Hugel: the solution from within

Saturday, November 10, 2018
    Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461
Meditation:
    We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
    —2 Thessalonians 1:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How wonderful it is, is it not, that literally only Christianity has taught us the true peace and function of suffering. The Stoics tried the hopeless little game of denying its objective reality, or of declaring it a good in itself (which it never is), and the Pessimists attempted to revel in it, as a food to their melancholy, and as something that can no more be transformed than it can be avoided or explained. But Christ came, and He did not really explain it; He did far more: He met it, willed it, transformed it, and He taught us how to do all this, or rather He Himself does it within us, if we do not hinder the all-healing hands.
    ... Friedrich von Hügel (1852-1925), Selected Letters, 1896-1924, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1928, p. 228 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 1:3-5; Luke 24:44-45; John 18:11; Jas. 1:2-4; 5:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have redeemed the suffering in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sayers: contempt of material things

Friday, November 9, 2018
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
    —2 Peter 2:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Contempt of material things as such is, in fact, no more orthodox than pantheism—it is the great dualist heresy which always lies in wait for an over-spiritualized Christianity.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement, London: Golanz, 1963, p. 64 (see the book)
    See also 2 Pet. 2:1-2; Luke 24:36-43; John 1:14; 16:13-15; 20:26-27; Rom. 9:21; 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 John 4:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make us truly grateful for your provision. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Albright: liberation in law

Thursday, November 8, 2018
    Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
Meditation:
    If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.
    —Exodus 22:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One of the most remarkable features of Mosaic legislation... is its humanity to man. It is the most humanitarian of all known bodies of laws before recent times. The laws about slavery, which envisage the liberation of Hebrew slaves after seven years, are a good example. But there are also laws protecting the poor: interest (always high in the ancient East) was prohibited, and again there was a moratorium after a term of years... Even strangers, who normally had very little protection in antiquity, except when they were citizens of a strong neighbouring state which might step in and protect them by force of arms, are exceptionally well cared for by Mosaic law.
    ... William Foxwell Albright (1891-1971), Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968, reprinted, Eisenbrauns, 1990, p. 181 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 21:2; 22:25; 23:9; Lev. 25:10; Deut. 10:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have freed Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: great and small

Wednesday, November 7, 2018
    Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
    —Matthew 10:40-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do little things as though they were great, because of the majesty of Jesus Christ who does them in us, and who lives our life: and do the greatest things as though they were little and easy, because of His omnipotence.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #553, p. 182 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:40-42; 18:5; 25:31-46;Mark 9:41; 12:42-43; Luke 9:48; John 14:12; Acts 5:15; 16:15; 19:11-12; Rom. 15:18-19; 2 Cor. 8:12; 2 Tim. 1:16-18; Heb. 6:10; 3 John 1:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You make great what is small in my hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Temple: Christian fear

Tuesday, November 6, 2018
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”
    —Matthew 10:34-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If Christianity has never frightened us, we have not yet found out what it is.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Studies in the Spirit and Truth of Christianity, Macmillan and Co.,Limited, 1914, p. 82 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:34-36,Mic. 7:5; Matt. 10:21-23; 24:9-11; Mark 13:11-13; Luke 21:16-19; John 14:27; Rom. 8:36-37
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our only strength against trials. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tippett: the purpose of the privilege

Monday, November 5, 2018
Meditation:
    What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
    —Romans 3:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The concept of Israel as the chosen people does not imply a certain divine favoritism, as some seem to think, but an opportunity of grace, a calling that involved the assumption of the servant role among the nations. It was the fact that they had interpreted themselves as special objects of God’s favor, and rejected the servant role, that led to their own rejection.
    ... A. R. Tippett, Church Growth and the Word of God, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970, p. 53 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 3:1-4; Ps. 78:40-41; Isa. 42:6,7; 53; 43:10; Matt. 21:43; 22:1-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shed Your grace on me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brown: the ways of God

Sunday, November 4, 2018
Meditation:
The fear of the LORD is pure,
    enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
    and altogether righteous.
    —Psalm 19:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The attempt to make God just in the eyes of sinful men will always lead to error.
    ... William L. Brown
    See also Ps. 19:9; 1 Tim. 1:8-11; 2 Tim. 4:3; 1 John 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all love and mercy begins with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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