Saturday, June 26, 2021

MacDonald: love before understanding

Saturday, June 26, 2021
Meditation:
    We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
    —Hebrews 6:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Gospels contain what the Apostles preached—the Epistles, what they wrote after the preaching. And until we understand the Gospel, the good news about our brother-king—until we understand Him, until we have His Spirit, promised so freely to them that ask it—all the Epistles, the words of men who were full of Him, and wrote out of that fullness, who loved Him so utterly that by that very love they were lifted into the air of pure reason and right, and would die for Him, and did die for Him, without two thoughts about it, in the very simplicity of no choice—the Letters, I say, of such men are to us a sealed book. Until we love the Lord so as to do what He tells us, we have no right to an opinion about what one of those men meant; for all they wrote is about things beyond us. The simplest woman who tries not to judge her neighbour, or not to be anxious for the morrow, will better know what is best to know, than the be st-read bishop without that one simple outgoing of his highest nature in the effort to do the will of Him who thus spoke.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, v. I [1867], London: Strahan & Co., 1873, p. 128 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:11-12; 2 Chr. 7:17-18; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 10:36; 2 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to learn and know Your very words.
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Friday, June 25, 2021

Newbigin: a radically different vision

Friday, June 25, 2021
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.”
    —Luke 21:16-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Luke 21:16-19; Matt. 10:34-38; Mark 13:12; Luke 9:23-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church seeks refuge in You.
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Thursday, June 24, 2021

Brunner: a danger to the Church

Thursday, June 24, 2021
    Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets”
    —Luke 6:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is one of the greatest dangers of the Church in a democratic country—and one of the greatest temptations for churches which for their support are dependent on the good will of their congregations—to present the gospel message in a way agreeable and inoffensive to those who are to hear it.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Scandal of Christianity, London: SCM Press, 1951, reprint, John Knox Press, 1965, p. 113 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:26; 1 Cor. 2:1-5; 2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to see the truth.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Smart: the flowers

Wednesday, June 23, 2021
    Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
    —Matthew 6:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
For the flowers are great blessings.
For the Lord made a Nosegay in the meadow with his disciples and preached upon the lily...
For the flowers have great virtues for all senses.
For the flower glorifies God and the root parries the adversary.
For the flowers have their angels even the words of God’s creation...
For there is a language of flowers.
For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers.
For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers.
For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.
    ... Christopher Smart (1722-1771), Jubilate Agno [1759], R. Hart-Davis, 1954, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:28-29; Ps. 103:15-16; Jas. 1:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your creation praises You.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Tauler: a judging spirit

Tuesday, June 22, 2021
    Feast of Alban, first Martyr of Britain, c.209
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
    —Luke 6:37-38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who desires to become a spiritual man must not be ever taking note of others, and above all of their sins, lest he fall into wrath and bitterness, and a judging spirit towards his neighbors.
    ... Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), “Sermon for St. Peter’s Day,” in The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler of Strasbourg, Charles Kingsley, pref. & Susanna Winkworth, tr., New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1858, p. 462 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:37-38; Rom. 9:22-23; 2 Tim. 4:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have looked past my sin; teach me to do the same to others.
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Monday, June 21, 2021

Hodge: original sin

Monday, June 21, 2021
Meditation:
    I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
    —Romans 7:18-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are a fallen race. Our nature has become corrupted by our apostasy from God, and therefore every imagination (i. e., every exercise) of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually... This is the Scriptural and the only rational solution of the undeniable fact of the deep, universal, and early manifested sinfulness of men in all ages, of every class, and in every part of the world.
    ... Charles Hodge (1797-1878), Systematic Theology, Londom, Edinurgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1872, p. 238 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 8:21; Hos. 6:7; John 3:19; Rom. 3:23; 5:14-21; 7:18-21; Gal. 3:22; Eph. 2:1-2; 5:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church begs You to use Your church for righteousness, for all we produce is sin.
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Sunday, June 20, 2021

Ellul: what God sends

Sunday, June 20, 2021
Meditation:
    This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
    —1 John 4:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To do his work God does not send a book of metaphysics or a sacred book of Gnostic revelations or a complete epistemological system or a perfected wisdom. He sends a man.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Subversion of Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 24 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:2-3; Luke 2:10-12; 19:10; Acts 17:2-3; 1 Cor. 1:17,21-23; 2:6-10; Col. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are truth in human form.
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