Gossip: fire insurance

Saturday, July 16, 2022
    Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099
Meditation:
    The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
    —Romans 8:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We think of the enormous sacrifices of those early Christians; but what struck them was the immensity of their inheritance in Christ. Take that one phrase (surely the most daring that the mind of man ever conceived), “We are the heirs of God.” That is what they felt about it, that not God Himself could have a fuller life than theirs, and that even He would share all that He had with them! Tremendous words that stagger through their sheer audacity! And yet, here we are, whispering about the steepness of the way, the soreness of the self-denial, the heaviness of the cross, whining and puling, giving to those outside the utterly grotesque impression that religion is a gloomy kind of thing, a dim, monastic twilight where we sit and shiver miserably, out of the sunshine that God made for us, and meant us to enjoy; [that it is] all a doing that nobody would naturally choose, and refraining from what everyone would naturally take; a species of insurance money grudgingly doled out lest some worse thing come upon us.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 8 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:16-17; Ps. 37:28-29; Acts 20:32; Eph. 1:11-14; Tit. 3:7; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 1:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep my eyes on Christ and His kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bloesch: true prayer

Friday, July 15, 2022
    Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
    Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274
Meditation:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
    O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
    O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
    therefore you are feared.
    —Psalm 130:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As I see it, true prayer is neither mystical rapture nor ritual observance nor philosophical reflection: it is the outpouring of the soul before a living God, the crying to God “out of the depths.” Such prayer can only be uttered by one convicted of sin by the grace of God and moved to confession by the Spirit of God. True prayer is an encounter with the Holy in which we realize not only our creatureliness and guilt but also the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven through the atoning death of the divine savior, Jesus Christ. In such an encounter, we are impelled not only to bow before God and seek his mercy but also to offer thanksgiving for grace that goes out to undeserving sinners.
    ... Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010), The Struggle of Prayer, Harper & Row, 1980, p. 8 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 130:1-4; John 16:7-11; 1 Cor. 15:57; Col. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my heart thankful for Your great mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Keble: If on our daily course

Thursday, July 14, 2022
    Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866
Meditation:
    But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
    —2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
If on our daily course our mind
Be set, to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us, daily, nearer God.
    ... John Keble (1792-1866), The Christian Year [1827], G. W. Doane, ed., Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842, p. 18-19 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:7; Lam. 4:2; Ps. 145:18; Luke 10:9; 1 Cor. 1:28-29; 2 Cor. 5:1; Eph. 1:18-21; Heb. 7:18-19; 10:19-22; Jas. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lead me, Lord, to You.

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Luther: the one point under attack

Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Meditation:
    Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
    —Ephesians 6:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), quoted in The God Who is There [1968], Francis A. Schaeffer, in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy, Francis A. Schaeffer, Good News Publishers, 1990, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11-17; Matt. 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 6:22-23; 12:11-12; 21:15; Acts 6:9-10; 2 Tim. 4:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be faithful to You in the moment of testing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cogdell: figurative for David, true for Jesus

Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Meditation:
I will extol the LORD at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the LORD;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
    —Psalm 34:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Treating [Psalm 34] as from Jesus adds a beauty and a power to its teachings which would be otherwise missing. What was true for David in a shadowy or figurative sense was literally true for Jesus. For example, in verses 1 and 2, David declared “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” For David this expresses his intention, but this statement is literally and beautifully descriptive of Jesus’ way of life. So it is with the whole psalm.
    ... John R. Cogdell, “The humanity of Jesus Christ, as revealed in certain Psalms”, section II (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:1-2,22; Matt. 26:52-56; Luke 24:26-27,44
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place the spirit of praise within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trench: If that in sight of God is great

Monday, July 11, 2022
    Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550
Meditation:
    When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
    —Exodus 34:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
If that in sight of God is great
    Which counts itself for small,
We by that law humility
    The chiefest grace must call;
Which being such, not knows itself
    To be a grace at all.

How glorious was that meekest man
    In all eyes save his own,
When from his splendid countenance
    On all the people shone
A glory insupportable,
    Unto himself unknown.
    ... Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), Poems, London: Macmillan, 1874, p. 148 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 34:29; Matt. 11:29; Mark 9:35; John 13:14-16; 1 Cor. 1:28-29; Eph. 4:2; Phil. 2:3-4; Col. 3:12; Jas. 1:9-10; 4:10; 1 Pet. 5:2-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your radiance scatters humility on all Your people.

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Babcock: the wrong proportion

Sunday, July 10, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
    —Luke 16:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A right relation is in wrong proportions when God’s kingdom is obscured or forgotten. Christians have a right to make money; no one has a better right. But when money-making means such absorption of time and vitality, that Christian work and worship cannot be kept up, there the line is crossed between right and wrong.
    ... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Luke 16:9-13; Matt. 6:24; 23:23; Acts 8:20; 1 Tim. 6:10; 2 Tim. 2:4; 1 Pet. 1:14; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all my substance is Yours to dispense according to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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