Thomas a Kempis: love to the limit

Saturday, April 20, 2019
    Holy Saturday
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
    —Luke 14:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly Kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He hath many desirous of consolation, but few of tribulation... Many love Jesus so long as no adversities befall them.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xi, p. 103 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:27; Matt. 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-37; Luke 9:23; 2 Tim. 3:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You must bear me as I bear my cross. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Muggeridge: the Cross and the commandments

Friday, April 19, 2019
    Good Friday
    Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
    —Matthew 22:40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As out of Jesus’ affliction came a new sense of God’s love and a new basis for love between men, so out of our affliction we may grasp the splendour of God’s love and how to love one another. Thus the consummation of the two commandments was on Golgotha; and the Cross is, at once, their image and their fulfillment.
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), Jesus: the Man who Lives, London: Collins, 1975, p. 133 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 22:36-40; Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:15; 1 Pet. 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    All desires are fulfilled in You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: Communion with Christ and with saints

Thursday, April 18, 2019
    Maundy Thursday
Meditation:
    Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
    —1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
Jesus invites His saints
    To meet around His board;
Here pardon’d rebels sit and hold
    Communion with their Lord.

For food He give His flesh,
    He bids us drink His blood;
Amazing favor! matchless grace—
    Of our descending God!

This holy bread and wine
    Maintain our fainting breath,
By union with our living Lord
    And interest in His death.

Let all our pow’rs be join’d
    His glorious name to raise;
Pleasure and love fill ev’ry mind,
    And ev’ry voice be praise.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book III, hymn 2, p. 475 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:16-17; Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 2:46; 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have pardoned my rebellion against You.

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Phillips: where our treasure is

Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
    —Matthew 24:30-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now, if our hopes, whatever we protest, really lie in this world instead of in the eternal order, we shall find it difficult to accept the New Testament teaching of the Second Coming. In our eyes the job is not yet done, and such an action would be, though we would not put it so, an interference. But suppose our hope rests in the purpose of God, then we safely leave the timing of the earthly experiment to Him. Meanwhile we do what we were told to do—to be alert and to work and to pray for the spread of His Kingdom.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. v, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 24:30-31,36,42-44; Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 16:27-28; 25:13; 26:64; Mark 13:26,33-37; Luke 12:40; 21:27,36; 2 Thess. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me focused on Your purposes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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If it be all for naught

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Meditation:
    If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
    —1 Corinthians 15:13,14 (NIV)
Quotation:
If it be all for naught, for nothingness
At last, why does God make the world so fair?
Why spill this golden splendor out across
The western hills, and light the silver lamp
Of eve? Why give me eyes to see, and soul
To love so strong and deep? Then, with a pang
This brightness stabs me through, and wakes within
Rebellious voice to cry against all death?
Why set this hunger for eternity
To gnaw my heartstrings through, if death ends all?
If death ends all, then evil must be good,
Wrong must be right, and beauty ugliness.
God is a Judas who betrays His Son,
And with a kiss, damns all the world to hell,—
If Christ rose not again.
    ... Anonymous, Unknown soldier, killed in World War I, included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 205 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:13-17; John 11:25-26; Acts 17:31; Rom. 4:24-25; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Pet. 1:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You vindicate Your creation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cholmondeley: thirty pieces

Monday, April 15, 2019
Meditation:
    Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
    —Matthew 26:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
Still as of old
Men by themselves are priced—
For thirty pieces Judas sold
Himself, not Christ.
    ... Hester H. Cholmondeley (19th century), included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 302 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 26:14-16; Ps. 54:3-4; Matt. 27:3-5; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6; 1 Tim. 6:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extinguish that spirit within me that will sell You out for peer approval. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Williams: effective sending

Sunday, April 14, 2019
    Palm Sunday
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
    —Luke 12:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No man ever did, nor ever shall, truly go forth to convert the nations, nor to prophesy in the present state of witnesses against Antichrist, but by the gracious inspiration and instigation of the Holy Spirit of God... I prejudice not an external test and call, which was at first and shall be again in force at the resurrection of the churches, ... but in the present state of things I cannot but be humbly bold to say that I know no other true sender but the most Holy Spirit. And when He sends, His messengers will go, His prophets will prophesy, though all the world should forbid them.
    ... Roger Williams (1603?-1683), The Hireling Ministry, London, 1652, p. 3-4 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:11-12; Ex. 4:10-12; Luke 21:12-15; Acts 4:8; 6:8-10; 13:1-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know the touch of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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