Meynell: Given, not lent

Saturday, December 18, 2021
Meditation:
    And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
    “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:8-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
Given, not lent,
And not withdrawn—once sent,
This Infant of mankind, this One,
Is still the little welcome Son.

New every year,
New born and newly dear,
He comes with tidings and a song,
The ages long, the ages long.

Even as the cold
Keen winter grows not old,
As childhood is so fresh, foreseen,
And spring in the familiar green.

Sudden as sweet
Come the expected feet.
All joy is young, and new all art,
And He, too, Whom we have by heart.
    ... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), Collected Poems of Alice Meynell, London: Burns & Oates, 1913, p. 32 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:8-14; Isaiah 9:6; Luke 22:19; John 3:16; Rom. 5:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given us Your Favor!

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Sayers: Hard it is

Friday, December 17, 2021
    Commemoration of Dorothy Sayers, Teacher and Spiritual Writer, 1957
    Commemoration of Eglantyne Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
    —John 19:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Hard it is, very hard,
To travel up the slow and stony road
To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better
To make but one resplendent miracle,
Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power
And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.
Yet this was not God’s way, Who had the power,
But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,
The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,
That power destroys in passing, something supreme,
To whose great value in the eyes of God
That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear witness.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), The Devil to Pay, V. Gollancz, ltd., 1939, p. 68 (see the book)
    See also John 19:16-18; Matt. 1:21; Gal. 4:4-5; Tit. 2:12-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, spread Your perfection to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Packer: Father, the Christian name for God

Thursday, December 16, 2021
Meditation:
    Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
    —Galatians 4:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctly Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.
    ... James I. Packer (1926-2020), Knowing God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, p. 182 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 4:6-7; Matt. 6:9; Rom. 3:22-26; 5:1-2; 8:28-30; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Eph. 1:3-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, You have made me Your child. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Judson: unconditional forgiveness

Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Meditation:
    But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
    —Matthew 1:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Divine forgiveness is absolutely unconditional. We are not forgiven because we are not very bad. We are not forgiven because we are trying to be good. We are not forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. We are not forgiven because we have suffered; as the iniquity of Jerusalem was pardoned because she had received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. In the Old Testament forgiveness is always conditioned upon the repentance and suffering of the sinner; in the New Testament repentance grows out of forgiveness. We are forgiven because we are sinners. Forgiveness is the form God’s love takes when it rests upon sin.
    ... Edward Judson (1844-1914), The Outlook, v. XCVII, Lyman Abbott, ed., Outlook Co., 1911, p. 748 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 1:20-21; Isa. 40:1-2; Dan. 9:24; Matt. 6:14-15; 11:28; Luke 24:46-47; Acts 2:38
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe Your offer of forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

John of the Cross: blocking the road to perfection

Tuesday, December 14, 2021
    Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591
Meditation:
    Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
    —Romans 6:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    However high be your endeavours, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will—unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself—not one step will you advance on the road to perfection.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:13,19; 7:5-6; 1 Cor. 6:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, use me to carry out Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Johnson: mind fixed on God

Monday, December 13, 2021
    Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304
    Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784
Meditation:
    Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
    —Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O Lord, grant unto me that am now about to return to the common comforts and business of the world, such moderation in all enjoyments, such diligence in honest labour, and such purity of mind, that, amidst the changes, miseries, or pleasures of life, I may keep my mind fixed upon Thee, and improve every day in grace, till I shall be received into thy kingdom of eternal happiness.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Prayers and Meditations, London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also Heb.12:1-3; John 1:29; 6:40; Phil. 3:20-21; 2 Tim. 4:8; Tit. 2:12-14; 1 John 1:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my eyes constantly gaze upon You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Pascal: because He loved it

Sunday, December 12, 2021
    Advent III
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
    —Matthew 5:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I love poverty because He loved it. I love riches because they afford me the means of helping the very poor. I keep faith with everybody; I do not render evil to those who wrong me, but I wish them a situation like mine, in which I receive neither good nor evil from men. I try to be just, true, sincere, and faithful to all men; I have a tender heart for those to whom God has more closely united me; and whether I am alone, or seen by people, I do all my actions in the sight of God, who must judge them, and to whom I have consecrated them all.
    These are my sentiments; and every day of my life, I bless my Redeemer, who has implanted them in me, and who, out of a man full of weakness, of miseries, of lust, of pride, and of ambition, has made a man free from all these evils by the power of His grace, to which all the glory of it is due, as of myself I have only misery and error.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #550, p. 178 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:3; Job 29:11-16; Luke 6:30; 11:41; 14:12-14; Gal. 6:10; Jas. 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me my error; now help rid me of it. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth