Carmichael: a fort in enemy country

Saturday, January 18, 2020
    Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
    —Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I do not find that this position, that of unbroken peacefulness and inward song, is one which we can hope to hold unassailed. It is no soft arrangement of pillows, no easy-chair. It is a fort in an enemy’s country, and the foe is wise in assault and especially in surprise. And yet there can be nothing to fear, for it is not a place that we must keep, but a stronghold in which we are kept, if only, in the moment we are conscious of attack, we look “away unto our faith’s Princely Leader and Perfecter, Jesus, who endured.”
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Rose from Brier [1933], London: SPCK, 1950, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:2; Acts 10:36; Rom. 5:1; 8:6; Eph. 2:14-17; Col. 3:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have spoken peace to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Gore: Jesus, an inward presence

Friday, January 17, 2020
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
    —Romans 8:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was something more than a glorified Christ in the heavens in which [the Apostles] believed. At the beginning John the Baptist had taught his disciples to expect from the Christ the baptism, not of water only, as in his baptism, but of the Spirit. Before His death Jesus had sought to fill His disciples’ minds with the expectation of this gift... And that Spirit had come in sensible power upon them some ten days after Jesus had disappeared for the last time from their eyes... And this Spirit was the Spirit of God, but also and therefore the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus was not to them merely a past example, or a remote Lord, but an inward presence and power. A mere example in past history becomes in experience a feebler and feebler power... But the example of Jesus was something much more than a memory. For He who had taught them in the past how to live was alive in the heavenly places, and was working within them by His Spirit.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Philosophy of the Good Life, J. Murray, 1930, p. 195 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:34; Matt. 28:19,20; John 14:16-17; Acts 1:4-5,8; 2:1-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we have received Your gift. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Tozer: personal holiness and worship

Thursday, January 16, 2020
Meditation:
    But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
    —1 John 1:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 51 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:7; Ps. 56:13; Rom. 13:12; Phil. 1:27; Heb. 12:1-2; 1 John 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, perfect my heart, that I may know true fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Berger: religious affirmation of secular values

Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
    —John 9:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved... Another way of putting this is to say that the churches operate with secular values while the secular institutions are permeated with religious terminology... An objective observer is hard put to tell the difference (at least in terms of values affirmed) between the church members and those who maintain an ‘unchurched’ status. Usually the most that can be said is that the church members hold the same values as everybody else, but with more emphatic solemnity. Thus, church membership in no way means adherence to a set of values at variance with those of the general society; rather, it means a stronger and more explicitly religious affirmation of the same values held by the community at large.
    ... Peter L. Berger (1929-2017), The Noise of Solemn Assemblies, Garden City: Doubleday, 1961, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also John 9:5; Isa. 1:13-16; Matt. 5:13-16; Luke 11:33-35; Phil. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot remake myself; only You can. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Cassell: the roots of national power

Tuesday, January 14, 2020
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
    —Judges 2:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When law and sin ceased to be distinguished in Israel, compassion induced Him to appoint judges again. If these are gifted with heroic qualities, to vanquish the oppressors of Israel, it is nevertheless not this heroism that forms their principal characteristic. That consists in judging. They restore... the authority of the law. For this reason, God raises up judges, not princes. The title sets forth both their work and the occasion of their appointment. Israel is free and powerful when its law is observed throughout the land.
    ... Paulus Cassell (1821-1892), from The Book of Judges, tr. P. H. Steenstra, in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, vol. IV, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, John Peter Lange, New York: C. Scribner & Co., 1871, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also Judg. 2:14-19; 5:1-3; 6:12-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people await the day when Your laws are observed throughout the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Foster: women in the early church

Monday, January 13, 2020
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
    When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
    “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
    But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
    &m dash;Acts 12:11-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That is where they meet, the Upper Room, scene of the Last Supper, scene of the Resurrection appearances when the doors were shut, scene now of their waiting for the Spirit. Whose is it? The clue lies in Acts 12, where St. Peter, strangely freed from Herod’s prison, knows at whose house they will be gathered for prayer. He knocks, startles the gate-girl Rhoda. It was “the house of Mary the mother of John whose surname was Mark”—the young man who was to write the earliest of the gospels. The first meeting place of any Christian congregation was the home of a woman in Jerusalem.
    Something of the sort happens everywhere. The church in Caesarea centres upon Philip the Evangelist. “Now this man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.” ... Joppa church depends on Tabitha, “a woman full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.” Follow St. Paul about the Mediterranean. He crosses to Europe because he dreams of a man from Macedonia who cries, “Come over and help us.” But when he lands at Philippi it is not a man, but a woman. “Lydia was baptized and her household”—his first convert in Europe, a woman. Everywhere women are the most notable of the converts, often the only ones who believe. In Thessalonica there are “of the chief women not a few;” Beroea, “Greek women of honourable estate;” Athens, only two names, one of them, Damaris, a woman. At Corinth Priscilla and Aquila come into the story, the pair always mentioned together, and four times out of the six with the wife’s name first, a thing undreamed of in the first century. Why? Because she counted for more in church affairs—hostess of the church in her houses in Corinth, Ephesus and Rome, chief instructress of Apollos the missionary, intimate of the greatest missionary of all, St. Paul. Six times in the Epistles greetings are sent to a house-church, and in five cases the church is linked with a woman’s name.
    ... John Foster (1898-1973), Five Minutes a Saint, Richmond: John Knox Press, 1963, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also Acts 12:11-16; 16:14-15; 17:12,34; 18:24-28; Rom. 16:1-3,6,12; Col. 4:15; 2 Tim. 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You that You have sanctified whom You will; that there is neither male nor female, for all are one. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Gossip: the meaning of pain

Sunday, January 12, 2020
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
    After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
    —Isaiah 53:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pain is a kindly, hopeful thing, a certain proof of life, a clear assurance [that] all is not yet over, that there is still a chance. But if your heart has no pain, well, that may betoken health, as you suppose. But are you certain that it does not mean that your soul is dead?
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 277 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 53:11-12; Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:22,28; Heb. 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, since You suffered so much for me, I must not refuse the small discomforts that You permit for my chastening. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth