Wilberforce: gospel vs. philosophy

Saturday, July 30, 2022
    Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833
Meditation:
    I meditate on your precepts
        and consider your ways.
    —Psalm 119:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures would discover to us our past ignorance. We should cease to be deceived by superficial appearances, and to confound the gospel of Christ with the systems of philosophers; we should become impressed with the weighty truth, so much forgotten in the present day, that Christianity calls on us, as we value our immortal souls, not merely in general, to be religious and moral, but specially to believe the doctrines, imbibe the principles, and practise the precepts of Christ.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 80 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:15; 1:2; Rom. 1:18-20; 1 Cor. 1:17-21; 2:13; Phil. 2:5; Col. 2:8-10; 1 Tim. 4:15; 6:20-21; 1 Pet. 3:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have written Your law on the hearts of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lichtenberger: what is man?

Friday, July 29, 2022
    Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord
Meditation:
    Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD.
    —Ezekiel 45:9 (ESV)
Quotation:
    As Christians we believe that man is not a thing; he is not a commodity to be bought and sold, and he is not to be used in an impersonal way. Man, a child of God, is a person with a personal destiny and with eternal value. This Christian belief underlies the democratic principle that the State, first of all, exists for the sake of its citizens; the individual is important...
    As Christians we also believe that we are made for one another because we are made for God. “Solidarity” is a good word for our essential condition. Beneath all our differences is a unity... This Christian belief underlies a second basic democratic principle, which is, in governing themselves, people of a community—in a town, a city, a state, a nation—can, despite inevitable conflicts, press effectively toward the goal of justice and liberty for all.
    ... Arthur Lichtenberger (1900-1968), The Day is at Hand, New York: Seabury Press, 1964, p. 104-105 (see the book)
    See also Eze. 45:9; Ps. 82:2-5; Isa. 1:17; Jer. 22:3; Zech. 8:16; Luke 3:10-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your kingdom come on this earth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the world a hospital

Thursday, July 28, 2022
    Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, musician, 1750
Meditation:
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;
    save me and I will be saved,
    for you are the one I praise.
    —Jeremiah 17:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most sober Reason thus acquainted with the nature of our fall, must be forced to consider this world as having merely the nature of an hospital, where people only are, because they are distempered, and where no happiness is sought for, but that of being healed, and made fit to leave it.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 18 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 17:14; 2 Chr. 30:20; Ps. 30:1-2; Isa. 6:10; 53:5; Matt. 8:6-10; 9:5-6; 1 Pet. 2:24; Rev. 22:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your healing power has touched me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stott: count the cost

Wednesday, July 27, 2022
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”
    —Luke 14:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. All too many people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of so-called nominal Christianity.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Basic Christianity, Nottingham, U.K.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008, third edition, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:28-30; Matt. 10:22; 20:22-23; Luke 14:33
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am prepared to pay whatever price You require. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the church not a movement

Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.”
    —Matthew 10:40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society... but rather where it understands itself as being a part of the one, holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively in the sufferings and struggles of the whole Church. Every principle of selection, every separation connected with it that is not necessitated quite objectively by common work, local conditions, or family connections is of the greatest danger to a Christian community. When the way of intellectual or spiritual selection is taken, the human element always insinuates itself and robs the fellowship of its spiritual power and its effectiveness for the Church, and drives it into sectarianism.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:40; Rom. 14:1; 15:7; Gal. 6:1; 1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Thess. 3:14,15; 1 Tim. 6:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to accept the least of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Davidman: the burden of sin

Monday, July 25, 2022
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
    —1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nowadays the conviction of sin is widely misunderstood—secularists pity Christians, whom they picture as men bowed to the ground under an enormous burden of self-condemnation, men who go around all the time feeling guilty. Actually, of course, as anyone who has experienced conversion knows, the Christian is the only man who does not go around all the time feeling guilty. For him, sin is a burden he can lay down; he can admit, repent, and be forgiven. It is the unfortunate creature who denies the existence of sin in general, or his own in particular, who must go on carrying it forever.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1955, reprint, Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p. 113 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:7-9; Matt. 11:29-30; 26:28; Acts 2:38; Heb. 8:8-12; Jas. 5:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the forgiveness of my sins has made me free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: when things go ill

Sunday, July 24, 2022
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous,
    and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
    —Psalm 119:75 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Count not thyself to have found true peace, if thou hast felt no grief; nor that then all is well if thou hast no adversary; nor that this is perfect if all things fall out according to thy desire.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.xxv.3, p. 163 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:75; Jon. 1:14-2:4; Acts 16:23-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist me to see Your hand in my troubles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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