Law: the indwelling of Christ

Saturday, June 1, 2019
    Feast of Justin, Martyr at Rome, c.165
    Commemoration of Angela de Merici, Founder of the Institute of St. Ursula, 1540
Meditation:
    Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
    —Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
Quotation:
    You have no questions to ask of any body, no new way that you need inquire after; no oracle that you need to consult; for whilst you shut yourself up in patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God, you are in the very arms of Christ, your whole heart is His dwelling-place, and He lives and works in you as certainly as He lived in, and governed that body and soul, which He took from the Virgin Mary.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VIII, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 125 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 3:20; Ps. 46:7; Matt. 1:23; 18:20; 28:19-20; Mark 16:20; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, own my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: adversity

Friday, May 31, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.”
    —Matthew 24:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.i., p. 85 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 24:9; Ps. 103:10; Matt. 10:37-38; 16:24-25; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-24; 14:26-27,33; John 16:2; Rom. 8:18; 1 Thess. 3:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have promised that we shall not be overcome. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: the sufficiency of Jesus

Thursday, May 30, 2019
    Ascension
    Feast of Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906
    Commemoration of Joan of Arc, Visionary, 1431
    Commemoration of Apolo Kivebulaya, Priest, Evangelist, 1933
Meditation:
    Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
    —John 21:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end of everything to us... There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous, which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that are to be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done—but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more.
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), All for Jesus, London: Richardson & Son, 1854, p. 1-2 (see the book)
    See also John 21:25; Job 26:14; Ps. 40:5; 71:15; Matt. 11:5; John 20:30-31; Acts 10:38
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are everything to a needy world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: the autonomy of fate

Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Meditation:
The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it.
    —Psalm 24:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If by fate anyone means the will or power of God, let him keep his meaning but mend his language: for fate commonly means a necessary process which will have its way apart from the will of God and of men.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), The City of God, v. I [426], Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. 1 of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1871, V.i, p.178 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 24:1; Deut. 10:14; Matt. 10:29; 1 Tim. 6:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my future rests with You alone. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baptist Messenger: suppose

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
    Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Meditation:
    Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
    —1 Timothy 5:1,2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Just suppose members of our churches were voted on, like the members of certain civic clubs. Suppose three unexcused absences required that the individual’s name be automatically dropped from the roll, and he could be reinstated only by special vote of the body. Suppose absences from services had to be made up by attending services in some other place, or by carrying out some special project. Suppose church members had to be re-elected to membership each year, and that their attendance and participation in the program of activities determined how the vote went. Oh, well—just suppose.
    ... Anonymous, from The Baptist Messenger
    See also 1 Tim. 5:1-2; Matt. 18:15-16,20; Rom. 14:1; 15:1-3; 1 Cor. 5:11-13; 2 Cor. 6:14-15; 13:1-2,10; Gal. 6:1; 2 Thess. 3:14-15; Tit. 3:10-11; Heb. 10:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, quicken Your people, that the church may serve Your Kingdom better. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: faith secure

Monday, May 27, 2019
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
Be at rest once more, O my soul,
    for the LORD has been good to you.
    —Psalm 116:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we inculcate, that faith ought to be certain and secure, we conceive not of a certainty attended with no doubt, or of a security interrupted by no anxiety; but we rather affirm, that believers have a perpetual conflict with their own diffidence, and are far from placing their consciences in a placid calm, never disturbed by any storms. Yet, on the other hand, we deny, however they may be afflicted, that they ever fall and depart from that certain confidence which they have conceived in the Divine mercy.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.ii.17, p. 507 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 116:7; Jer. 30:10; Matt. 11:28-29; Heb. 4:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith to get over the hard parts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the "good old days"

Sunday, May 26, 2019
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
    —Acts 22:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A century since or so, they spoke of sharing our Lord with the heathen, and the world rocked with laughter at so crazy a scheme, with the Church joining loudly in the merriment. Yet today, who laughs now? We ought to be the gladdest and the most exultant people in the world; for we have found the key to our difficulties, and it turns; have come on a solution of life’s problems, and it works.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 38 (see the book)
    See also Acts 22:21; Gen. 12:1-3; Hos. 8:1; Acts 9:15; 13:46-47; Rom. 1:5; Gal. 2:7-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word has gone out into the world with power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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