Herbert: Prayer, the Church's banquet

Saturday, February 27, 2021
    Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633
Meditation:
    On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
    —Isaiah 25:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
Prayer, the Church’s banquet, Angel’s age,
    God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
    The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower,
    Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
    The six days world-transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
    Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,
    The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

    Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
    The land of spices, something understood.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Poetical Works of George Herbert, New York: D. Appleton, 1857, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 25:6-8; John 3:3; 19:34; Eph. 3:4-6; Col. 1:25-27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Yourself known to us.

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Bullock: the universe is theocentric

Friday, February 26, 2021
Meditation:
[The LORD:]
Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you, and you shall answer me.
Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
    —Job 40:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The God Speeches remind us that the universe is essentially theocentric. Further, although much about divine justice had not been clear to Job, God had not left the world quite so destitute of moral implications as Job had alleged. The natural world with its beauty and orderly design presents man with an indicator of an ordered moral universe even though it be beyond man’s cognitive perception. By revealing transcendence in meticulous details, the Lord simultaneously revealed His immanence. So near is He to man that He appeared to Job personally. So near is He to His world that He causes the rain to fall on the subhuman creatures even though man knows nothing about His activity there.
    ... C. Hassell Bullock (b. 1939), Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1979, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also Job 38; 39; 40; 41; Matt. 5:45; Rom. 1:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have all authority, and You are present. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Caussade: blindly follow

Thursday, February 25, 2021
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
    —John 6:38-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In fulfilling these duties we are always sure of possessing the “better part” because this holy will is itself the better part, it only requires to be allowed to act and that we should abandon ourselves blindly to it with perfect confidence. It is infinitely wise, powerful and amiable to those who trust themselves unreservedly to it, who love and seek it alone, and who believe with an unshaken faith and confidence that what it arranges for each moment is best, without seeking elsewhere for more or less, and without pausing to consider the connexion of these exterior works with the plans of God.
    ... Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Abandonment to Divine Providence, I.i.5 (see the book)
    See also John 6:38-40; Matt. 26:39; Mark 3:32-35; John 4:34; Rom. 8:28; 12:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, conform my heart to Your perfect will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: communion with Christ

Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Meditation:
    I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
    —Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To have faith is to rely upon Christ, the Person, with the whole heart. It is not the understanding of the mind, not the theological opinion, not creed, not organization, not ritual. It is the koinonia of the whole personality with God and Christ. This experience of communion with Christ is itself the continual attitude of dependence on the Saviour which we call faith.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 8 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 4:13; Matt. 8:5-10; John 14:23; Rom. 8:35-37; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Gal. 2:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church relies on You for its existence and unity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Polycarp: far from sin

Tuesday, February 23, 2021
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
    —1 Corinthians 13:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He that is furnished with love, stands at a distance from all sin.
    ... Polycarp (69?-155?), Letter to the Philippians A.D. 110-140, 3:3 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:6; Prov. 16:6; 1 John 5:18; Jas. 5:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, displace the sin in me with love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: having Christ

Monday, February 22, 2021
Meditation:
    ... remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
    —Ephesians 2:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is impossible for a man to be a Christian without having Christ; and if he has Christ he has at the same time all that is in Christ.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), remarks on Thesis 37, Resolutiones et Responsiones, 1518History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Germany, Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné, London: Walther, 1838, p. 379-380 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:12-13; Rom. 7:4; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Col. 2:2-3,9-10; 3:11; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 John 9
Quiet time reflection:
    Does someone I know think he or she is a Christian but does not have Christ? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: communion with God

Sunday, February 21, 2021
Meditation:
    Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
    —Mark 1:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus, like all other religious leaders, taught men to pray, that is, He taught them to look away from the world of ordinary sense impressions and to open the heart and spirit to God, yet He is always insistent that religion must be related to life. It is only by contact with God that a better quality of living can be achieved—and Jesus Himself, as the records show, spent many hours in communion with God—yet that new quality of life has to be both demonstrated and tested in the ordinary rough-and-tumble of plain living. It is in ordinary human relationships that the validity of a man’s communion with God is to be proved.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), When God was Man, London: Lutterworth Press:, 1954, p. 22 (see the book)
    See also Mark 1:35; Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 5:16; 11:1-4; 18:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is strength to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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