Calvin: contemplate His works

Saturday, May 27, 2023
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
Great are the works of the LORD;
    they are pondered by all who delight in them.
    —Psalm 111:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of His essence, which we ought more to adore than meticulously to search out, but for us to contemplate Him in His works, whereby He renders Himself near and familiar to us, and in some manner communicates Himself.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.v.9, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 111:2; Gen. 1:31; Ps. 8:3-4; 92:4-5; 104:24; 139:14; Eccl. 3:11,14; Jer. 10:12; Eph. 2:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your hand is known to us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: patience in adversity

Friday, May 26, 2023
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
Meditation:
    Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
    —Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xiii.8, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 5:3-4; Matt. 5:11-12; Luke 6:22-23; Acts 5:41; Rom. 8:28; 15:3-4; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 4:8-10,17; Phil. 1:27-28; Jas. 1:2-3; 2 Pet. 1:4-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me in the time of trouble. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: the smallest things

Thursday, May 25, 2023
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
    —Matthew 10:41-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God, and when they serve to unite us with Him eternally.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Letters to Men and Women, P. Owen, 1957, p. 55 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:41-42; 18:3-5; 25:40; Mark 9:41; 12:42-44; Luke 6:35; John 6:9-13; Acts 11:29; 2 Cor. 8:12; 9:6; Heb. 6:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all I have belongs to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: we are tenants

Wednesday, May 24, 2023
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
    —James 4:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Without some suffering, we should scarce remember that we are not proprietors here, but only tenants at will, liable to lose all we have at a moment’s warning.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), letter to Ebenezer Blackwell, 28 Jul 1762, Letters of John Wesley, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915, p. 348 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:13-15; Job 7:6-7; 14:1-2; Ps. 39:4-5; 89:47; Isa. 40:6-8; Jer. 17:11; Luke 12:16-21; Jas. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You made me from the dust. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: the fellowship and money

Tuesday, May 23, 2023
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
    —2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What fellowship means in material matters is made very plain. Every man is to work for his living. “If a man will not work, neither let him eat.” But those who cannot work are to be provided for out of the common fund. Old and helpless persons who have relations of their own should, indeed, find support from them and not be forced to come upon the Church; but for the resourceless the Church must provide. And those who are rich and who earn more than enough to support their own families are to be willing contributors to the common fund. The love of money—the desire to accumulate wealth—is the root of every kind of evil. The relation of one to another is to be that of members in one body, in which, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), Christ and Society, London: Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1928, p. 78-79 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:10; Matt. 6:24; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:11-12; 1 Tim. 5:3-6,13; 6:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me diligence in my work. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: more than merely human

Monday, May 22, 2023
Meditation:
    As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
    —1 Corinthians 12:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The One Body cannot be created by human collaboration. It exists through simply removing the barriers and having fellowship with God, a reality prevailing among those who obey Him and love each other. No other merely human method will avail.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 5 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:20; John 15:12; 17:20-23; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:13; Eph. 2:14-16; 4:4-6; 5:29-30; Col. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:17; 1 John 1:7; 2:6; 3:24; 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to remove my obstacles to fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the purpose for decline

Sunday, May 21, 2023
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”
    —Zechariah 3:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
Well may this body poorer, feebler grow!
It is undressing for its last sweet bed;
But why should the soul, which death shall never know,
Authority, and power, and memory shed?
It is that love with absolute faith would wed;
God takes the inmost garments off his child,
To have him in his arms, naked and undefiled.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Diary of an Old Soul, London: by the author, 1880, p. 163 (see the book)
    See also Zech. 3:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; Heb. 2:14-15; 9:27-28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long for the day that sin shall depart from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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