St. Ambrose: impossible for God?

Saturday, October 16, 2021
    Commemoration of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer, bishops and martyrs, 1555
Meditation:
    Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
    —Hebrews 6:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What then is impossible to Him? Not that which is difficult to His Power, but what is contrary to His Nature. It is impossible, it is said, for Him to lie. This impossibility comes not of infirmity, but of Power and Majesty, for truth admits not of falsehood, nor God’s Power of the weakness of error.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Oxford, J. Parker, 1881, p. 319 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:17-18; John 17:17; Rom. 3:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rely on Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Teresa: disturbed by trivia

Friday, October 15, 2021
    Feast of Teresa of Avila, Mystic, Teacher, 1582
Meditation:
    Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
    —James 4:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people’s, if we are always criticizing trivial actions which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Interior Castle [1577], tr., E. Allison Peers, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961, p. 51 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:11-12; Luke 6:37-38; John 8:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, silence my critical tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Engstrom: listening to God's voice

Thursday, October 14, 2021
Meditation:
    Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
    —Luke 6:36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our first priority is to listen to God’s voice. It is our exposure to His compassion that will cause us to reach out to the oppressed, the frustrated, the angry. And it is only by listening to His voice that we will have wisdom to know how to provide workable solutions for the different groups that demand our attention.
    ... Ted W. Engstrom (1916-2006), former president, World Vision US, in a private communication from World Vision
    See also Luke 6:36; Ps. 85:8; Matt. 12:49-50; John 12:35-36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your voice known to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: animals or Christ

Wednesday, October 13, 2021
    Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066
Meditation:
    Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
    —Galatians 5:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Human nature is like a stable inhabited by the ox of passion and the ass of prejudice; animals which take up a lot of room and which I suppose most of us are feeding on the quiet. And it is there between them, pushing them out, that Christ must be born and in their very manger he must be laid—and they will be the first to fall on their knees before him. Sometimes Christians seem far nearer to those animals than to Christ in his simple poverty, self-abandoned to God.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Light of Christ, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:24; Luke 2:6-7; Rom. 7:5; Col. 3:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with Your worldview. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: the hard way

Tuesday, October 12, 2021
    Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709
    Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845
Meditation:
    Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
    —Isaiah 55:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do we want to learn holiness with terrible struggles, and sore affliction, and the plague of much remaining evil? Then wait before you turn to God.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. III, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859, p. 331 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:6; Ps. 95:7-11; 119:60; Pr. 27:1; Jer. 13:16; Amos 4:6-11; Matt. 5:25; Luke 9:59-62
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your mercy is near; let me not delay to receive it. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: loyalty to truth

Monday, October 11, 2021
    Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675
Meditation:
    [Jesus in prayer:] “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
    —John 17:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The only way for a Christian to be loyal to his central commitment is to be as honest as he knows how to be. It is important to survive, but it is even more important to tell the truth, and we can never tell the truth if we are seeking, primarily, to prove a point.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Future of the Christian, Harper & Row, 1971, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also John 17:17; Lev. 19:35-36; John 1:14; 8:31-32; 18:37-38; 1 Pet. 3:15-16; 2 John 1:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me away from pointless debate. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the truth about exposition

Sunday, October 10, 2021
    Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644
Meditation:
    [Zechariah, of John the Baptist:] “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
    —Luke 1:76-79 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:76-79; Mal. 2:7; Phil. 3:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Your person available to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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