. Clowney (1917-2005), The Church, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:18-20; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Eph. 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone can defeat my spiritual enemies. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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