Wilson: idols

Saturday, September 10, 2022
Meditation:
    Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
    —1 John 5:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are few who have not their idols, which their hearts adore, in which they put their trust, and place their happiness. The worst of all is ourselves.
    ... Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), Maxims of Piety and of Christianity, London: Macmillan, 1898, p. 71 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:21; Hab. 2:18-20; Matt. 16:25-26; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 10:24; Gal. 6:2; Phil. 2:4; 3:18-19; Col. 3:5; 1 John 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You forbid that I worship any but You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the fallen spirit within

Friday, September 9, 2022
Meditation:
    Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
    —Isaiah 5:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Though the light and comfort of the outward world, keeps even the worst men from any constant strong sensibility of that wrathful, fiery, dark, and self-tormenting nature, that is the very essence of every fallen, unregenerate soul; yet every man in the world has, more or less, frequent and strong intimations given him, that so it is with him, in the inmost ground of his soul.
    How many inventions are some people forced to have recourse to, [in order] to keep off a certain inward uneasiness, which they are afraid of, and know not whence it comes? Alas, it is because there is a fallen spirit, a dark, aching fire within them, which has never had its proper relief, and is trying to discover itself, and calling out for help, at every cessation of worldly joy.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 140 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 5:11-12; Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Tim. 5:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have rescued me from a dissipated life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kierkegaard: the Fatherhood of God

Thursday, September 8, 2022
    Commemoration of Søren Kierkegaard, Teacher and Philosopher, 1855
Meditation:
    You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
    —Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Who hates his neighbor has not the rights of a child.” And not only has he no rights as a child, he has no “father.” God is not my father in particular, or any man’s father (horrible presumption and madness!); no, He is only father in the sense of father of all, and consequently only my father in so far as He is the father of all. When I hate someone or deny that God is his father—it is not he who loses, but I: for then I have no father.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Journals, ed. Alexander Dru, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 411 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:26-27; Isa. 64:8; Matt. 5:44-45,48; 6:8-9; John 20:17; Gal. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, You have ransomed Your children. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: covetousness

Wednesday, September 7, 2022
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
    —Ephesians 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When I say that people are not good, I am not adopting a Christian or a moral standpoint. I am saying that their two great characteristics, no matter what their society or education, are covetousness and the desire for power. We find these traits always and everywhere. If, then, we give people complete freedom to choose, they will inevitably seek to dominate someone or something and they will inevitably covet what belongs to others, and a strange feature of covetousness is that it can never be assuaged or satisfied, for once one thing is acquired it directs its attention to something else.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), Anarchy and Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:5; Matt. 6:20; Col. 3:5; Heb. 13:5; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Heb. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can save me from my greed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wells: sound-proof civility

Tuesday, September 6, 2022
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.
    —John 7:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The mildest assertion of Christian truth today sounds like a thunderclap because the well-polished civility of our religious talk has kept us from hearing much of this kind of thing.
    ... David F. Wells, No Place for Truth, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also John 7:46; Isa. 1:11-17; 6:10-13; Matt. 7:28-29; 23:34-39; Mark 6:2; Luke 11:42; 20:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word go forth in power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: Where is thy sting?

Monday, September 5, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
    —Matthew 10:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be sure that you will look to death, according to your manner of life. If a pure heart and mortified spirit have broken down the earthly barrier between you and God; if trial and sacrifice have brought you into a close realisation of the Cross, to union with God, you cannot fear death; you will see it from His Side only, and in no way from your own, all that is fearful is lost when merged in His Holy Will. Death is wholly loveable and peaceful seen in the Light of His Love.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 253 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:28; 1 Cor. 15:55-57; 1 Thess. 4:14-15; Heb. 13:14; 1 John 4:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken away death’s terror forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browning: there is sorrow

Sunday, September 4, 2022
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
    —1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
“There is no God,” the foolish saith,
    But none, “There is no sorrow.”
And nature oft the cry of faith
    In bitter need will borrow:
Eyes which the preacher could not school,
    By wayside graves are raised;
And lips say, “God be pitiful,”
    Who ne’er said, “God be praised.”
    ... Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, London: MacMillan, 1899, p. 259 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:22-29; Ps. 14:1; 46:1; Luke 12:16-20; 16:19-31; Jas. 4:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my shelter in all times. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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