Barth: faith from God

Saturday, October 1, 2022
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
    “... if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
    “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
    Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
    —Mark 9:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To speak as men, we can only say that we do not learn faith, never will learn faith, neither from ourselves nor under the stress of fate and evil times. Faith comes from God each moment, and when it comes we can say nothing else, astonished and perplexed, but: “I believe, dear Lord, help my unbelief!”
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), from “The Name of the Lord”, in Come Holy Spirit: Sermons, New York: Round Table Press, 1933, reprint, Mowbrays, 1978, p. 33 (see the book)
    See also Mark 9:22-24; Luke 17:5; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29-30; Heb. 11:6; 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the best of the ungodly

Friday, September 30, 2022
Meditation:
Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
    but righteousness delivers from death.
    —Proverbs 11:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is, indeed, or at least there hath been, much good, useful good, done by others, on various convictions and for various ends; but there is one flaw or other in all they do. Either superstition, or vain-glory, or selfishness, or merit, or one thing or other, gets into all the good that is done by unholy persons, and brings death into the pot; so that although it may be of some use in particulars, unto individual persons, in some seasons, it is of none unto the general good of the whole. He that bears the likeness of God, and in all that he doth acts from that principle, he alone is truly useful, represents God in what he doth, and spoils it not by false ends of his own.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), V.1 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 583-584 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 11:4; Deut. 8:11-14; Ps. 12:8; 37:16; 49:10-12; Pr. 30:8-9; Matt. 6:19-21; 19:23-26; 1 Tim. 6:17-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant a true heart of charity within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Wesley: plain reading

Thursday, September 29, 2022
    Feast of Michael & All Angels
Meditation:
    And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
    —Luke 24:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The general rule of interpreting Scripture is this: the literal sense of every text is to be taken, if it be not contrary to some other texts. But in that case, the obscure text is to be interpreted by those which speak more plainly.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, v. III, The Epworth Press, 1931, p. 129 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:27; Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:44-45; Acts 13:27; Rom. 3:1-2; Phil. 2:14-16; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Heb. 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my understanding of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buechner: interesting

Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
    —Matthew 23:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If this is indeed all the power that God has—the power of an idea—then who in Hell is interested in him? In Hell—just there—who is interested in a God without power? Of course the answer is that everyone is: everyone is interested in a God without power, interested, and there is the end of it. In fact Hell might he described as the place or condition where men find God interesting and where this is all that they find; where they look at the Cross and are interested. And by this definition anyway, Hell is not altogether unfamiliar to any of us. How many preachers, for instance, make this their Sunday proclamation to the faithful: How interesting is God! How interesting to apply the idea of God to this and that, to the international situation, to family relations, or what have you. I shudder to think how often I have done it myself.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Magnificent Defeat, Seabury Press, 1966, p. 31 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:27-28; 12:38-39; 23:23-24; Mark 8:11-12; 9:17-29; Luke 11:29; Acts 2:36-40
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, raise me from my sin of unbelief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kingsley: Amaziah's way

Tuesday, September 27, 2022
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
    Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
    —Amos 7:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The way to please men, and be popular, always was, and always will be, Amaziah’s way; to tell men that they may worship God and the golden calf at the same time, that they may worship God and money, worship God and follow the ways of this wicked world which suit their fancy and their interest; to tell them the kingdom of God is not over you now, Christ is not ruling the world now; that the kingdom of God will only come when Christ comes at the last day, and meanwhile, if people will only believe what they are told, and live tolerably respectable lives, they may behave in all things else as if there was no God, and no judgments of God.
    ... Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), from “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel”, in All Saints’ Day, and other sermons, ed. William Harrison, London: Kegan Paul, 1878, p. 15 (see the book)
    See also Amos 7:10-17; Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13; Rom. 1:19-20; Gal. 1:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open our ears to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Babcock: society, not solitude

Monday, September 26, 2022
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    [The Pharisees] said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
    Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?”
    —Luke 5:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How utterly opposed to the thought of Jesus Christ is all asceticism, all religious isolation and retreat from the world. His aim was not to get his followers out of the world, but to get them into the world. Society, not solitude, is the natural home of Christianity.
    ... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 42 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:29-35; Matt. 11:15-19; Luke 7:31-35; John 2:1-2; 12:2-8; Acts 14:1; 18:9-10; 19:8; 28:30-31
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your church a beacon of joy in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonar: using another's claim

Sunday, September 25, 2022
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
    —John 15:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every time we say ‘for Thy name’s’ sake, or for Christ’s sake, we are making use of another’s claim, another’s merit, and conceding or accepting the whole doctrine of imputed righteousness. Every man is daily getting, in some way or other, what he personally has no title to. When a son gets an inheritance from his father, he gets what does not belong to him, and what could easily and legally be diverted from him. When one who is not a son gets an estate by will, he gets what he has no claim to, simply by a legal deed. Human jurisprudence recognises these transferences as competent and proper, not fictitious or absurd. Man daily acts on these principles of getting what he has no right to, simply because a fellow-man wills it, and law acknowledges that will. Why then should he speak of fictitious transferences in spiritual blessings, proceeding on precisely the same principle? Why should he deny the law or process of the divine jurisprudence, by which forgiveness of sin is conferred on him according to the will of another, and secured to him by the claims of another? If earthly law deals thus with him in earthly things, why should not heavenly law deal thus with him in heavenly things?
    ... Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), The Everlasting Righteousness, London: James Nisbet and Co., 1873, p. 180, fn. (see the book)
    See also John 15:16; Matt. 7:7-8; 21:22; John 14:12-13; 16:23-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I have Your mind, that I may ask those things which You will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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