More: for his enemies

Saturday, July 6, 2019
    Feast of John Huss, Reformer, Martyr, 1415
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] ... But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...
    —Matthew 5:44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Almighty and most gracious God, have mercy on N and N, and on all that bear evil to me, and wish me harm; and by every such easy, tender, and merciful means as Thine infinite goodness best can devise, vouchsafe to amend and redress them: and make us saved souls together in heaven, where we may ever live and love together with Thee and Thy blessed saints, This grant, O sacred and glorious Trinity, for the bitter passion of our sweet Lord and Saviour Christ. Amen.
    ... Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Sir Thomas More: a selection from his works, ed. William Joseph Walter, Baltimore: F. Lucas, 1841, p. 305 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:43-47; Luke 6:27-28,35; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach us to follow Your example towards those who are spiteful to us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: fighting the enemy

Friday, July 5, 2019
Meditation:
    For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
    —Romans 6:6,7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), IV.8 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 546-547 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:29-30; Rom. 6:6-7,12,19; 1 Cor. 6:15; Gal. 2:20; 5:24-25; Col. 2:11; 3:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your grace, do not let sin conquer me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bell: Why is there evil?

Thursday, July 4, 2019
Meditation:
    To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
    —Ecclesiastes 2:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What else is the meaning of our present chaos, of humanity in sorrow, but this—that contemporary man is tried before the bar of the Eternal, and found wanting? Nor can any nation survive, or re-establish lasting peace, if it rests on those foundations on which contemporary nations have been built—our own included. What are those crumbling foundations? Conceit, self-will, denial of discipline, self-expressionism, secularism, this-worldliness, greed, entrenched privilege, defiance of God’s desire. On base absurdities have we built. Have we now moral courage to face our common sin, or are we content to trust in one form of armed wickedness to overcome the evils of another form of the same mad folly? Merely by smashing our enemies we shall not remake the world. By Beelzebub no devils are cast out.
    ... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), Still Shine the Stars, New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1941, p. 16 (see the book)
    See also Eccl. 2:26; Ps. 133:1; Matt. 23:8; Mark 3:22-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Remind me, Lord, in accordance with Your will, of my duties towards the interests of others. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: listening

Wednesday, July 3, 2019
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
    —Titus 1:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there will be nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words ... never really speaking to others.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Tit. 1:10-11; Prov. 10:19; 17:27; 29:20; Eph. 4:29; Jas. 1:19-20,26
Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, open my ears and be a guard on my tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Middle English Sermons: self-knowledge without shame

Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
    —Luke 8:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All angels, all saints, all the devils, all the world shall know all the deeds that ever thou didest, though thou have been shriven of them and contrite. But this knowledge shall be no shame to thee if that thou be saved, but rather a [witness to God], right as we read of the deeds of Mary Magdalene to her worship and not to her reproof.
    ... Middle English Sermons, Woodburn O. Ross, ed. by H. Milford, London: Oxford University Press, 1940, included in The New Christian Year, Charles Williams, London: Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 77 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:17; Ps. 32:1-2; 85:2; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; Luke 8:2; 24:9-10; John 20:14-18; Rom. 4:6-8; 8:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is nothing that You cannot transform into a blessing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the value of lost things

Monday, July 1, 2019
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
    “Twelve,” they replied.
    “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
    They answered, “Seven.”
    He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
    —Mark 8:17-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When I trouble myself over a trifle, even a trifle confessed—the loss of some little article, say—spurring my memory, and hunting the house, not from immediate need, but from dislike of loss; when a book has been borrowed of me and is not returned, and I have forgotten the borrower, and fret over the missing volume, ... is it not time that I lost a few things when I care for them so unreasonably? This losing of things is the mercy of God; it comes to teach us to let them go. Or have I forgotten a thought that came to me, which seemed of the truth? I keep trying and trying to call it back, feeling a poor man until that thought be recovered—to be far more lost, perhaps, in a notebook into which I shall never look again to find it! I forget that it is live things that God cares about.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Cause of Spiritual Stupidity”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 53-43 (see the book)
    See also Mark 8:17-21; Ps. 94:8; Matt. 8:21-22; 16:8-11; Mark 6:51-52; Luke 9:59-62
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, detach my allegiance from worthless things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Coleridge: the declension of love

Sunday, June 30, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
    —Matthew 5:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He, who begins by loving Christianity, better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.
    ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Aids to Reflection [1825], London: W. Pickering, 1839, Aphorism XXV, p. 74 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:13; Luke 11:39-52; 2 Cor. 10:17-18; 1 Tim. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fix my heart on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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