Temple: worship

Saturday, November 6, 2021
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
    —Psalm 122:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, [and] to devote the will to the purpose of God.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), The Hope of a New World, London: Macmillan, 1941, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 5:7; 22:22; 26:6-8; 84:1-4; 103:1-5; 122:1; 1 Cor. 14:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have united Your people in Your praise and worship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: whither our thoughts

Friday, November 5, 2021
Meditation:
    And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
    “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
    “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
    “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
    —Luke 12:16-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory; but is it any evidence we really design it, if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us, and if we have only occasional thoughts of things above?
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), I.4 in The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded [1681], in Works of John Owen, v. VII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 303 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:28; 19:21-24; Mark 4:18-19; Luke 12:16-21; 18:22-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep my eye on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bunyan: the true source of authenticity

Thursday, November 4, 2021
Meditation:
    When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
    At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
    —Acts 17:32-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Mr. Gifford] made it much his business to deliver the people of God from all those false and unsound rests that, by nature, we are prone to take and make to our souls. He pressed us to take special heed that we took not up any truth upon trust—as from this, or that, or any other man or men—but to cry mightily to God that He would convince us of the reality thereof, and set us down therein, by his own Spirit in the holy Word.
    ... John Bunyan (1628-1688), Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners [1666] The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. I, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also Mark 9:24; Acts 17:32-34; Rom. 14:5; 2 Tim. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You show Your people all truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hooker: in Christ

Wednesday, November 3, 2021
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
    ... I consider [all things] rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
    —Philippians 3:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The righteousness wherein we must be found, if we will be justified, is not our own; therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality. Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him. In him God findeth us, if we be faithful; for by faith we are incorporated into Christ.
    ... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600), The Work of Mr. Richard Hooker, v.III, London: W. Clarke, 1821, p. 341 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9; Col. 3:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be found in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: repentance

Tuesday, November 2, 2021
    Feast of All Souls
Meditation:
    “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
    —Ephesians 4:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A repenting man is more angry at his own heart that consented to sin than he is at the devil who did tempt him to sin.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Quaint Sermons of Samuel Rutherford: hitherto unpublished, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1885, p. 123 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:26-27; Heb. 2:18; 4:15; Jas. 1:13-15; 1 John 2:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot defeat sin in my own power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: light throughout

Monday, November 1, 2021
    Feast of All Saints
Meditation:
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
A righteous man may have many troubles,
    but the LORD delivers him from them all.
    —Psalm 34:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
Gather my broken fragments to a whole,
As these four quarters make a shining day.
Into thy basket, for my golden bowl,
Take up the things that I have cast away
In vice or indolence or unwise play.
Let mine be a merry, all-receiving heart,
But make it a whole, with light in every part.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Diary of an Old Soul, London: by the author, 1880, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:18-19; 51:17; 147:3; Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown the light to my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carlyle: the Bible, by grace

Sunday, October 31, 2021
    Reformation Day
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
    —Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It must have been a most blessed discovery, that of an old Latin Bible which he found in the Erfurt Library about this time. He had never seen the Book before. It taught him another lesson than that of fasts and vigils... Luther learned now that a man was saved not by singing masses, but by the infinite grace of God: a more credible hypothesis. He gradually got himself founded, as on the rock. No wonder he should venerate the Bible, which had brought this blessed help to him. He prized it as the Word of the Highest must be prized by such a man. He determined to hold by that, as through life and to death he firmly did.
    ... Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History, New York: Wiley, 1859, p. 116 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:24-27; Rom. 3:21-22; Eph. 2:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, ground me in your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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