Gwatkin: a definitive entry

Saturday, April 17, 2021
Meditation:
    You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
    —Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christian life properly began with Baptism, for Baptism was the convert’s confession before men, the soldier’s oath (sacramentum) which enlisted him in the service of Christ. Till that decisive step was taken, he could not be more than a friendly heathen.
    ... Henry M. Gwatkin (1844-1916), Early Church History to A.D. 312, v. I, London: Macmillan, 1912, p. 248 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:26-27; Mark 1:8; 16:16; Acts 2:38-41; 8:36-38; 10:47-48; Rom. 6:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your baptized servants stand ready. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Murray: praying without ceasing

Friday, April 16, 2021
Meditation:
    Pray without ceasing.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:17 (AV)
Quotation:
    If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), The Ministry of Intercession: a plea for more prayer, New York: Revell, 1898, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:17; Luke 18:1; 21:36; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my life be one of continual prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Isaac of Syria: withdrawing from the world

Thursday, April 15, 2021
Meditation:
    Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
    —1 Peter 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No one can approach God without withdrawing from the world. By withdrawal I do not mean change of physical dwelling place, but withdrawal from worldly affairs. The virtue of withdrawal from the world consists in not occupying your mind with the world.
    ... St. Isaac of Syria (d. c. 700), quoted in Early Fathers from the Philokalia, Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), comp. & E. Kadloubovsky, Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer, trs., Faber and Faber, 1959, p. 183 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:11; Matt. 6:25-34; Mark 8:35-37; Luke 17:33; John 15:19; Rom. 12:2; Phil. 3:18-19; Tit. 2:11-14; Jas. 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my idle mind away from the world’s concerns and towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: to His glory

Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Meditation:
    You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
    —Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now the great thing is this: we are consecrated and dedicated to God in order that we may thereafter think, speak, meditate, and do, nothing except to his glory. For a sacred thing may not be applied to profane uses without marked injury to him.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.vii.1, p. 619 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:22-24; Ps. 119:11; Rom. 12:1-2; 14:8; Gal. 2:20; 1 Pet. 5:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have consecrated Your people to Your glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cloud of Unknowing: longing love

Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
    —Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He may well be loved, but not thought. By love may He be gotten and held; but by thought never. And therefore, though it be good sometimes to think of the kindness and the worthiness of God especially, and although it be a light and a part of contemplation: nevertheless yet in this work it shall be cast down and covered with a cloud of forgetting. And thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but deftly, with a devout and a pleasing stirring of love, and try to pierce that darkness above thee. And smite upon that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love; and do not give up, whatever befalleth.
    ... The Cloud of Unknowing 14th century, ed. Evelyn Underhill, ch. 6 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:6; Isa. 55:8-9; Matt. 11:25; Rom. 11:33; 1 John 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I reach out for You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Outerbridge: expendable

Monday, April 12, 2021
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!”
    —Acts 5:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone forth in the darkness, held aloft by hands that perished in the destruction of the institution that failed. Christians tend to defend the institution of their own creation with tenacity. It is institutional Christianity that repeatedly shackled the Church. The Church again and again has to lose itself in order to find itself. It falls to rise; it fails in order to fight better. Many of the missionary institutions of the Church are expendable. They should always be treated as expendable.
    ... Leonard M. Outerbridge, The Lost Churches of China, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1952, p. 10-11 (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:29; Dan. 6:10; John 1:4-5; Matt. 22:16-21; Acts 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word cannot be defeated. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: holiness as a by-product

Sunday, April 11, 2021
    Commemoration of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878
Meditation:
    Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
    I answered, “Sir, you know.”
    And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
    —Revelation 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our calling is not primarily to be holy women, but to work for God and for others with Him. Our holiness is an effect, not a cause; so long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness as an end in itself, the thing breaks down. God can do nothing while my interest is in my own personal character—He will take care of this if I obey His call. In learning to love God and people as He commanded us to do, obviously your sanctification cannot but come, but not as an end in itself.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 27-28 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 7:13-14; Acts 26:14-18; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Heb. 9:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all holiness is of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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