Rees: distinguishing the spirits

Saturday, April 30, 2022
    Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922
Meditation:
    Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
    —Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The criteria [for distinguishing the spirits] which Paul therefore sets forth for the guidance of the Church, that it may know where the Holy Spirit works, and what spiritual phenomena are its gifts, are the first three: the constant recognition of Christ’s lordship in the individual life, the realisation of His love in the Church, and living His life in all moral relations. Where Christ reigns, where brothers serve one another in the order and unity of love, and where they live the high morality of Christ’s gospel, there, and nowhere else, the Spirit always dwells and works. These tests may still be subjective and indefinite, but they have the merit of measuring “spiritual things by spiritual things” (1 Cor. 2:13), and Paul refrained from attempting to delimit the action of the Spirit by any external and formal boundaries, whether of sacrament, order, or dogma.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 90 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:22-25; Rom. 7:18; 1 Cor. 2:13; Gal. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send the fullness of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Catherine of Siena: speaking peace

Friday, April 29, 2022
    Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.”
    —Luke 10:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The obedient man speaks words of peace all his life, and at his death receives that which was promised him at his death by his superior, that is to say, eternal life, the vision of peace, and of supreme and eternal tranquillity and rest, the inestimable good which no one can value or understand, for, being the infinite good, it cannot be understood by anything smaller than itself.
    ... Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dialog of Catherine of Siena [1378], Treatise of Obedience, ix. (see the book)
    See also Luke 10:5-6; Ps. 85:8; Matt. 10:12-13; 11:28-30; John 14:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You grant Your people true peace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: continual conversation with God

Thursday, April 28, 2022
    Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841
Meditation:
    ... I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.
    —Titus 3:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation to think of trifles and fooleries.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, First Conversation, p. 8 (see the book)
    See also Tit. 3:8-9; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 139:7-10; Acts 17:27-28; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:17; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Heb. 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist me to remain in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rossetti: He died for me: what can I offer Him?

Wednesday, April 27, 2022
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Meditation:
    And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
    —Revelation 5:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
“He died for me: what can I offer Him?
    Toward Him swells incense of perpetual prayer:
    His court wear crowns and aureoles round their hair:
His ministers are subtle Cherubim;
Ring within ring, white intense Seraphim
    Leap like immortal lightnings through the air.
    What shall I offer Him? defiled and bare,
My spirit broken and my brightness dim.”—
“Give Me thy youth.”—“I yield it to Thy rod,
    As Thou didst give Thy prime of youth for me.”—
        “Give Me thy life.”—“I give it breath by breath;
    As Thou didst give Thy life so give I Thee.”—
“Give Me thy love.”—“So be it, my God, my God,
    As Thou hast loved me even to bitter death.”
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Poems of Christina Rossetti, London: Macmillan, 1904, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 5:8; Rom. 13:8; 1 Cor. 9:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable me to offer You all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: a good trade

Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Meditation:
    After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
    —Luke 5:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Matthew] lost a comfortable job, but he found a destiny. He lost a good income, but he found honor. He lost a comfortable security, but he found an adventure of the like of which he had never dreamed. It may be that if we accept the challenge of Christ, we shall find ourselves poorer in material things. It may be that the worldly ambitions will have to go. But beyond doubt we will find a peace and a joy and a thrill in life that we never knew before. In Jesus Christ a man finds a wealth beyond anything that he may have to abandon for the sake of Christ.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of Matthew, v. 1, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001 (revised), p. 383 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:27-28; Isa. 33:5-6; Matt. 9:9; 19:21; 2 Cor. 4:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free me from slavery to possessions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: freedom in prayer

Monday, April 25, 2022
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.
    —Psalm 94:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As the Christian prays, he actually anticipates his own liberation from anxiety even when engulfed by it. Praying to God, he can no longer have it, nor be possessed by it.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Church Dogmatics, v. IV, part 3 [1961], Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, p. 673 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 94:19; 55:22; Rom. 5:3; 12:12; 13:14; Phil. 2:12; 4:6-7; 1 Thess. 3:2-3; Tit. 3:4-5; Jas. 5:11,13; 1 Pet. 5:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence relieves all worry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: the expectations of Jesus

Sunday, April 24, 2022
    Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624
Meditation:
    The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
    —Psalm 110:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not that Jesus’s concept of Messiahship corresponded to Jewish expectations. His notion reflected his view of God’s eschatological kingdom, which he preached as a reality brought into being by his own ministry. He saw the kingdom as a new relationship between penitent sinners and God as their heavenly Father, a relationship achieved through commitment to himself as their sovereign Saviour; and he saw his lordship as based on his call to be God’s suffering servant, the innocent one who, having died for the others’ sins, is then vindicated by being restored to life.
    ... James I. Packer (1926-2020), “Jesus Christ the Lord”, in The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 110:1; Isa. 53; Luke 8:1-2; John 18:36; Rom. 14:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are King. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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