Cogdell: portrait of Jesus in psalms

Saturday, May 1, 2021
    Feast of Philip & James, Apostles
Meditation:
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
    blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Fear the LORD, you his saints,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
    —Psalm 34:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In these psalms [34, 5, 22, & 69] we see Jesus to be a person of intense loneliness and deep suffering. We see him as a person of fervent prayer to God—for himself, for his followers, for his enemies. We find the scope of Jesus’ concerns to encompass the entire world and ages. We get a glimpse of his pain over the treatment he received from his fellow Jews, particularly from his betrayer and from the leaders of his nation in their determined opposition to him. In short, we see Jesus to be a person “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning”.
    ... John R. Cogdell, “The humanity of Jesus Christ, as revealed in certain Psalms”, section VI (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:8-9,19-20; 22:1; Luke 22:44; Heb. 4:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have known our passions, loves, hatreds, and despair, and yet have not sinned. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: suffering the Cross

Friday, April 30, 2021
    Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922
Meditation:
    In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
    —2 Timothy 3:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sometimes thou shalt be forsaken of God, sometimes thou shalt be troubled by thy neighbors; and what is more, oftentimes thou shalt be wearisome even to thyself. Neither canst thou be delivered or eased by any remedy or comfort; but so long as it pleaseth God, thou oughtest to bear it. For God will have thee learn to suffer tribulation without comfort, and that thou subject thyself wholly to Him, and by tribulation become more humble. No man hath so cordial a feeling of the Passion of Christ, as he that hath suffered the like himself.
    The Cross therefore is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee. Thou canst not escape it, whithersoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou goest, thou carriest thyself with thee, and shalt ever find thyself. Both above and below, without and within, which way so ever thou dost turn thee, everywhere thou shalt find the Cross; and everywhere of necessity thou must hold fast patience, if th ou wilt have inward peace, and enjoy an everlasting crown.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xii, p. 107 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 3:10-13; Ps. 22:1; Luke 9:23; 1 Cor. 15:30-31; Heb. 12:5-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me my cross. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Westcott: practical atheism

Thursday, April 29, 2021
    Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.
    —Mark 12:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is not enough to hold that God did great things for our fathers: not enough to pride ourselves on the inheritance of victories of faith: not enough to build the sepulchres of those who were martyred by men unwilling as we may be to hear new voices of a living God. Our duty is to see whether God is with us; whether we expect great things from Him; whether we do not practically place Him far off, forgetting that if He is, He is about us, speaking to us words which have not been heard before, guiding us to paths on which earlier generations have not been able to enter. There is, most terrible thought, a practical atheism, orthodox in language and reverent in bearing, which can enter a Christian Church and charm the conscience to rest with shadowy traditions, an atheism which grows insensibly within us if we separate what cannot be separated with impunity, the secular from the divine, the past and the future from the present, earth from heaven, the things of Caesar from the things of God.
    ... Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), The Historic Faith, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1883, p. 40-41 (see the book)
    See also Mark 12:14-17; Isa. 31:1; Jer. 2:17; John 8:36-44; Rom. 1:19-20; 8:16-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all the world and all our worship is Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Flavel: the chemistry of heaven

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
    Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841
Meditation:
    For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
    —1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Lord makes excellent uses even of your infirmities and failings to do you good, and makes them turn to your unexpected advantage: for, by these defects he hides pride from your eyes; he [goads] from self-dependence; he makes you to admire the riches of free grace: he makes you to long more ardently for heaven, and entertain the sweeter thoughts of death: and doth not the Lord then make blessed fruits to spring up to you from such a bitter root? O the blessed chemistry of heaven, to extract such mercies out of such miseries!
    ... John Flavel (1628-1691), Serm. XXX from The Method of Grace, in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. II, London: J. Mathews, 1799, p. 420 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:9-10; Isa. 43:1-3; Deut. 8:11-14; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Gal. 4:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my deficiencies are Your strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rossetti: a better resurrection

Tuesday, April 27, 2021
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Meditation:
    Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
    —Psalm 143:11 (KJV)
Quotation:
A Better Resurrection

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
    My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;
    Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
    No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
        O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
    My harvest dwindled to a husk;
Truly my life is void and brief
    And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
    No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall—the sap of spring;
        O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
    A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
    Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perished thing,
    Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
        O Jesus, drink of me.
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 143:11; 1 Cor. 3:15; Heb. 11:35; 12:29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You take broken lives and remake them.

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Judson: unconditional grace

Monday, April 26, 2021
Meditation:
    What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
    —Romans 6:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is thought that unconditional grace is unsafe. Man will feel free to go on sinning. On the contrary, unconditional forgiveness is the only rope that is long enough to reach to the bottom of the pit into which we have fallen.
    ... Edward Judson (1844-1914), “Life under pressure: a Lenten sermon”, in The Outlook, v. XCVII, Lyman Abbott, ed., Outlook Co., 1911, p. 749 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:1-2; Matt. 10:7-8; Rom. 3:22-24; 6:14; Eph. 1:4-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have redeemed me from beyond all hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: joy in fellowship

Sunday, April 25, 2021
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
    —John 17:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What is Christ’s joy in us, but that He deigns to rejoice on our account? And what is our joy, which He says shall be full, but to have fellowship with Him? He had perfect joy on our account, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and predestinating us; but that joy was not in us, because we did not then exist; it began to be in us, when He called us. And this joy we rightly call our own, this joy wherewith we shall be blessed, which is begun in the faith of them who are born again, and shall be fulfilled in the reward of them who rise again.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), from Tractate 83 on the Gospel of John as quoted in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, vol. III, John Peter Lange & tr. Philip Schaff, New York: C. Scribner & Co., 1871, p. 485 (see the book)
    See also John 17:24; 15:11; Eph. 1:3-8; Heb. 12:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your joy is my fuel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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