Owen: no Spirit, no Gospel

Saturday, February 23, 2019
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
    —Acts 4:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is sottish ignorance and infidelity to suppose that, under the Gospel, there is no communication between God and us but what is, on His part, in laws, commands, and promises; and on ours, by obedience performed in our strength, and upon our convictions unto them. To exclude hence the real internal operations of the Holy Ghost, is to destroy the Gospel.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), II.5 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 200 (see the book)
    See also John 14:6; Acts 4:31; Rom. 8:14,26-27; 1 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak in the secret recesses of our hearts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: His absence

Friday, February 22, 2019
Meditation:
    Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
    —Romans 14:19-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is to be feared lest our long quarrels about the manner of His presence cause the matter of His absence, for our want of charity to receive Him.
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), Good Thoughts in Bad Times [1645], Chicago: United Society of Christian Endeavor, Boston, 1898, Mixt Contemplations, II. (see the book)
    See also Rom. 14:19-21; 1 Cor. 13; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 6:3-4,11-12; Tit. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, come into our hearts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Auden: forgiveness

Thursday, February 21, 2019
Meditation:
    Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
    —Luke 23:34a (NIV)
Quotation:
    Tout comprendre, c’est tout pardonner. (“To know all is to forgive all.”) No commonplace is more untrue. Behavior, whether conditioned by an individual neurosis or by society, can be understood, that is to say, one knows exactly why such and such an individual behaves as he does. But a personal action or deed is always mysterious. When we really act, precisely because it is a matter of free choice, we can never say exactly why we do this rather than that. But it is only deeds that we are required to forgive. If someone does me an injury, the question of forgiveness only arises if I am convinced (a) that the injury he did me was a free act on his part and therefore no less mysterious to him than to me, and (b) that it was me personally whom he meant to injure. Christ does not forgive the soldiers who are nailing him to the Cross; he asks the Father to forgive them. He knows as well as they do why they are doing this—they are a squad, detailed to execute a criminal. They do not know what they are doing, because it is not their business, as executioners, to know whom they are crucifying.
    If the person who does me an injury does not know what he is doing, then it is as ridiculous for me to talk about forgiving him as it would be for me to “forgive” a tile which falls on my head in a gale.
    ... W. H. Auden (1907-1973), A Certain World, London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 167-168 (see the book)
    See also Luke 23:34; Gen. 50:7; Matt. 5:44; 6:12; Luke 6:27-28; 23:47-48; Acts 7:60; Rom. 12:14; 1 Pet. 2:20-23; 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cranfield: contending for the faith

Wednesday, February 20, 2019
    Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906
Meditation:
    Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
    —Jude 1:3 (KJV)
Quotation:
    There are still those who would add to the faith human traditions and fancies, thus cluttering it up and obscuring it; and those who would take away from it, rejecting (often with little thought) whatever may seem to them to be out of harmony with the so-called modern mind; and others who would distort it, making it one way or another a pretext for injustice and oppression. But, if we are to be effective in contending for the faith against false teachings, we must certainly contend for it by striving ourselves to understand it ever more truly and more fully.
    ... C. E. B. Cranfield (1915-2015), I & II Peter and Jude, London: SCM Press, 1960, p. 155-156 (see the book)
    See also Jude 1:3; Acts 20:29; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John 4:6; Jude 1:17-19; Rev. 22:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Dear Lord, open the Scriptures to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: beyond creeds

Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Meditation:
    As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
    —1 John 2:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is life in Jesus Christ, and a life can never be confined within certain systems or creeds. Therefore creeds are not the end or object of faith in themselves, but expressions of our fellowship with Christ, and must not be mistaken for the object or center of our faith. Obviously the fullness of the living Christ cannot be held within the narrow limits of written creeds.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 2 (see the book)
    See also Mark 7:6-8; John 5:39-40; Acts 10:47-48; 2 Cor. 10:5; Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 4:7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 2:16-18; 1 John 2:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I acknowledge Your continual presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: foreknowledge

Monday, February 18, 2019
Meditation:
    Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
    —1 Peter 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things have ever been, and perpetually remain, under his eyes, so that to his knowledge there is nothing future or past, but all things are present. And they are present in such a way that he not only conceives them through ideas, as we have before us those things which our minds remember, but he truly looks upon them and discerns them as things placed before him. And this foreknowledge is extended throughout the universe to every creature. We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he determined with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or death.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xxi.5, p. 145 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:1-2; Matt. 6:8; Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29-30; 11:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we stand or fall according to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beecher: the Bible as telescope

Sunday, February 17, 2019
    Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977
Meditation:
    Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
    —Romans 1:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond.
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, second series, New York: J. B. Ford, 1873, p. 5 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 1:1-4; John 1:18; 6:46; Rom. 16:25-26; Gal. 1:11-12; Eph. 3:2-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word reveals Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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