Bonhoeffer: which side are we on

Saturday, October 5, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
    —Matthew 6:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If temptation were really what natural man and moral man understand by it, namely, testing of their own strength—whether their vital or their moral or even their Christian strength—in resistance, on the enemy, then it is true that Christ’s prayer would be incomprehensible. For that life is won only from death and the good only from the evil is a piece of thoroughly worldly knowledge which is not strange to the Christian. But all this has nothing to do with the temptation of which Christ speaks. It simply does not touch the reality which is meant here. The temptation of which the whole Bible speaks does not have to do with the testing of my strength, for it is of the very essence of temptation in the Bible that all my strength—to my horror, and without my being able to do anything about it—is turned against me; really all my powers, including my good and pious powers (the strength of my faith), fall into the hands of th e enemy power and are now led into the field against me. Before there can be any testing of my powers, I have been robbed of them.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation, London: SCM Press, 1955, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:13; Ps. 38:10; Pr. 30:8; Matt. 26:41; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Pet. 1:6-7; 5:8; 2 Pet. 2:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am helpless to resist temptation without You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Francis: study your nature

Friday, October 4, 2019
    Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226
Meditation:
    Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”
    —Acts 27:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every one must study his own nature. Some of you can sustain life with less food than others can, and therefore I desire that he who needs more nourishment shall not be obliged to equal others, but that every one shall give his body what it needs for being an efficient servant of the soul. For as we are obliged to be on our guard against superfluous food which injures body and soul alike, thus we must be on the watch against immoderate fasting, and this the more, because the Lord wants conversion and not victims.
    ... St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), in Saint Francis of Assisi: a biography, Johannes Jørgensen, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912, p. 103 (see the book)
    See also Acts 27:33-34; Ps. 63:4-5; Matt. 4:1-2,11; Luke 4:1-2; John 4:31-34; 1 Cor. 8:8; Col. 2:21-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to see the good things in life as Your provision. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stevenson: making people good?

Thursday, October 3, 2019
    Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896
    Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958
Meditation:
    Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
    —1 Corinthians 10:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbors good. One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy—if I may.
    ... Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, v. XII, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1922, p. 396 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:24; Matt. 7:12; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27-37; Rom. 13:8-9; 1 Cor. 10:33; Phil. 2:3-4; Jas. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, humble my heart to service. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: an idol of will

Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Meditation:
    But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
    Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
    “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
    —John 4:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Verily, we know not what an evil it is to indulge ourselves, and to make an idol of our will... Once I would make much ado, if I saw not the world carved and set in order to my liking; now I am silent, when I see God... is fattening and feeding the children of perdition. I pray God, I may never find my will again.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Feb. 20, 1637, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also John 4:32-34; Ps. 34:8; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 5:8-10,17; 1 Pet. 2:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my will is swallowed up in Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Therese of Lisieux: to know no fear

Tuesday, October 1, 2019
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
    John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
    —Luke 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
To live of love, it is to know no fear;
    No memory of past faults can I recall;
No imprint of my sins remaineth here;
    The fire of Love divine effaces all.
O sacred flames! O furnace of delight!
    I sing my safe sweet happiness to prove.
In these mild fires I dwell by day, by night.
        I live of love!
    ... Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), Poems of St. Teresa, Carmelite of Lisieux, Boston, Angel Guardian Press, 1907, “To Live of Love”, n. 6 (see the book)
    See also Luke 3:16; Ps. 103:12; Dan. 3:22-25; 1 John 4:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Send the fire of Your love into my heart, Lord! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Butler: off the table

Monday, September 30, 2019
Meditation:
    First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
    —2 Peter 3:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is, now at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it, as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment; and nothing remained, but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals, for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world.
    ... Joseph Butler (1692-1752), Advertisement in The Analogy of Religion [1736], New York: Ivison, Blakeman Taylor & Co., 1872, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 1:12-14; Ps. 1:1-3; 22:7; Pr. 1:22; Isa. 53:3; Matt. 27:39-43; Mark 15:29-30; 1 Pet. 2:22-24; 2 Pet. 3:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me grace and courage to speak against the popular beliefs of culture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: the Law as surgeon

Sunday, September 29, 2019
    Feast of Michael & All Angels
Meditation:
    So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
    —Galatians 3:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Law cuts into the core of the evil, it reveals the seat of the malady, and informs us that the leprosy lies deep within.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), from Sermon no. 37, 1855 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:22-24; Rom. 5:20; Matt. 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32; Rom. 3:10-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only Your grace can cure the sickness and sin within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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