Ellul: the work is complete

Saturday, December 12, 2020
Meditation:
    When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
    —John 19:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Are we to think that God has failed? But the failure of a Christianity that expresses what we have made of revelation does not change at all what God has accomplished. He became incarnate. Jesus Christ, the Son, died (and our sins were pardoned). He is risen (and death, chaos, and the devil are defeated). No matter what may be the mischances of history or the errors and aberrations of the human race, these things endure. What is done is done. Irrespective of what we make of Christianity, God’s work and accomplishment are complete, and they are inscribed in human history.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Subversion of Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 12 (see the book)
    See also John 19:30; Isa. 53:10; John 4:34; 17:4; Rom. 5:12; 10:4; 16:20; Gal. 4:4-5; Heb. 10:5-10; 1 John 1:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your victory is final. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: judging Jesus' claims

Friday, December 11, 2020
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
    —John 17:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In John 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian. Here Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), The Mark of the Christian, Inter-Varsity Press, 1976, p. 15 (see the book)
    See also John 17:20-23; 1:14; 5:19; 6:44; 13:34-35; 1 Pet. 1:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people unity that they may show forth Your Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: seeing Christ in suffering

Thursday, December 10, 2020
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
    As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
    When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
    One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
    Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
    Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
    —Luke 17:12-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must be willing to accept the bitter truth that, in the end, we may have to become a burden to those who love us. But it is necessary that we face this also. The full acceptance of our abjection and uselessness is the virtue that can make us and others rich in the grace of God. It takes heroic charity and humility to let others sustain us when we are absolutely incapable of sustaining ourselves.
    We cannot suffer well unless we see Christ everywhere—both in suffering and in the charity of those who come to the aid of our affliction.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 93-94 (see the book)
    See also Luke 17:12-19; Isa. 53:3,4; Mark 1:40-41; 1 Cor. 10:27; 1 John 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the grace to accept the compassion of others. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Steuart: understanding what Christ is

Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Meditation:
    Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
    They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
    “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
    Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
    Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
    —Mark 8:27-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The truth is that the only key to the Christian life is the life of Christ; that the only solution to the many problems that thicken round our lives as we live them is to be found in the study of His life as He lived it; and that we shall never begin to understand what we ourselves are until we have begun to understand what He is.
    ... R. H. J. Steuart (1874-1948), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also Mark 8:27-30; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your life is the perfect model for mine. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: transformed relationships

Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
    —Luke 8:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Being a Christian depends on a certain inner relatedness to the living Christ. Through this relatedness all other relationships of man—to God, to himself, to other people—are transformed.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Difference in Being a Christian, New York: Association Press, 1955, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:21; Matt. 9:9; 12:46-50; 23:8-12,20; John 10:27; Eph. 2:19-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence alters everything. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ambrose: the peace that is rich

Monday, December 7, 2020
    Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397
Meditation:
    Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
    —Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That peace is truly rich, which passeth all understanding. Peace is rich, modesty is rich, faith is rich, for to the faithful the whole world is a possession. Simplicity is rich, for there are also the riches of simplicity; for she scrutinizes nothing, has no mean, no suspicious, no deceitful thoughts, but pours herself forth with pure affection.
    Goodness too is rich, and if a man preserve it, he is fed by the riches of the heavenly inheritance.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), letter to Simplician, A.D. 387, The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Oxford, J. Parker, 1881, p. 251 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 4:6-7; Prov. 28:10; Matt. 6:19-21; Rom. 11:33; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 11:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You send Your people eternal treasures. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: the church in His mercy

Sunday, December 6, 2020
    Advent II
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    [Jesus, concluding the parable of the laborers in the vineyard:] “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
    “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
    —Matthew 20:13-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church exists, and does not depend for its existence upon our definition of it: it exists wherever God in His sovereign freedom calls it into being by calling his own into the fellowship of His Son.
    And the Church exists solely by His mercy. God shuts up and will shut up every way except the way of faith which simply accepts His mercy as mercy. To that end, He is free to break off unbelieving branches, to graft in wild slips, and to call “No people” His people. And if, at the end, those who have preserved through all the centuries the visible “marks” of the Church find themselves at the same board with some strange and uncouth late-comers on the ecclesiastical scene, may we not fancy that they will hear Him say—would it not be so like him to say—“It is my will to give unto these last even as unto thee?” Final judgment belongs to God, and we have to beware of judging before the time. I think that if we refuse fellowship in Christ to any body of men and women who accept Jesus as Lord and show the fruits of His Spirit in their corporate life, we do so at our peril. It behooves us, therefore, to receive one another as Christ has received us.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 150 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 20:13-16; Hos. 1:10; Rom. 9:25-26; 11:15-21; 15:7; 1 Pet. 2:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Teach me, Lord, to receive your people as You receive them. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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