John of the Cross: but not of the world

Saturday, December 14, 2019
    Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
    —Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), from “Spiritual Maxims” in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Cosimo, Inc., 2007, p. 603 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:19-21; Ps. 62:10; 119:36-37; Pr. 23:5; Isa. 33:6; Luke 12:33-34; Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 4:18; Col. 3:1-3; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    The treasure of Your presence appears to me in the faces of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: for the new year

Friday, December 13, 2019
    Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304
    Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
    —Revelation 2:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Almighty and most merciful Father, I again appear in Thy presence the wretched misspender of another year which Thy mercy has allowed me. O Lord, let me not sink into total depravity, look down upon me, and rescue me at last from the captivity of sin. Impart to me good resolutions, and give me strength and perseverance to perform them. Take not from me Thy Holy Spirit, but grant that I may redeem the time lost, and that by temperance and diligence, by sincere repentance and faithful obedience, I may finally attain everlasting happiness, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Prayers and Meditations, London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806, Jan. 1, 1766, p. 53-54 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:11-15; Ps. 19:14; 51:10-12; Rev. 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have declared our release from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: amplification

Thursday, December 12, 2019
Meditation:
    It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
    —Hosea 11:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When an unskillful servant gathers many herbs, flowers, and seeds in a garden, you gather them out that are useful, and cast the rest out of sight. Christ deals so with our performances. All the ingredients of self that are in them on any account He takes away, and adds incense to what remains, and presents it to God. This is the cause that the saints at the last day, when they meet their own duties and performances, they know them not, they are so changed from what they were when they went out of their hand. “Lord, when saw we Thee naked or hungry?” So God accepts a little, and Christ makes our little a great deal.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX [1668], in Works of John Owen, v. VI, New York: R. Carter & Bros., 1851, p. 603 (see the book)
    See also Hos. 11:3-4; Ex. 30:36; Ps. 130:4; Matt. 16:9-10; 25:37-40; Rom. 8:26-27; Heb. 7:23-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my hands are empty, yet You fill them with the resources of Your grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: repentance

Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
    —1 Timothy 5:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let no man deceive you with vain words, or with vain hopes, or with false notions of a slight and sudden repentance: as if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons, that when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there.
    No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God, who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. III, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon LIV, p. 574 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:33; Eccl. 12:1; Hag. 1:5-6; Luke 8:14; 12:31; John 6:27; Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 5:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let the urgency of Your kingdom be known to all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: union with God

Tuesday, December 10, 2019
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”
    —John 6:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must remember that our experience of union with God, our feeling of His presence, is altogether accidental and secondary. It is only a side effect of His actual presence in our souls, and gives no sure indication of that presence in any case. For God Himself is above all apprehensions and ideas and sensations, however spiritual, that can ever be experienced by the spirit of man in this life.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 225 (see the book)
    See also John 6:46; Ex. 3:13-14; John 1:18; 4:24; 1 Tim. 6:15-16; 1 John 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Though I am alone, Lord, I receive Your assurance that You are with me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Studdert Kennedy: comfort

Monday, December 9, 2019
Meditation:
    [Paul and Barnabas] preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
    —Acts 14:21-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have taught our people to use prayer too much as a means of comfort. Not in the original and heroic sense of uplifting, inspiring, strengthening, but in the more modern and baser sense of soothing sorrow, dulling pain, and drying tears. The comfort of the cushion, not the comfort of the Cross.
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Hardest Part, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919, p. 111 (see the book)
    See also Acts 14:21-23; Eze. 14:22-23; Ps. 71:21; John 14:1,18,27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have called me to action. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: life without God's Word

Sunday, December 8, 2019
    Advent II
Meditation:
    But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
    —Hebrews 3:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The deceit, the lie of the devil consists of this, that he wishes to make man believe that he can live without God’s Word. Thus he dangles before man’s fantasy a kingdom of faith, of power, and of peace, into which only he can enter who consents to the temptations; and he conceals from men that he, as the devil, is the most unfortunate and unhappy of beings, since he is finally and eternally rejected by God.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation, London: SCM Press, 1955, p. 25 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 3:13; Ps. 14:1-3; Isa. 44:20; Obad. 1:3; Luke 4:3-4; John 8:44; Jas. 1:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I not to be deceived by temptation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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