MacDonald: the grace of shame

Saturday, February 6, 2021
Meditation:
    If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
    —2 Corinthians 3:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do you so love the truth and the right that you welcome, or at least submit willingly to the idea of an exposure of what in you is yet unknown to yourself—an exposure that may redound to the glory of the truth by making you ashamed and humble?... Are you willing to be made glad that you were wrong when you thought others were wrong?... We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future. It will not hurt us so long as we do not try to hide things, so long as we are ready to bow our heads in hearty shame where it is fit that we should be ashamed. For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Shame is a thing to shame only those who want to appear, not those who want to be. Shame is to shame those who want to pass their examination, not those who would get into the heart of things... To be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of truth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Final Unmasking”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 235-236, 238 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 3:8-9; Eccl. 12:14; Matt. 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; 12:2; Rom. 1:16; 2:16; 2 Cor. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, expose all the dark places in my heart to Your cleansing light. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eliot: Christianity and...

Friday, February 5, 2021
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
    Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!”
    —Acts 8:18-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might prove useful... To justify Christianity because it provides a foundation of morality, instead of showing the necessity of Christian morality from the truth of Christianity, is a very dangerous inversion; and we may reflect that a good deal of the attention of totalitarian states has been devoted with a steadiness of purpose not always found in democracies, to providing their national life with a foundation of morality—the wrong kind, perhaps, but a good deal more of it. It is not enthusiasm, but dogma, that differentiates a Christian from a pagan society.
    ... T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), The Idea of a Christian Society, London: Faber, 1939, reprint, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 46-47 (see the book)
    See also Acts 8:18-20; Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 15:12-14; John 5:39-40
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may we never see Christianity as the way to get something else. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: inoculated against the Gospel

Thursday, February 4, 2021
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    “All these [commandments] I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
    Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
    When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
    —Matthew 19:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have all been inoculated with Christianity, and are never likely to take it seriously now! You put some of the virus of some dreadful illness into a man’s arm, and there is a little itchiness, some scratchiness, a slight discomfort, disagreeable, no doubt, but not the fever of the real disease, the turning and the tossing, and the ebbing strength. And we have all been inoculated with Christianity, more or less. We are on Christ’s side, we wish him well, we hope that He will win, and we are even prepared to do something for Him, provided, of course, that He is reasonable, and does not make too much of an upset among our cozy comforts and our customary ways. But there is not the passion of zeal, and the burning enthusiasm, and the eagerness of self-sacrifice, of the real faith that changes character and wins the world.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 17 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 19:20-22; Deut.30:17-18; Matt. 23:27-28; Acts 4:18-20; Rom. 2:20-24; 2 Tim. 3:2-5; Tit. 1:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your word, ignite our spirits when they are cold.. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Boice: the bone of contention

Wednesday, February 3, 2021
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    [Peter:] “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
    —Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The world’s theology is easy to define. It is the view that human beings are basically good, that no one is really lost, that belief in Jesus Christ is not necessary for salvation. Such capitulation is common in some church circles. When I was speaking at [certain conferences], a section of my paper had to do with human lostness. I discussed it as a motivation for mission: we take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others because they are lost without it. In every consultation, that point in my paper aroused anger on the part of those listening. Some were infuriated. Nearly all were dissatisfied. Each time, as I moved into that section of the paper, people began to shift, cough, move. When I finished, it was the part of the paper they brought up for objection.
    ... James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000), Foundation of the Christian Faith, InterVarsity Press, 1986, p. 674 (see the book)
    See also Acts 4:12; Matt. 18:11-14; John 3:16-18; Rom. 1:22-23; 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is no gospel except Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Crashaw: LORD, when the sense of Thy sweet grace

Tuesday, February 2, 2021
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
    —Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
Lord, when the sense of Thy sweet grace
Sends up my soul to seek Thy face,
Thy blessed eyes breed such desire,
I die in love’s delicious fire.
    O Love! I am thy sacrifice,
Be still triumphant, blessed eyes;
Still shine on me, fair suns! that I
Still may behold though still I die.

    Though still I die, I live again,
Still longing so to be still slain;
So gainful is such loss of breath,
I die even in desire of death.
Still live in me this loving strife
Of living death and dying life:
For while Thou sweetly slayest me,
Dead to myself, I live in Thee.
    ... Richard Crashaw (1613-1649), The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, London: J. R. Smith, 1858, p. 204 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6-8; 8:3-4; 12:1-2; Gal. 5:24; Col. 2:11-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long to be perfected for You.

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Law: the piety of the Gospel

Monday, February 1, 2021
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
    —Obadiah 3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whilst pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition, had only the authority of the heathen world, Christians were thereby made more intent upon the contrary virtues. But when pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition, have the authority of the Christian world, then private Christians are in the utmost danger, not only of being shamed out of the practice, but of losing the very notion of the piety of the Gospel.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 323-324 (see the book)
    See also Obad. 1:3-4; Mark 10:42-45; 1 Tim. 6:17; 1 John 2:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your people for self-control. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: matter matters

Sunday, January 31, 2021
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    “You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.”
    —Nehemiah 9:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God loves matter. In his original creative acts God affirmed matter again and again, declaring it good at every point along the way. We, therefore, should take the material world quite seriously; it is the “icon” of God, the epiphany of his glory. We must not dismiss material things as inconsequential—or worse yet, as genuinely evil. The stuff of the material world—what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called “holy matter”—has been created by God and again he declared it good, very good (Gen. 1:25,31). The material world is intended to enhance human life.
    ... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Streams of Living Water, Harper San Francisco, 1998, p. 260 (see the book)
    See also Neh. 9:6; Gen. 1:25,28,31; 2:19-20; Job 26:7; John 9:2-3; 2 Cor. 9:8-10; 2 Pet. 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your goodness is echoed in everything Your hand has touched. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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