Robertson: blessing man

Saturday, April 22, 2023
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
    —Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To recognize with delight all high, and generous, and beautiful actions; to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy—this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny. If we would bless God, we must first learn to bless man, who is made in the image of God.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. III, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859, p. 60-61 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:27-28; Ps. 34:12-13; 52:4; Pr. 24:17-18; Matt. 5:11,43-45; Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60; Rom. 3:13; 12:14; Eph. 4:31; Phil. 4:8; Tit. 3:1-2; Jas. 3:5-6; 4:11; 1 Pet. 3:10,15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to bless those who oppose me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Anselm: believe to understand

Friday, April 21, 2023
    Feast of Anselm, Abbot of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1109
Meditation:
Evil men do not understand justice,
    but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.
    —Proverbs 28:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe; but I believe in order that I may understand. For this also I believe,—that unless I believe, I should not understand.
    ... St. Anselm (1033-1109), Discourse on the Existence of God, Chicago: The Opencourt Publishing Co, 1903, p. 7 (see the book)
    See also Prov. 28:5; John 7:16-18; Eph. 4:17-18; Col. 1:9; 2:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my belief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: trust

Thursday, April 20, 2023
Meditation:
    And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
    —2 Timothy 1:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is vain, then, to speak of reposing trust in the Person without believing the message. For trust involves a personal relation between the one who trusts and him in whom the trust is reposed. And in this case the personal relation is set up by the blessed theology of the Cross.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), Christianity and Liberalism, The Macmillan Company, 1923, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 1:11-12; Ps. 9:10; 31:5; Isa. 53:1; John 1:11-13; Rom. 10:12-15; Phil. 3:8-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust in You because of Your Cross. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: saved from our sins

Wednesday, April 19, 2023
    Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012
Meditation:
    As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
    —1 Peter 1:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ will be Master of the heart, and sin must be mortified... If your life is unholy your heart is unchanged; and if your heart is unchanged you are an unsaved person. If the Saviour has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has done nothing in you of a saving character. The grace which does not make a man better than others is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves His people not in their sins, but from them.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), for Feb. 8, Evening by Evening, New York: Sheldon and Company, 1869, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:14-16; Ps. 130:7-8; Eze. 36:25-29; Matt. 1:21; John 1:29; Acts 3:26; Rom. 6:22; Phil. 3:12-14; 1 Thes. 4:7; Tit. 2:11-14; Heb. 12:10,14; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I avoiding the places in my life where sin still lurks unchecked? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: the true teacher

Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Meditation:
    Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
    —2 Corinthians 7:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Experience] is the only thing that teaches us the articles of our creed in a way worth learning them. Every one of us carries professed beliefs, which lie there inoperative, bedridden, in the hospital and dormitory of our souls, until some great necessity or sudden circumstance comes that flings a beam of light upon them, and then they start and waken. We do not know the use of the sword until we are in battle. Until the shipwreck comes, no man puts on the lifebelt in his cabin. Every one of us has large tracts of Christian truth which we think we most surely believe, but which need experience to quicken them, and need us to grow up into the possession of them. Of all our teachers who turn beliefs assented to into beliefs really believed none is so mighty as sorrow; for that makes a man lay a firm hold on the deep things of God’s Word.
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), The Holy of Holies, London: Alexander & Shepheard, 1890, p. 361-362 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 7:10-11; Matt. 26:75; Luke 18:10-14; Eph. 4:26; 6:13-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I failing to honor God in my sorrows? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: faith and love

Monday, April 17, 2023
Meditation:
    For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
    —Gal. 5:6
Quotation:
    The whole being of any Christian is Faith and Love... Faith brings the man to God, love brings him to men.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546)
    See also Gal. 5:6; 1 Thes. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:18-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith to love my neighbor as You would have me do. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: in the sight of God

Sunday, April 16, 2023
Meditation:
The LORD is in his holy temple;
    the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes the sons of men;
    his eyes examine them.
    —Psalm 11:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He has great tranquillity of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily be content and pacified, whose conscience is pure. You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with. What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.vi.2, p. 93 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 11:4; 139:1; Pr. 25:27; Matt. 6:1-2; Luke 16:15; John 5:41-44; 7:18; 12:42-43; Gal. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:4-7; 1 Tim. 1:5; 3:9; 1 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, you know exactly who I am. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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