Taylor: to live as we preach

Saturday, November 17, 2018
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
    —1 Corinthians 10:32-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth...
    We tell this people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above—that all these things are transitory—does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
    ... J. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), in Days of Blessing in Inland China, Montagu Harry Proctor Beauchamp, London: Morgan & Scott, 1887, p. 33 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:32-33; 13:3; 2 Cor. 4:2; Jas. 2:15-17; 2 Pet. 1:5-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to clean up my act! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beecher: the sponge

Friday, November 16, 2018
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
    “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
    “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    —Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are many persons who think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week.
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Life Thoughts: gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher, Edna Dean Proctor, ed., Sheldon, 1860, p. 4 (see the book)
    See also Luke 18:9-14; Ps. 25:7,11; 41:4; 51:1-3; 130:3-4; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have confidence in Your grace alone. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clarke: theology faces the past

Thursday, November 15, 2018
Meditation:
    I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
    —John 6:48-50 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Theology in general, instead of acting as a beacon-light to guide the people of God, the laity, as they confront the problems of living for Christ in the world, has for generations been taking refuge in an ever more minute study of Christian origins. Theology is less and less about God and God’s world, and more and more a department of ancient history, absorbed in minute details of historical and literary criticism. The whole business is wildly out of proportion.
    ... O. Fielding Clarke, For Christ’s Sake, New York: Moorehouse-Barlow, 1963, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also John 6:48-51; Matt. 18:11; 20:28; Luke 19:10; John 3:17; 10:10; 1 Tim. 1:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my contemporary. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Muggeridge: meaning

Wednesday, November 14, 2018
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
    Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
    Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
    —Acts 12:6-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Where, then, does happiness lie? In forgetfulness, not indulgence, of the self. In escape from sensual appetites, not in their satisfaction. We live in a dark, self-enclosed prison, which is all we see or know if our glance is fixed ever downward. To lift it upward, becoming aware of the wide, luminous universe outside—this alone is happiness. At its highest level, such happiness is the ecstasy that mystics have inadequately described. At more humdrum levels, it is human love; the delights and beauties of our dear earth, its colors and shapes and sounds; the enchantment of understanding and laughing, and all other exercise of such faculties as we possess; the marvel of the meaning of everything, fitfully glimpsed, inadequately expounded, but ever present.
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), Jesus Rediscovered, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Acts 12:6-11; Isa. 61:1-3; 60:1-5; Acts 2:46-47; 1 Cor. 13:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted us release from ourselves. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Simeon: repentance

Tuesday, November 13, 2018
    Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Meditation:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart,
    O God, you will not despise.
    —Psalm 51:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Repentance is in every view so desirable, so necessary, so suited to honor God, that I seek that above all. The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears.
    I long to be in my proper place, my hand on my mouth, and my mouth in the dust... I feel this to be safe ground. Here I cannot err... I am sure that whatever God may despise... He will not despise the broken and contrite heart.
    ... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, Pittsburgh: R. Carter, 1847, p. 405 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 51:17; 34:18; 147:3; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Matt. 5:3; Luke 5:32; Rom. 12:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to repent in those things that I have not yet yielded to you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Catherine of Genoa: all good is in God

Monday, November 12, 2018
Meditation:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
    —Psalm 51:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I clearly recognize that all good is in God alone, and that in me, without Divine Grace, there is nothing but deficiency... The one sole thing in myself in which I glory, is that I see in myself nothing in which I can glory.
    ... Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), in The Life and Sayings of Saint Catherine of Genoa, Alba House, 1964, p. 90 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 51:7; Isa. 64:6; Matt. 15:18-19; 19:17; Mark 7:21-23; Luke 11:13; Rom. 7:18; Eph. 2:1-5; Tit. 3:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have raised me from death. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moody: troublesome man

Sunday, November 11, 2018
    Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
    —Matthew 6:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899) (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:27-34; Isa. 6:5; 64:5-6; Matt. 7:1-5; Luke 7:6-7; Rom. 7:14-24; Eph. 3:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send me self-control. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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