Juliana of Norwich: how God loves us

Saturday, May 8, 2021
    Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
    Commemoration of Dallas Willard, Teacher, Spiritual Writer, 2013
Meditation:
    How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
    —1 John 3:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth the knowing of all creatures: that is to say, there is no creature that is made that may [fully] know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loveth us.
    ... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love, Grace Harriet Warrack, ed., Methuen, 1901, I.vi, p. 14 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:1; Rom. 5:8-9; Eph. 2:4-5; 1 John 4:7-10,15-16,19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot conceive Your love for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carson: drifting

Friday, May 7, 2021
Meditation:
    Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
    —1 John 3:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
    ... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, v. II [1999], reprint, Good News Publishers, 2006, Jan. 23 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:7-9; Matt. 5:48; John 15:19; Gal. 5:22-23; Col. 3:5-8; 1 Tim. 6:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:21-22; Heb. 12:10-12; 1 Pet. 1:14-16; 3:10-12; 2 Pet. 3:11-12; 1 John 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, prohibit my drifting away from You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stearns: active love

Thursday, May 6, 2021
Meditation:
    Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
    —1 Peter 1:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In today’s world, wracked by terrorism, poverty, lawlessness, disease, and violence, the message of the gospel and the need for Christians who put their faith into action has never been more acute. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are an integral part of God’s plan for the world—the same world that God loved so much—“that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In this famous verse we see the depth of God’s love for our world. It was not a passive and sentimental love but rather a dynamic, active, and sacrificial love. For God so loved the world that he acted!
    ... Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, Inc., Introduction to Faith In Action Study Bible: Living God’s Word in a Changing World [2005]
    See also 1 Pet. 1:22-23; Matt. 25:34-40; John 3:16; 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 6:2; Jas. 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have called me to action. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacInnes: identifying with the needy

Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Meditation:
So justice is driven back,
    and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
    honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to be found,
    and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The LORD looked and was displeased
    that there was no justice.
    —Isaiah 59:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christians seeking social justice have a special responsibility. Much more is required than the bringing of aid to people who are homeless and in need, and contributing to their support.
    There are real dangers to be faced. It must never be allowed to appear that charity is dispensed to the unfortunate by superior beings... Much greater care must be taken to identify the giver with those whom he comes to serve.
    ... A. C. MacInnes (1901-1977), “Social Justice,” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 59:14-15; 1:15-17; Amos 5:23-24; Zech. 8:16; Matt. 6:1-4; 12:7; Luke 12:33; Acts 2:44-45; Rom. 12:8; 1 John 3:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown Your people the justice You desire from us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stott: becoming human

Tuesday, May 4, 2021
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
    —Mark 7:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To become Christian is in a real sense to become human because nothing dehumanizes more than rebellion against God or humanizes more than reconciliation to God and fellowship with God. But to assert joyfully that salvation includes humanization is not at all the same thing as saying that humanization (rescuing men from the dehumanizing process of modern society) equals salvation.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Christian Mission in the Modern World, London: Falcon; Downers Grove: IVP, 1975, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also Mark 7:15; Rom. 8:20-21; Gal. 6:8; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:10-12; Jas. 3:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have promised to the spirit as well as the body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: for the Scriptures to speak

Monday, May 3, 2021
Meditation:
    And [Jesus] said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
    Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures...
    —Luke 24:44-45 (AV)
Quotation:
    We desire that the Scripture may speake like it selfe, as in the language of Canaan, that it may bee understood even of the very vulgar.
    Many other things we might give thee warning of (gentle Reader) if we had not exceeded the measure of a Preface alreadie. It remaineth, that we commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to build further then we can aske or thinke. He removeth the scales from our eyes, the vaile from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand his word, enlarging our hearts, yea correcting our affections, that we may love it above gold and silver, yea that we may love it to the end.
    ... Miles Smith (1554-1624), in the preface to The Authorised Version of the English Bible [1611], Cambridge: The University Press, 1909, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:44-45; Acts 26:17-18; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 5:13-14; 2 Tim. 3:16-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we praise You for the gift of Your word in our language. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Athanasius: the portrait of God

Sunday, May 2, 2021
    Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
    —Luke 19:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst, in order that he might renew mankind made after Himself, and seek out His lost sheep, even as He says in the Gospel: “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.” This also explains His saying to the Jews: “Except a man be born anew...” He was not referring to a man’s natural birth from his mother, as they thought, but to the re-birth and re-creation of the soul in the Image of God.
    ... St. Athanasius (293?-373), The Incarnation of the Word of God [4th century], St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996, XIV, p. 41-42 (see the book)
    See also Luke 19:10; 5:31-32; John 1:14; 3:3; Rom. 5:6; Gal. 6:15; Tit. 3:5; Heb. 7:25; 1 Pet. 1:23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, through You I have been remade. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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