Law: the two masters

Saturday, December 1, 2018
    Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916
Meditation:
    I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
    —Revelation 3:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whilst you are divided betwixt God and the world, you have neither the pleasures of religion, nor the pleasures of the world; but are always in the uneasiness of a divided state of heart. You have only so much religion as serves to disquiet you; to check your enjoyments; to show you a handwriting on the wall; to interrupt your pleasures; and to appear as a death’s-head at all your feasts; but not religion enough to give you a taste and feeling of its proper pleasures and satisfactions. You dare not wholly neglect religion; but then you take no more than is just sufficient to keep you from being a terror to yourself; and you are as loath to be very good, as you are fearful to be very bad.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Perfection [1726], London: W. Baynes, 1807, p. 335-336 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 3:15; Josh. 24:15; 1 Kings 18:21; Isa. 29:18; Zeph. 1:4-6; Matt. 6:24; 10:37; Luke 14:27; Jas. 1:6-8; 4:8; Rev. 2:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to passion and ardor for Your name. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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On ordinances

Friday, November 30, 2018
    Feast of Andrew the Apostle
Meditation:
    Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
    —Galatians 3:23-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Without ordinances, men would be much more mischievous and ungovernable than dogs and cattle. And few have come to the knowledge of the truth but what have begun with holy practices and ordinances, and exercised themselves therein so long as they knew nothing more nor better.
    ... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous, ascribed to Johannes de Francfordia, (1380?-1440) & Susanna Winkworth, tr., published anonymously by Martin Luther, ch. XXVI (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:23-25; Matt. 5:17-18; Rom. 3:20-22; 7:7; 10:4; 13:8; Gal. 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have blessed Your law and blessed the freedom You gave Your children. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: dignity vs. relevance

Thursday, November 29, 2018
Meditation:
    As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.
    —Mark 1:29-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For some extraordinary reason, the Church moves in an atmosphere of antiquity. I have no doubt that it makes for dignity; I have also no doubt that there are times when it makes for complete irrelevance; for, if there is one thing that is true of religion it is that it must always be expressible in contemporary terms. Religion fails if it cannot speak to men as they are.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), In the Hands of God, New York: Harper & Row, 1967, Westminster Press, 1981, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also Mark 1:29-32; Ps. 25:7; 41:4; 51:1-3; Isa. 29:14; Luke 18:10-13; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You reveal the needs of men. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Paton: the gospel of progress

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Meditation:
    I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
    —Galatians 1:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [The] doctrine of [inevitable] progress sustained our fathers in the carrying of capitalist democratic culture to most parts of the globe. Its core was the conviction that, in thus extending the range of western liberal culture and developing its assumptions, they were in effect establishing on earth that which would grow into the kingdom of God. Some put it sharply but un-Biblically: “building the Kingdom;” others, of a more secular turn of mind, echoed J. A. Symonds’ hymn, “These things shall be.” That whole view exists today only as débris, for it has foundered on the rocks, not so much of human sin, as of the contradictions and complexities of the very western culture that was the substance of its belief.
    ... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 28 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 1:6-8; Acts 4:12; Rom. 10:3; 2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 3:2; Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Tim. 2:5; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us to assist in the progress of Your Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: tolerance or indifference?

Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Meditation:
    In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
    —2 Thessalonians 3:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If errors must be tolerated, say some, then men may do what they please, without control. No means, it seems, must be used to reclaim them. But is gospel conviction no means? Hath the sword of discipline no edge? Is there no means of instruction in the New Testament established, but a prison and a halter?
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Of Toleration [1649], in Works of John Owen, v. VIII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 170 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:6-8; Pr. 11:30; 1 Cor. 9:22; 1 Tim. 4:16; Tit. 3:11; Jas. 4:11-12; 5:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach us to live by Your Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: There is a stream

Monday, November 26, 2018
    Commemoration of Isaac Watts, Hymnwriter, 1748
Meditation:
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
    —Psalm 46:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
There is a stream, whose gentle flow
Supplies the city of our God;
Life, love, and joy still gliding through,
And watering our divine abode:

That sacred stream, thine holy word,
That all our raging fear controls;
Sweet peace thy promises afford,
And give new strength to fainting souls.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Psalms of David Imitated [1719], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, Ps. 46, first part, p. 121 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 46:4; 1:2; 36:8-9; Isa. 35:6-10; Eze. 47:1-12; John 4:13-14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You feed Your people with Your word.

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Blackham: the end of humanism

Sunday, November 25, 2018
    Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
Meditation:
    For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
    —2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    On humanist assumptions, life leads to nothing; and every pretense that it does not is a deceit.
    ... H. J. Blackham (1903-2009), Objections to Humanism, Constable, 1963, p. 119 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Ps. 14:1; Rom. 1:18-20; 2 Cor. 4:1-2; Phil. 3:18-20; 1 Thess. 5:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your way is eternal life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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