Owen: as He will

Saturday, November 19, 2022
    Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
    Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
    Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
    —John 3:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [The Holy Spirit is voluntarily] distributing to every one as he will; and therefore is this work done in so great variety, both as to the same person and divers. For the same person, full of joy sometimes in a great distress, full of consolation,—every promise brings sweetness when his pressures are great and heavy; another time, in the least trial [he] seeks for comfort, searches the promise, and it is far away. The reason is, the Spirit distributes as he will. And so with divers persons: to some each promise is full of life and comfort; others taste little all their days;—all upon the same account. And this faith especially regards in the whole business of consolation:—it depends on the sovereign will of the Holy Ghost; and so is not tied unto any rules or course of procedure.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost [1657], in Works of John Owen, v. II, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 238 (see the book)
    See also John 3:8; 14:26; 16:13-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit creates new people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yancey: marking time?

Friday, November 18, 2022
Meditation:
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
    —Proverbs 4:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
    ... Philip Yancey (b. 1949), Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, p. 237 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 4:18; Isa. 42:3; Mark 15:43; John 12:36; Phil. 2:14-16; Rev. 21:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Your people show forth the kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: for work

Thursday, November 17, 2022
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
    —Acts 11:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We sometimes confer too great importance on our individual spiritual or religious life. To be sure, each of us is of infinite worth before God, for he gave his Son to save us. But above all each of us is important for the work which God demands. The Christian is not just the man who is saved by Christ; he is the man whom God uses for the salvation of others by Christ.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 88-89 (see the book)
    See also Acts 11:22-24; 8:30-31; 1 Cor. 1:17; 10:33; Eph. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, use me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: wholeness from the parts

Wednesday, November 16, 2022
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
    —1 Corinthians 12:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In his enthusiasm, the evangelist often finds it difficult seriously to imagine that anyone could be called not to be an evangelist. The man of vision and imagination finds it difficult to see the value of those who do no more than plod on faithfully along a well-tried road. The man whose concern is personal dealing with people and leading them to understand God better finds it difficult to be patient with the theologian or the Christian philosopher whose work is in the quiet of a book-lined study. Yet the truth is that the wholeness which God is working to achieve is never complete in an individual, but through individuals living together as one body, each supplying the deficiencies of the others.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 66 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:14-31; Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-7; Eph. 4:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me contentment with my place in Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brunner: love alone, not wrath

Tuesday, November 15, 2022
    Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
Meditation:
For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
    but rejoicing comes in the morning.
    —Psalm 30:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One wants to have love alone, not seeing that by denying God’s holiness and wrath, God’s love is deprived of its true depth and meaning. Is it not so even in human experience? The man who cannot become angry, cannot truly love. The man who passes over treachery, infidelity, breach of confidence as if it were nothing, cannot be a true friend and cannot be faithful himself. It is here that a decision of the first order takes place: he who refuses to hear of God’s wrath, judgment and condemnation, will never understand Jesus Christ. The living God is the God whose love is united with holiness. This paradox of holiness and mercy is... the essence of the biblical doctrine of God.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Scandal of Christianity, London: SCM Press, 1951, reprint, John Knox Press, 1965, p. 78 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 30:5; Isa. 42:24-25; Amos 4:10-12; Acts 17:30-31
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You show Your love even in affliction. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: the dream of virtue

Monday, November 14, 2022
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
    —Philippians 3:10-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What the world calls virtue is a name and a dream without Christ. The foundation of all human excellence must be laid deep in the blood of the Redeemer’s cross, and in the power of His Resurrection.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. I, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1857, p. 94 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 3:10-14; John 11:25-26; Rom. 8:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:21-23; Col. 3:1-3; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your Resurrection, You are the sole arbiter of all truth and goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Simeon: humiliation

Sunday, November 13, 2022
    Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Meditation:
    So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.
    —Ezekiel 16:62-63 (NIV)
Quotation:
    With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God’s having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me.
    ... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, Pittsburgh: R. Carter, 1847, p. 303 (see the book)
    See also Ezek. 16:62-63; Job 42:5-6; Pr. 3:34; Matt. 11:19; Mark 9:35; Luke 1:52; 22:26-27; Jas. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove my stubborn pride. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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