Lewis: casting out fear

Saturday, June 25, 2022
Meditation:
    There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.
    —1 John 4:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I am, indeed, far from agreeing with those who think all religious fear barbarous and degrading and demand that it should be banished from the spiritual life. Perfect love, we know, casteth out fear. But so do several other things—ignorance, alcohol, passion, presumption, and stupidity. It is very desirable that we should all advance to that perfection of love in which we shall fear no longer; but it is very undesirable, until we have reached that stage, that we should allow any inferior agent to cast out our fear.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The World’s Last Night [1960], Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 109 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:18-19; Rom. 8:15; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 12:28-29; 1 John 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I will come to love You above all things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: draped in tears

Friday, June 24, 2022
    Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist
Meditation:
    During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
    —Hebrews 5:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord, thus long I have offered my prayer dry unto thee, now, Lord, I offer it wet. Then wilt thou own some new addition therein, when, though the sacrifice be the same, yet the dressing of it is different, being steeped in his tears who bringeth it unto thee.
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), Good Thoughts in Bad Times [1645], Chicago: United Society of Christian Endeavor, Boston, 1898, “Scripture Observations,” XII (see the book)
    See also Heb. 5:7; Ps. 22:2; 42:1-3; 84:1-2; 126:5; Luke 7:37-38; Luke 22:44; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, receive my heart-felt prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: idolatry

Thursday, June 23, 2022
    Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678
Meditation:
    When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
    —Colossians 3:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Idolatry is... all manner of devotion in those that would serve God without Christ the Mediator, his Word and command. In [the Roman Catholic world] it was held a work of the greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of God, and of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their knees, praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial objects, with such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their conceits, they banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is temporal and evanescent. They seemed to meditate only on God, and his wonderful works. Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the wit and wisdom of man holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and veno mous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table-Talk [1566], CLXXI (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:4-6; Isa. 41:24; 66:3-4; Hab. 1:11; 1 Cor. 12:2-3; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must depend on You alone. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: the pure fountains

Wednesday, June 22, 2022
    Feast of Alban, first Martyr of Britain, c.209
Meditation:
    He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
    —Luke 24:44-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is high time to ... shew in briefe what we proposed to ourselves, and what course we held in this our perusal and survey of the Bible. Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should neede to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath bene our indeavour, that our marke. To that purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other mens eyes then in their owne, and that sought the truth rather then their own praise... If you aske what they had before them, truely it was the Hebrew text of the Olde Testament, the Greeke of the New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, where-through the olive branches emptie themselves into the golde.
    ... Miles Smith (1554-1624), in the preface to The Authorised Version of the English Bible [1611], Cambridge: The University Press, 1909, p. 25 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:44-45; 4:16-21; 1 Cor. 2:12-13; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church praises You for Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: a generous belief of others

Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Meditation:
    For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
    —Romans 12:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How many times in life have we been wrong when we put a kind construction on the conduct of others? We shall not need our fingers to count those mistakes upon. Moreover grace is really much more common than our querulousness is generally willing to allow. We may suspect its operations in the worst men we meet with. Thus, without any forced impossibility, we may call in supernatural considerations in order to make our criticisms more ingenious in their charity. When we grow a little holier, we shall summon also to our aid those supernatural motives in ourselves, which, by depressing our own ideas of ourselves, elevate our generous belief in others.
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), Spiritual Conferences, London: Thomas Richardson & Son, 1860, p. 27-28 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:3; Matt. 18:2-4; Gal. 6:3; Phil. 2:3-4; 1 Pet. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a measure of humility. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: the break with God

Monday, June 20, 2022
Meditation:
    But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
    —Isaiah 59:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The mistake of centuries of Christianity has been to regard sin as a moral fault. Biblically this is not the case. Sin is a break with God and all that this entails.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), Anarchy and Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 59:2; Deut. 7:26; Ps. 51:2; Luke 12:2-3; Rom. 8:6-7; Heb.12:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, banish my sin and restore me to Your fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: laying hold of God

Sunday, June 19, 2022
    Commemoration of Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu, Evangelist, Teacher, 1929
Meditation:
    In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
    —Hebrews 2:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer does not consist in an effort to obtain from God the things which are necessary for this life. Prayer is an effort to lay hold of God Himself, the Author of life, and when we have found Him who is the source of life and have entered into communion with Him, then the whole of life is ours and with Him all that will make life perfect.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), At the Master’s Feet, Fleming H. Revell, 1922, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 2:10; Gen. 2:7; John 14:23; Acts 3:15; Gal. 4:6; Phil. 2:1-2; Heb. 5:8-10; 12:2; 1 John 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I ever cling to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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