Spurgeon: hidden for a season

Saturday, February 26, 2022
Meditation:
You are my lamp, O LORD;
    the LORD turns my darkness into light.
    —2 Samuel 22:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God’s face, but art now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the lustre of His grace.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), for Apr. 15, Morning by Morning, New York: Sheldon & Co., 1867, p. 106 (see the book)
    See also 2 Sam. 22:29; Deut. 31:6; Ps. 22:1; 38:12; Isa. 9:2; John 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, shine in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: communion is a spiritual fact

Friday, February 25, 2022
Meditation:
    The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The whole point of the story of Cornelius and of the admission of the Gentiles lies in the fact that these people had not accepted what up to that moment had been considered a necessary part of the Christian teaching. The question was whether they could be admitted without accepting the teaching and undergoing the rite [of circumcision]. It was that question which was settled by the acknowledgement that they had received the Holy Spirit... The difficulty today is that Christians acknowledge that others have the Spirit, and yet do not recognize that they ought to be, and must be—because spiritually they are—in communion with one another. Men who hold a theory of the Church which excludes from communion those whom they admit to have the Spirit of Christ simply proclaim that their theory is in flat contradiction to the spiritual fact.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Pentecost and the World, London: Oxford University Press, 1917, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 57 fn. (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Gen. 12:1-3; 22:16-18; Matt. 12:18-21; John 17:22-23; Acts 11:15-18; 15:28-29; 1 Cor. 10:16-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help us to know that we are one through Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: A little faith all undisproved

Thursday, February 24, 2022
Meditation:
    A servant girl saw [Peter] seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
    But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
    A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
    “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
    About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
    Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
  ;   —Luke 22:56-62 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The dear Lord accepts imperfect surrender, ignorant faith and love, of which He knows that it will soon turn to denial. Oh! if He did not, what would become of us all? We reject half hearts; we will not have a friendship on which we cannot rely. The sweetness of vows is all sucked out of them to our apprehension, if we have reason to believe that they will be falsified in an hour. But the patient Master was willing to put up with what you and I will not put up with; and to accept what we reject; and be pleased that they gave Him even that. His “charity suffereth long, and is kind.” Let us not be afraid to bring even imperfect consecration... to His merciful feet.
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), The Holy of Holies, London: Alexander & Shepheard, 1890, p. 364 (see the book)
    See also Luke 22:56-62; Pr. 10:12; John 16:29-32; 1 Cor. 13:4; Titus 3:4-5; 1 John 3:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You accept my tarnished gifts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: focused on Heaven

Wednesday, February 23, 2022
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
    —Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:1-2; Matt. 5:11-12; Mark 16:19; John 14:2; 2 Pet. 3:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people move the world for Your sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: But lo' the snare is broke

Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Meditation:
    So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
    —Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
But lo’ the snare is broke, the captive’s freed,
By faith on all the hostile powers we tread,
And crush through Jesus’ strength the Serpent’s head.
Jesus hath cast the cursed Accuser down,
Hath rooted up the tares by Satan sown:
...
All nature bows to His benign command,
And two are one in His almighty hand.

One in His hand, O may we still remain,
Fast bound with love’s indissoluble chain;
(That adamant which time and death defies,
That golden chain which draws us to the skies!)
His love the tie that binds us to His throne,
His love the bond that perfects us in one,
...
His only love constrains our hearts t’ agree,
And gives the rivet of Eternity.
    ... Charles Wesley (1707-1788), from “An Epistle to the Rev. Mr. G. Whitefield,” in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, v. VI, John Wesley, London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 3:14-15; Ps. 146:7-9; Matt. 13:24-30, 36-42; Luke 4:18-19; Eph. 4:1-3; Col. 1:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your victory is eternal.

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Chesterton: atheistic optimism

Monday, February 21, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”
    —Luke 12:27-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), What I Saw in America, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1922, p. 236 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:27-31; Isa. 64:4; 2 Cor. 4:18; 9:8-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your unseen hand lies behind all goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pike: morally responsible for assumptions

Sunday, February 20, 2022
    Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906
Meditation:
    Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.
    Grace be with you.
    —1 Timothy 6:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Assumptions based on faith are apparently an ever-present component in any system of belief—whether those assumptions include the existence of a personal God, or whether they begin with non-rational directionally-emergent forces governed by statistical probabilities. Our argument does not claim that evidences are so clear that faith is not needed. We do intend to imply, however, that the choice of a set of assumptions is a moral choice. Adherence to an epistemology is not something which merely “happens to” a person, but instead it reflects a component of his moral development. In some sense he is, in my judgment, morally responsible for adopting an epistemology even though it can be neither proved nor disproved to the satisfaction of those who oppose it.
    ... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), With Heart and Mind, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962, p. 16 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 6:20-21; Isa. 29:14; Acts 17:18-21; 1 Cor. 1:19-23; 2:6; 3:18-20; Col. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enlighten my mind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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