Brother Lawrence: practicing the Presence

Saturday, October 26, 2019
    Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
    Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664
Meditation:
    Pray without ceasing.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I have quitted all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. And I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, which often causes in me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them, and prevent their appearance to others.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Second Letter, p. 25 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:17; Rom. 8:26; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14; 1 John 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to return to You when my mind wanders. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: prelude to obedience

Friday, October 25, 2019
    Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285
Meditation:
    ... Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
    —1 Samuel 15:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late—and how little revival has resulted? ...
    I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work...
    To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble...
    Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Of God and Men, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1960, p. 50-53 (see the book)
    See also 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 80:18; 85:6; Isa. 57:15; Acts 6:7; 12:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Goad me, Lord, into true obedience. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: giving power to the Word

Thursday, October 24, 2019
Meditation:
    He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
    —2 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wherever God’s Word may be preached, His precepts remain a letter and dead words so long as they are not received by men with a pure heart; only where they pierce to the soul do they become, so to speak, changed into Spirit. (paraphrase of Calvin’s Institutes, I.ix.3)
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), quoted in The Letter to the Romans, Emil Brunner, Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1959, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 3:6-8; John 6:63; Rom. 2:28-29; 7:6,9-11; 8:2,9,16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit, so that Your word may live within us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Muggeridge: the short road to revival

Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Meditation:
    What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
    —1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The early Christians... enjoyed the inestimable advantage of believing that the millennium was near, which precluded them from seeking to establish a beneficent regime in this world. In the time at their disposal, it was just not worth while. Perhaps the best hope of reviving the Christian religion would be to convince the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other dignitaries likewise that the world will shortly be coming to an end. A difficult undertaking, I fear, notwithstanding much evidence pointing that way.
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), The Green Stick, London: Collins, 1972, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Ps. 39:6; 73:25; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach us to value that which is permanent. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aristides: the observable testimony

Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
    —John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God. ... And if they hear that one of them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they all give him what he needs—if it is possible, they bail him out.
    If one of them is poor and there isn’t enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs... This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.
    ... Marcianus Aristides (2nd century), a lawyer, before HadrianThe Apology of Aristides on Behalf of the Christians, ed. J. Rendel Harris, Joseph Armitage Robinson, Cambridge: The University Press, 1891, p. 49-50 (see the book)
    See also John 13:34-35; Isa. 43:19; Acts 4:32-34; Gal. 5:13; 1 Thess. 4:10; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:10; 4:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your goodness shows forth through Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tertullian: loyalty to God's appointees

Monday, October 21, 2019
Meditation:
    Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
    —1 Peter 2:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As to the Emperor and the charge of high treason against us, Caesar’s safety lies not in hands soldered on. We invoke the true God for the Emperor. Even if he persecute us, we are bidden pray for them that persecute us, as you can read in our books which are not hidden, which you often get hold of. We pray for him because the Empire stands between us and the end of the world. We count the Caesars to be God’s vice-regents and swear by their safety (not by their genius, as required). As for loyalty, Caesar really is more ours than yours; for it was our God who set him up. It is for his own good, that we refuse to call the Emperor God; Father of his Country is a better title. No Christian has ever made a plot against a Caesar; the famous conspirators and assassins were heathen, one and all. Piety, religion, faith are our best offering of loyalty.
    ... Tertullian (Quintus S. Florens Tertullianus) (160?-230?), Apology [ca. 193], quoted in The Influence of Christ in the Ancient World, T. R. Glover, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:13-17; Rom. 13:1-7; Tit. 3:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, improve earthly government for all people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chapman: the attraction of belonging

Sunday, October 20, 2019
Meditation:
    Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
    —1 John 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The sure way to success for any commercial venture is to suggest that those people who buy things from it, or gamble on its terms, are members of a “club,” a “circle.” Study the advertisements in any popular magazine: people are “invited to apply for membership;” “members will receive a catalogue;” they are even offered “rules,” which they gladly accept because the need for authority lies heavily upon them; they then receive a card admitting them to the circle, with the “President’s signature” printed on it. In the need for belonging, the acknowledgement of dependence, may lie the greatest opportunity of the Christian evangelist. It is not unlike the conditions under which the early Church worked. In the later Roman Empire, crumbling under its own size, its communications and resources stretched to the utmost, the mystery-religions came into their own. Rites of initiation, the sharing of secret knowledge, offered to people of all classes an escape from the perplexities of life, a retreat into a closed circle of the elect where they might feel that their transformed personalities had some significance. Who can know how many weary souls there were who strayed into the Church through rumours of a secret rite of purification, of a shared meal that conferred wisdom, and who remained to comprehend the fullness of the Godhead, a belonging greater than they had ever imagined.
    ... Raymond Chapman (1924-2013), The Ruined Tower, London: G. Bles, 1961, p. 110-111 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:5; John 14:27; 15:18-19; 16:33; 1 Cor. 10:16; 2 Pet. 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, nothing can equal belonging to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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