Packer: the anchor

Saturday, January 4, 2020
Meditation:
    And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
    —1 John 5:20 (KJV)
Quotation:
    If we think that Jesus did not rise, but “lives” and “reigns” only in his followers’ memories and imaginations, and is not actively and objectively “there” in the place of power, irrespective of whether he is acknowledged or not, we should give up hope of our own rising, and of Jesus’ public return, and admit that the idea of churches and Christians being sustained by the Spirit-giving energy of a living Lord was never more than a pleasing illusion. And, in that case, we ought frankly to affirm that, though the New Testament is an amazing witness to the religious creativity of the human spirit, its actual message is more wrong than right, more misleading than helpful; and we must reconstruct our gospel accordingly. Only a weak, muddled, or cowardly mind will hesitate to do this.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), “Jesus Christ the Lord”, in The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:20; 1 Cor. 15:17; 1 John 2:6; 4:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us out from under the spreading clouds of doubt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: another fool for Christ

Friday, January 3, 2020
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
    —Luke 4:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    George Brush, the hero of [Thornton Wilder’s] “Heaven’s My Destination,” a textbook salesman and evangelist extraordinary, is the innocent fool, in the kindliest sense of both the noun and the adjective. He is striving to be the fool in Christ, sowing the inevitable amazement, consternation and wrath that must ensue when Christ’s fool runs at large among the worldly wise.
    ... Edmund Fuller (1914/15-2001), “Thornton Wilder: the Notation of the Heart”, originally in American Scholar, September, 1959, pp 210-217, included in Books with Men Behind Them, New York: Random House, 1959, p. 49-50 (see the book)
    See also Luke 4:28-30; Mark 3:20-21; John 15:8-9; 1 Cor. 1:20-25; 2:14; 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, you show that we cannot hold onto our friends’ good opinion of us and the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Basil: God's judgments

Thursday, January 2, 2020
    Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
    Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
    Do you know the time they give birth?”
    —Job 39:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let nothing be to you an occasion of unbelief. If thou considerest the stones, even they contain proof of the power of their Maker; and so does the ant, the gnat, the bee. In smallest things the wisdom of the Creator is oftentimes displayed. He who stretched out the heavens, and poured forth the mighty volume of the sea, He it is who hollowed the minute sting of the bee to shed its virus through. You must not say that anything was done by chance. But His judgments are like the great deep.
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), Homily on Ps. XXXII.5, quoted in Saint Basil the Great, Richard T. Smith, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879, p. 111 (see the book)
    See also Job 39:1-2; Gen. 18:10-14; Job 12:7-9; 38-41; Ps. 19:1-6,9; 32:5; 146:5-6; Eccl. 11:5; Jer. 10:12; Matt. 6:28-30; Rom. 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your creation speaks of You without ceasing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: reading the Bible

Wednesday, January 1, 2020
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.
    —Nehemiah 8:2-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Preface to the Prophets [1532], in What Luther Says: an anthology, v. I, Ewald Martin Plass, ed., Concordia Pub. House, 1959, p. 83 (see the book)
    See also Neh. 8:2-4; 2 Kings 22:8-13; Neh. 8:18; Ps. 1:2-3; 119:97-104; Matt. 13:51-52; 1 Tim. 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Your word is precious to me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wycliffe: the source of ordination

Tuesday, December 31, 2019
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
    —2 Corinthians 11:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In order to the existence of such a ministry in the Church, there is requisite an authority received from God, and consequently power and knowledge imparted from God for the exercise of such ministry; and where a man possesses these, although the bishop has not laid hands upon him according to his traditions, God has Himself appointed him.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), from a late sermon
    See also 2 Cor. 11:5-6; Rom. 1:1; Gen. 14:18-20; John 15:16; 1 Tim. 4:16; 2 Tim. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone call Your servants. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Martyn: the forerunner

Monday, December 30, 2019
Meditation:
    Pointing to his disciples, [Jesus] said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
    —Matthew 12:49-50 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I am born for God only. Christ is nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister,—a near relation, a more affectionate friend; and I rejoice to follow Him, and to love Him. Blessed Jesus! thou art all I want—a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through, as a Christian, a minister, or a missionary.
    ... Henry Martyn (1781-1812), Life and letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D., with John Sargent, London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1862, p. 140 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:46-50; John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:29; 1 Cor. 9:24-25; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 2:10,18; 7:25-26; 12:1-2; Jude 1:24-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me my true family. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: the Savior from sin

Sunday, December 29, 2019
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
    —Matthew 1:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day “evangelist.” He announces a Saviour from hell rather than a Saviour from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Studies in the Scriptures, volume 9, p. 9-10 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 1:20-21; Ps. 130:7-8; Matt. 9:12; Luke 5:31; John 1:29; Acts 5;31; 1 John 1:7; 2:1-2; 3:5; Rev. 1:4-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people long for that day when they shall sin no more. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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