Buechner: the greatest miracle

Saturday, February 5, 2022
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
    —John 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest miracle that Christianity has to proclaim is that the love that suffered agonies on that hill outside the city walls was the love of God himself, the love of God for his creation, which is a love that has no limit, not even the limit of death.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Magnificent Defeat, Seabury Press, 1966, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also John 3:16-17; Rom. 5:8; Tit. 3:4-7; 1 John 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the Vine

Friday, February 4, 2022
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
    —John 15:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No worst thing ever done in the name of Christianity, no vilest corruption of the Church, can destroy the eternal fact that the core of it is the heart of Jesus. Branches innumerable may have to be lopped off and cast into the fire, yet the word “I am the Vine” remaineth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Malcolm: a romance, Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1875, p. 248 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 3:10; John 15:1-6; 2 Pet. 2:20; 1 John 2:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may you yet reap fruit from my branch. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rousseau: the Scriptures

Thursday, February 3, 2022
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Peruse the books of philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how meager, how contemptible they are when compared with the Scriptures! The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration.
    ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Emile, or, On education, UPNE, 2009, p. 147 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word shames the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: until the Spirit rules all

Wednesday, February 2, 2022
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
    —1 John 2:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Most of our conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and practical aspects of our life separately instead of realising them as parts of one whole. If our practical life is centred on our own interests, cluttered up by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a sense of our own rights and importance, or anxieties for our own future, or longings for our own success, we need not expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this. The soul’s house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are few sound-proof partitions in it. Only when the conviction—not merely the idea—that the demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, comes first and IS first, rules the whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory, and drowning all the quieter voices by their din.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Spiritual Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1985, p. 33-34 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 2:16; Luke 16:8; 1 Cor. 3:19-20; Jas. 3:13-17; Jude 1:17-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cover my distractions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: personal holiness

Tuesday, February 1, 2022
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
    He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
    —Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    (Continued from yesterday)
    [We look for a time when Christians] will consider and practically remember, that all Christians are “called [to be] Saints,” and endued with the Holy Spirit of God; not indeed to inspire them with a new revelation, or to confer any miraculous gifts, (which do not either prove, or make, the possessor the more acceptable in God’s sight,) but to enable them to purify their own hearts and lives. The wicked Balaam was a prophet; and the traitor Judas worked miracles. These extraordinary powers, therefore, are neither any proof of superior personal holiness, nor any substitute for it in God’s sight. Nor is the absence of these miraculous gifts in ourselves, any argument that a less degree of Christian virtue will suffice for our salvation, than was required of the Apostles.
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 159-160 (see the book)
    See also Luke 10:17-20; Matt. 5:20; 16:1-4; 1 Tim. 1:8-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the sign of Your presence is written within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: the future of Christianity

Monday, January 31, 2022
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
    —1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Meanwhile it is a great consolation to us to look forward, as I think we are authorized to do, to a time when not only the knowledge of the Gospel will be greatly extended, but also, the influence of the Gospel on Christians’ hearts, and tempers, and lives—“the knowledge and love of God,” and the “fruits of his Spirit,”—will be still much more increased;—when those who are Christians in name, will be much less disposed to content themselves with the name,—much more careful to be Christians in principle and in conduct, than the far greater part of them are now:—when Christians, generally, will not look, as they are apt to do now, on the Apostles and others of the early Church whom it is usual to distinguish by the title of Saint, as possessing a degree and a kind of Christian excellence which it would be vain and presumptuous for ordinary Christians to thi nk of equalling. (Continued tomorrow)
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 158-159 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:23-24; Isa. 65:17; Dan. 12:10; 1 Cor. 2:13-16; 1 Thess. 1:6; Heb. 8:10-12; Rev. 20:1-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: truth in consummation

Sunday, January 30, 2022
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
    —2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we accept the authority of the Bible, then we understand ourselves as being in via, not possessors of eternal truth, but part of a living tradition of discipleship, on the way to the truth that will be perfectly known on the day when the Author of the story brings it to its end and consummation.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Truth and Authority in Modernity, Gracewing Publishing, 1996, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 2:15; Matt. 13:52; John 21:15-17; Acts 20:27; 1 Cor. 11:23; 15:3-5; 2 Tim. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are blessed as You reveal Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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