Harkness: A God like that

Saturday, December 8, 2018
Meditation:
    He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
    —Isaiah 53:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
I cannot think that God would be content
To view unmoved the toiling and the strain,
The groaning of the ages, sick and spent,
The whole creation travailing in pain.
The suffering God is no vast cosmic force,
That by some blind, unthinking, loveless power
Keeps stars and atoms swinging in their course,
And reckons naught of men in this grim hour.
Nor is the suffering God a fair ideal
Engendered in the questioning hearts of men,
A figment of the mind to help me steel
My soul to rude realities I ken.
God suffers with a love that cleanses dross;
A God like that, I see upon a cross.
    ... Georgia Harkness (1891-1974), included in The Questing Spirit, Halford E. Luccock & Frances Brentano, New York: Coward-McCann, 1947, p. 308 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 53:4-8; Rom. 5:6-8; 8:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:21-24; 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone are our Savior! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Ambrose: the most desolate house

Friday, December 7, 2018
    Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
    —Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wealth, which leads men the wrong way so often, [should be] seen less for its own qualities than for the human misery it stands for... The large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are big enough to hold crowds—and also big enough to shut out the voice of the poor! ... The poor man cries before your house, and you pay no attention. There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there, confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), De Nabuthe Jezraelite [ca.395], in Journal of the History of Ideas, v. III, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1942, XIII.56, p. 461 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:15; 1 Kings 21:1-19; Ps. 62:10; 119:36-37; Pr. 23:4-5; Luke 8:14; 16:14; Col. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:7-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my house a mansion of generosity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bayne: our club

Thursday, December 6, 2018
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
    —Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The world will not be saved merely because people go to church, ours or any other’s. If we seem to say [that the world will be so saved] to the tormented nations, this is only a measure of our failure to see that the Anglican Communion is not an end in itself. And what an impertinence it is when we fail to see that... —when we seem to say to the world that their only hope is in the tepid conventions of our club.
    ... Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. (1908-1974), “The Challenge of the Frontiers: Organizing for Action (Theme Address),” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 10:23; Mark 16:15-16; John 3:36; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 3:11; Col. 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 1 John 5:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my heart place its hope in You and nothing less. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watson: the beam in our own eye

Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
    —Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we see a speck in a brother’s eye, we must first see if there is a log in our own eye; perhaps that speck in our brother’s eye is only a reflection of the beam in our own.
    ... David Watson
    See also Matt. 7:3-5; 2 Sam. 12:5-7; Ps. 50:16-21; Luke 6:41-42; 18:11; John 8:7-9; Rom. 2:1,21-23; Gal. 6:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to know my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: suffering

Tuesday, December 4, 2018
    Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637
Meditation:
    Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
    —Romans 8:37 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Suffer all, and conquer all.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), in a letter, March 30, 1771, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. X, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1827, p. 442 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:36-37; 1 Cor. 15:54-57; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; 1 John 4:4; 5:3-5; Rev. 12:10-12; 21:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have secured the victory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beach: the common currency

Monday, December 3, 2018
    Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552
Meditation:
    They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
    —2 Timothy 4:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is a rare campus indeed where the Christian universe of discourse is the shared basis of allegiance and the common currency of intellectual exchange. More likely, the Christian faith is an archaic facade, a bit of Victorian fretwork on the front of the house, of which polite note is made at Commencement, but not the common premise of teaching and research and learning.
    ... W. Waldo Beach (1916-2000), “Where Do We Meet?”
    See also 2 Tim. 4:4; Prov. 1:32; Zech. 7:11; Acts 7:57-58; 2 Tim. 3:1-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Let the world know, Lord, that all truth is Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: the power of revelation

Sunday, December 2, 2018
    Advent I
Meditation:
    Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
    —1 John 4:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Gilbert West and his friend, Lord Lyttleton, both men of acknowledged talents, had imbibed the principles of infidelity from a superficial view of the Scriptures. Fully persuaded that the Bible was an imposture, they were determined to expose [it]. Mr. West chose the Resurrection of Christ, and Lord Lyttleton the conversion of St Paul, for the subject of hostile criticism. Both sat down to their respective tasks full of prejudice, and a contempt for Christianity. The results of their separate endeavours was that they were both converted by their attempts to overthrow the truth of Christianity! They came together, not as they had expected, to exult over an imposture exposed to ridicule, but to lament their folly, and congratulate each other on their joint conviction, that the Bible was the word of God. Their able enquiries have furnished two most valuable treatises in favour of revelation; one, entitled “Observations on the Conversion of St Paul,” and the other, “Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.”
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), Commenting and Commentaries, New York: Sheldon, 1876, p. 237-238 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:1-3; 1 Cor. 1:23; Eph. 4:14; 1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; 3:16-17; Tit. 1:13-14; 2 Pet. 1:16-21; 3:3; Jas. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Your word, Lord, withstands all scrutiny. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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