Banning: a Christian vocabulary

Saturday, November 9, 2019
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
    —Luke 17:7-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Too many of us have a Christian vocabulary rather than a Christian experience. We think we are doing our duty when we’re only talking about it.
    ... Charles F. Banning
    See also Luke 17:7-10; Matt. 7:21-22; 9:13; Rom. 12:2; Heb. 5:8-9; 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, stop my tongue, that I might work profitably in Your Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: repentance

Friday, November 8, 2019
    Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
Meditation:
    So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
    —Romans 2:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Repentance is but a kind of table-talk, till we see so much of the deformity of our inward nature, as to be in some degree frightened and terrified at the sight of it...
    A plausible form of an outward life, that has only learned rules and modes of religion by use and custom, often keeps the soul for some time at ease, though all its inward root and ground of sin has never been shaken or molested, though it has never tasted of the bitter waters of repentance, and has only known the want of a Saviour by hearsay.
    But things cannot pass thus: sooner or later, repentance must have a broken and a contrite heart; we must with our blessed Lord go over the brook Cedron, and with Him sweat great drops of sorrow, before He can say for us, as He said for Himself: “It is finished.”
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 152-153 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 2:3-4; Ps. 51:17; Luke 22:44; John 18:1; 19:30; Jas. 4:8-10; Rev. 2:5; 3:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break down all my resistance to Your call to repentance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: the greatest sufferer

Thursday, November 7, 2019
    Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739
Meditation:
    Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
    —Hebrews 2:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There never was a pain that befell a man, no frustration or discouragement, however insignificant, that, transferred to God, did not affect God endlessly more than man, and was not infinitely more contrary to Him. So, if God puts up with it for the sake of some good He foresees for you, and if you are willing to suffer what God suffers, and to take what comes to you through Him, then whatever it is, it becomes divine in itself; shame becomes honor, bitterness becomes sweet, and gross darkness, clear light. Everything takes its flavor from God and becomes divine; everything that happens [reveals] God when a man’s mind works that way; things all have this one taste; and therefore God is the same to this man alike in life’s bitterest moments and sweetest pleasures.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Works of Meister Eckhart, London: J. M. Watkins, 1924, p. 17 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 2:14-16; Rom. 4:19-21; 12:1-2; Gal. 3:29; 2 Tim. 2:3; Heb. 3:13-14; 12:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know our suffering. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Temple: traveling heavenward

Wednesday, November 6, 2019
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
    —John 14:2-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are travelling heavenwards, we are already in heaven.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Readings in St. John’s Gospel, v. II, London: Macmillan, 1940, p. 228 (see the book)
    See also John 14:2-4; 12:26; 14:18-20; Acts 1:11; 1 Cor. 1:8; 15:48; 1 Thess. 4:16-17; 2 Tim. 1:11-12; Heb. 9:28; Rev. 3:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are already bringing Your people to our destiny. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Summer: complete Gospel

Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
    —John 3:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Complete Gospel: God loves you.
    Incomplete Gospel: God loves you if...
    ... P. M. Summer, over lunch one day
    See also John 3:16-18; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:18-21 Tit. 3:4-5; 1 John 4:9-10,19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our Savior! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: a prayer for practical wisdom

Monday, November 4, 2019
Meditation:
    “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
    —Malachi 3:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Grant to us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which is worth loving, to praise that which pleaseth Thee most, to esteem that which is most precious unto Thee, and to dislike whatsoever is evil in Thine eyes.
    Grant us with true judgment to distinguish things that differ, and above all to search out and do what is well pleasing unto Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.l.7, p. 211 (see the book)
    See also Mal. 3:17-18; 1 Kings 3:9; Mic. 6:7-8; Matt. 3:17; Rom. 15:15-16; Phil. 1:9-11; Heb. 5:13-14; 6:10; 13:16; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    You are the source of all true discernment, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hooker: Scripture is enough

Sunday, November 3, 2019
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
    But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
    —2 Timothy 3:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is in Scripture therefore no defect, but that any man... may have thereby the light of his natural understanding so perfected... that there can want no part of needful instruction unto any good work which God himself requireth.
    ... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600), The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, Oxford: University Press, 1841, p. 271 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 3:14-15; Ps. 71:17; Matt. 22:29; Luke 24:27; Rom. 16:25-27; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your grace, perfect my understanding of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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