John Chrysostom: good resolutions

Saturday, January 1, 2022
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
    —John 15:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407), quoted in Catena aurea, v. IV, part 1, Thomas Aquinas, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1845, p. 67 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 10:40-42; John 1:37-40; 15:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, that You use Your people for Your purposes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wycliffe: speak plainly

Friday, December 31, 2021
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
    —Luke 21:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thus by the authority of the law of God men should speak her words as God’s law speaketh, and strange not in speech from understanding of the people, and always beware that the people understand well, and so use common speech in their own person; and if they speak in Christ’s person [the] words of his law, look that they declare him, for dread of privy errors.
    And scorn we the arguments that fools make here, that by the same power should we speak thus, for God speaks thus the words of his law. Such apes likeness passes beast’s folly, for they would bring by this that each man were God. And so have we leave to speak as him liketh, [though] we speak not aye so by the same authority; these words that God speaketh should we always grant, and declare to him true understanding.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Select English Works of John Wyclif, v. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869, p. 78-79 (see the book)
    See also Luke 21:14-15; Ps. 119:46-47; 1 Pet. 3:15-16; Matt. 10:18-20; Col. 3:11; 4:6; 2 Tim. 2:23-26; 1 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You enable Your people to speak the Gospel clearly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rieu: the Magna Carta of the human spirit

Thursday, December 30, 2021
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”
    —Acts 5:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let the Gospels speak. Of what I have learnt from these documents in the course of my long task, I will say nothing now. Only this, that they bear the seal of the Son of Man and God, they are the Magna Charta of the human spirit. Were we to devote to their comprehension a little of the selfless enthusiasm that is now expended on the riddle of our physical surroundings, we would cease to say that Christianity is coming to an end—we might even feel that it had only just begun.
    ... E. V. Rieu (1887-1972), The Four Gospels, London: Penguin Books, 1952, p. xxxiii (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:29-40; Jer. 31:33-34; Mark 1:1; Phil. 1:27-28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gospel goes forth from the mouths of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: God's majesty

Wednesday, December 29, 2021
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
    —Judges 6:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For when we see those, who before his appearance stood secure and firm, so astonished and affrighted at the manifestation of his glory, as to faint and almost expire through fear,—we must infer that man is never sufficiently affected with a knowledge of his own meanness, till he has compared himself with the Divine Majesty.
    ... 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, I.i.3, p. 48 (see the book)
    See also Judg. 6:22-23; Gen. 18:27; Judg. 13:22; 1 Kings 19:11-13; Ps. 19:9; 99:1-2; Isa. 6:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are small, but You are great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Havergal: A happy, happy Christmas

Tuesday, December 28, 2021
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
    —Luke 1:39-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
A happy, happy Christmas,
    And a happy, happy year!
Oh, we have not deserved it,
    And yet we need not fear.
For Jesus has deserved it,
    And so for Jesus’ sake,
This cup of joy and blessing
    With grateful hand we take.
    ... Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1888, p. 168 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:39-42; Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 2:4-18; John 1:14
Quiet time reflection:
    We greet You with joy, Lord! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carson: the softened gospel

Monday, December 27, 2021
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!”
    —John 8:42-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is vitally important to recognize that philosophical pluralism has exerted a dramatic “softening” influence on many people who would disavow radical religious pluralism. It is hard, for instance, to deny the influence of pluralism on evangelical preachers who increasingly reconstruct the “gospel” along the lines of felt needs, knowing that such a presentation will be far better appreciated than one that articulates truth with hard edges (i.e., that insists that certain contrary things are false), or that warns of the wrath to come. How far can such reconstruction go before what is preached is no longer the gospel in any historical or biblical sense?
    ... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism [1996], Zondervan, 2002, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also John 8:42-45; 2 Cor. 11:12-15; Gal. 4:16-18; Col. 2:4; 2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak the undiluted Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: testing faith

Sunday, December 26, 2021
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
    —Hebrews 6:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some relate ... that the eagle tries the eyes of her young by turning them to the sun; which if they cannot look steadily on, she rejects them as spurious. We may truly try our faith by immediate intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness. Direct faith to act itself immediately and directly on the incarnation of Christ and His mediation; and if it be not the right kind and race it will turn its eyes aside to anything else.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 323 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:13-15; Ps. 66:10-12; Isa. 48:10; Jas. 1:2-4,12; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Increase my faith, Lord, so that it will stand the test. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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