Law: consistent witness

Saturday, May 29, 2021
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
    —Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are to love our enemies, we must make our common life a visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If content and thankfulness, if the patient bearing of evil be duties to God, they are the duties of every day, and in every circumstance of our life.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:43-45; Mark 12:32-33; Luke 6:27-28,35-36; 9:23; Rom. 12:1,14,20; 1 Thess. 4:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can make me sustain obedience to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith & Lynn: the end or the means?

Friday, May 28, 2021
    Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Meditation:
    A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
    He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
    He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
    They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
    —Mark 4:37-41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Doubt, rather than faith, is high among the causes of the religious boom. And the church’s response to this current situation will reveal, better than anything else, our faith in God—or our faithlessness. If we churchmen interpret such pervasive doubt as a threat, then we will do as the church has done so often in the past: we will substitute the church for God, and make our church-centered activities into an ersatz kingdom of God. Our faithlessness will be evident in the easy paraphrase of the hard truth of the gospel, and in the lapse from the critical loyalty that God requires of us, into the vague and corrupting sentimentalism that has so marred American Protestantism.
    Or the church can interpret the present religious situation as a promise, as God’s recall of His people to a new reformation. Our faithfulness to God-in-Christ will be manifest in the willingness to be honest with ourselves and with the gospel. Then we may view the church, not as an end in itself, but as the point of departure into the world for which the Son of God died.
    Which will it be?
    ... Carl R. Smith & Robert W. Lynn, “Experiment in Suburbia”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 165-166 (see the book)
    See also Mark 4:37-41; Prov. 2:3-5; Matt. 28:16-17; Rom. 14:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the church is Your instrument in the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: propitiation

Thursday, May 27, 2021
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
    —Ephesians 2:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, in order to remove any obstacle to his love towards us, appointed the method of reconciliation in Christ. There is great force in this word propitiation; for in a manner which cannot be expressed, God, at the very time when he loved us, was hostile to us until reconciled in Christ... The nature of this mystery is to be learned from the first chapter to the Ephesians, where Paul, teaching that we were chosen in Christ, at the same time adds, that we obtained grace in him. How did God begin to embrace with his favour those whom he had loved before the foundation of the world, unless in displaying his love when he was reconciled by the blood of Christ?
    ... 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, II.xvii.2, p. 477-478 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:14-16; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; Eph. 1:6; Col. 1:19-20; 1 John 2:2; 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your ransomed people rejoice. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: falling back on God

Wednesday, May 26, 2021
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
Meditation:
    In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
    —John 16:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We can do nothing, we say sometimes, we can only pray. That, we feel, is a terribly precarious second best. So long as we can fuss and work and rush about, so long as we can lend a hand, we have some hope, but if we have to fall back upon God, ah, then things must be critical indeed!
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also John 14:13-14; 16:23-24; Eph. 2:17-18; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are not my consolation prize. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: world reconciliation to God

Tuesday, May 25, 2021
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
    —2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are, as God’s “ambassadors,” ... cheerfully and constantly to bear our share of the cost of that work of reconciliation. In all humility, we can say that ... God is in every true Christian “reconciling the world unto Himself.”
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:18-20; Isa. 52:7; Luke 9:23; 24:46-47; Acts 13:38; 2 Cor. 3:6; Col. 1:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to proclaim Your message of reconciliation by word and life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Wesley: give me the book

Monday, May 24, 2021
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    it will be for those who walk in that Way;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
    nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
    and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
    —Isa. 35:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have thought—I am a creature of a day, passing through life, as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf; till a few moments hence, I am no more seen! I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book! O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), preface to The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. V, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1826, p. 5 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 35:8-10; Ps. 1:6; Matt. 7:13-14; Luke 24:27; John 14:6; Eph. 6:17; 2 Tim. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your salvation has conquered all obstacles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: Tongues of fire from heaven descend

Sunday, May 23, 2021
    Pentecost
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
    —1 Corinthians 1:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Tongues of fire from heaven descend
    With a mighty rushing wind,
        To blow it up and make
                A living fire
    Of heav’nly charity, and pure desire,
    Where they their residence should take.
    On the apostles’ sacred heads they sit;
    Who now, like beacons, do proclaim and tell
    Th’ invasion of the host of hell;
        And give men warning to defend
    Themselves from the enraged brunt of it.
    Lord, let the flames of holy charity,
        And all her gifts and graces, slide
         Into our hearts, and there abide;
    That thus refined, we may soar above
    With it unto the element of love,
            Even unto thee, dear Spirit,—
    And there eternal peace and rest inherit.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), from “Festival Hymns”, in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. XV, London: Ogle, Duncan & Co., 1822, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:5-7; Acts 2:1-4,14-18; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; Jas. 1:17; 1 Pet. 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we praise You as the giver of gifts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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