Lindskoog: leaving the work to others

Saturday, September 28, 2019
Meditation:
    By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
    —Hebrews 11:24-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [C. S. Lewis] was leery of too many prayers that leave all the work to God and other people.
    ... Kathryn Lindskoog (1934-2003), C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian, Glendale, Cal.: G/L Publications, 1973, reprint, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1981, p. 125 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 11:24-25; Matt. 6:1-8; 5:44; Luke 6:27-28; 2 Cor. 9:8; Jas. 5:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You move us by faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: the curse of war

Friday, September 27, 2019
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
    In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also. In that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the milk they give, he will have curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns.
    —Isaiah 7:20-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest curse which can be entailed upon mankind is a state of war. All the atrocious crimes committed in years of peace—all that is spent in peace by the secret corruptions or by the thoughtless extravagances of nations, are mere trifles compared with the gigantic evils which stalk over the world in a state of war. God is forgotten in war—every principle of Christian charity is trampled upon.
    ... Sydney Smith (1771-1845), Wit and wisdom of the Rev. Sydney Smith, New York: Redfield, 1856, p. 276 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 7:20-23; Dan. 4:31; Matt. 24:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that Your people’s love shall not grow cold. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Theologia Germanica: The cause for hell

Thursday, September 26, 2019
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
    —Acts 7:51 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing burneth in hell but self-will. Therefore it hath been said, “Put off thine own will, and there will be no more hell.”
    ... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous, ascribed to Johannes de Francfordia, (1380?-1440) & Susanna Winkworth, tr., published anonymously by Martin Luther, ch. XXXIV (see the book)
    See also Acts 7:51; Ps. 75:5; Matt. 16:24; Phil. 2:3; 1 Pet. 5:8; 2 Pet. 2:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extinguish self-will in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Andrewes: look on it

Wednesday, September 25, 2019
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
    —John 19:32-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pierce that in you, that was the cause of Christ’s piercing, that is, sin and the lusts thereof... Look and be pierced with love of Him, who so loved you, that He gave Himself in this sort to be pierced for you.
    Look upon Him, and His heart opened, and from that gate of hope promise yourself, and look for all manner of things that good are.. the deliverance from the evil of our present misery [and] the restoring to the good of our primitive felicity... Look back upon it with some pain; for one way or other, look upon it we must.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), preached March 25, 1597, on Good Friday, Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 131-133,135 (see the book)
    See also John 19:32-34; Isa. 49:16; Zech. 12:10; Phil. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to endure that suffering You have ordained. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Driver: the one remaining virtue

Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Meditation:
    Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
    —Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is easy to recognize, in the relational rigidities of many chapel-going people, the “negative reflex actions” of a character structure which has survived the destruction of its intellectual and moral foundations. But equally, no one can go far in the Free Churches without lighting upon the new or newish cult of “sincerity as an end in itself”—the first refuge of minds too lazy to rebuild their intellectual foundations—and the sentimental distrust of “orthodoxy” and “authority,” in theological contexts at least.
    ... Christopher Driver (1932-1997), A Future for the Free Churches?, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:2; Acts 2:46-47; Rom. 12:9; Phil. 2:12; 1 Tim. 1:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I never scorn Your word or Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maugham: the value of art

Monday, September 23, 2019
Meditation:
    One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple
    —Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Art—if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life—must teach men humility, tolerance, wisdom, and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.
    ... W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), Mr. Maugham Himself, Doubleday, 1954, p. 673 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 27:4; 1 Chr. 15:16; Isa. 52:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Author of all beauty, Your light makes clear my life’s path. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newton: immediacy in the parables

Sunday, September 22, 2019
Meditation:
    After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
    —Luke 10:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I observe that Christ and His forerunner John in their parabolic discourses were wont to allude to things present. The old prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, ... from the vessels of a potter, ... but also, when such objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, ... by shooting, ... etc. By such types the prophets loved to speak. And Christ, being endued with a nobler prophet spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by His own actions, [which would have been] less grave and decent, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. On occasion of the harvest approaching, He admonishes His disciples once and again of the spiritual harvest. Seeing the lilies of the field, He admonishes His disciples about clothing. In allusion to the present season of fruits, He admonishes His disciples about knowing men by their fruits. In the time of the Passover, when trees put forth their leaves, He bids His disciples, “learn a parable from the fig-tree.”
    ... Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Commentary on Daniel, Darby and Browne, 1733, p. 60, fn. (see the book)
    See also Luke 10:1-2; 1 Sam. 15:27-29; 2 Kings 13:14-19; Jer. 18:3-6; Matt. 6:28; 7:16; 9:37; 24:32; John 4:35
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know our world perfectly. Send us where we may best be used. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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