Teresa of Avila: in the Presence

Saturday, October 15, 2022
    Feast of Teresa of Avila, Mystic, Teacher, 1582
Meditation:
    [Jesus] said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”
    —Luke 16:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may be for days together without even once recollecting that God sees them.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Life of St. Teresa of Avila of the order of Our Lady of Carmel, New York: Benziger Brothers, 1916, p. 58 (see the book)
    See also Luke 16:15; Jer. 22:16; Hos. 6:6; 1 John 2:3; 4:12-13; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You send timely reminders of Your presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: God articulate

Friday, October 14, 2022
Meditation:
    I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints—but let them not return to folly.
    —Psalm 85:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe. To jump from a dead, impersonal world to a dogmatic Bible is too much for most people. They may admit that they should accept the Bible as the Word of God, and they may try to think of it as such, but they find it impossible to believe that the words there on the page are actually for them. A man may say, “These words are addressed to me,” and yet in his heart not feel and know that they are. He is the victim of a divided psychology. He tries to think of God as mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 76-77 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 85:8; Luke 11:28; 24:27,45; John 5:39-40; Rom. 3:1-2; Eph. 6:17; Phil. 2:14-16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:21; 3:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to hear You as You speak to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M. Barth: some strange things

Thursday, October 13, 2022
    Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066
Meditation:
    For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
    —Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is easy to throw angels and demons and the cosmic character and relevance of Christ’s work upon the scrap heap of ancient superstition and mythology, and to consider them but a manner of speech that is utterly irrelevant for our space age. But if we should feel entitled to throw out one part of the witness of Ephesians to Christ, why not the rest of it also: for instance, Christ’s Lordship over the church and in the heart? It is unfair and scarcely honest to consider the Bible or parts of it as a cake from which we can pick out merely the raisins we happen to like. Speaking the truth in love and witnessing to the biblical Christ may imply the necessity to speak also of some very strange things.
    ... Markus Barth (1915-1994), The Broken Wall, Chicago: Judson Press, 1959, Regent College Publishing, 1959, p. 21 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11-12; John 12:31; Rom. 8:38; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; 4:1-6,15; Col. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You see what is hidden from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hallesby: struggling in prayer

Wednesday, October 12, 2022
    Commemoration of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, Bishop of York, Missionary, 709
    Commemoration of Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845
Meditation:
    In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
    —Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To strive in prayer means to struggle through those hindrances which would restrain or even prevent us entirely from continuing in persevering prayer. It means to be so watchful at all times that we can notice when we become slothful in prayer and [that we] go to the Spirit of prayer to have this remedied. In this struggle, too, the decisive factor is the Spirit of prayer.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 110 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:26-27; Ps. 42:8; Matt. 15:22-28; Luke 2:36-37; 11:5-8; 22:44; Rom. 12:12; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; 1 Tim. 5:5; 2 Tim. 1:3; Jude 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to guide me in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: imperfect recognition

Tuesday, October 11, 2022
    Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
    —Luke 9:44-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What is the Christian? Everywhere the man who, so far as he comprehends Jesus Christ, so far as he can get any knowledge of Him, is His servant, the man who makes Christ a teacher of his intelligence and the guide of his soul, the man who obeys Christ as far as he has been able to understand him... I would know any man as a Christian, would rejoice to know any man as a Christian, whom Jesus would recognize as a Christian, and Jesus Christ, I am sure, in these old days recognized His followers even if they came after Him with the blindest sight, with the most imperfect recognition and acknowledgment of what He was and of what He could do.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 122-123 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:44-45; Isa. 52:14-15; 65:1; Matt. 13:13-16; 16:8-11; Mark 4:11-12,33; 8:17-21; Luke 8:10; 18:34; 24:45; John 8:27; 9:24-25; 10:1-6,24-29; 12:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may know You far better. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: in the heart

Monday, October 10, 2022
    Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644
Meditation:
    Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
    —Luke 17:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who attempts to set up God’s kingdom in his heart, furthers it in the world.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Sermons, Bearing on Subjects of the Day, London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1844, p. 151 (see the book)
    See also Luke 17:20-21; Deut. 10:16; Matt. 6:33; Luke 12:31; John 6:27; Col. 1:27; 2:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take Your place in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Inge: thirst for God

Sunday, October 9, 2022
    Commemoration of Denys, Bishop of Paris, & his Companions, Martyrs, 258
    Commemoration of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, Philosopher, Scientist, 1253
Meditation:
    On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
    —John 7:37-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The soul of man, when it is healthy, is athirst for God; and God only, through Christ, can slake the soul’s thirst. Longing for God, for the eternally good and true and lovely, is natural to man; it is man’s most divine endowment. The thirst, as well as the living water, is a gift of God. As Christ is both Priest and Victim, so He gives both the thirst and the life-giving draught... This is what Christ always assumed in His teaching. Man wants to find his way to God. That is why we come to Church; that is why we pray. And our Saviour cries to us with a loud voice, as He did on the great day of the feast, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
    ... William R. Inge (1860-1954), Personal Religion and the Life of Devotion, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1924, p. 37 (see the book)
    See also John 7:37-39; Ps. 42:1-2; Matt. 5:6; John 4:13-14; 6:35; Rev. 22:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church seeks You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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