Smith: our will

Saturday, July 29, 2023
    Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
    —Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every mother knows that she could secure perfect and easy obedience in her child, if she could only get into that child’s will and work it for him, making him want himself to do the things she willed he should. And this is what our Father does for His children in the new dispensation,—He writes His laws on our hearts and on our minds, and we love them, and are drawn to our obedience by our affections and judgment, not driven by our fears.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, London: F. E. Longley, 1876, p. 130 (see the book)
    See also Eze. 36:25-27; Jer. 31:33-34; Eze. 11:19; John 14:16-17,26; Rom. 8:6-7; 2 Cor. 3:3; Gal. 5:22-23; Heb. 8:10-13; 10:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have remade my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Handel: a musician's surety

Friday, July 28, 2023
    Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, musician, 1750
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”
    —Galatians 2:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What a wonderful thing it is to be sure of one’s faith! How wonderful to be a member of the evangelical church, which preaches the free grace of God through Christ as the hope of sinners! If we were to rely on our works—my God, what would become of us?
    ... George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), What Luther Says: an anthology, v. II, Martin Luther & Ewald Martin Plass, ed., Concordia Pub. House, 1959, p. 612 fn (see the book)
    See also Gal. 2:15-16; Matt. 5:20; Acts 13:38-39; Rom. 3:22-24; 4:13; 2 Cor. 1:19-20; Eph. 2:8-9; Tit. 3:4-7; 1 Thess. 1:4-5; 1 John 3:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by my works I am condemned but saved only through Your grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stott: forward towards union

Thursday, July 27, 2023
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
    —Ephesians 2:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If only we could agree that Scripture is ‘God’s Word written’, that it is supreme in its authority over all human traditions however venerable, and that it must be allowed to reform and renew the church, we would take an immediate leap forward in ecumenical relationships. Reformation according to the Word of God is indispensable to reunion.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), The Contemporary Christian, Inter-Varsity, 1992, p. 182 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:19-20; Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Luke 20:17-18; John 3:34; Acts 4:11-12; Rom. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, if it be Your will, unite Your people in Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whitefield: restless heart

Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Meditation:
    Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
    —Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.
    ... George Whitefield (1714-1770), from a letter, 1739, The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., v. I, London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771, p. 47 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:9; Eccl. 4:5; Isa. 6:8; Matt. 9:37-38; Rom. 12:11; 1 Thess. 4:10; 2 Thess. 3:10-13; Heb. 6:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Send me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: arguing with God

Tuesday, July 25, 2023
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?”
    —Isaiah 45:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 48 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 45:9; Gen. 32:27-28; Deut. 9:6; 31:27; Neh. 9:30; Job 9:2; 40:2; Zech. 7:11-12; Matt. 23:31-33; Acts 7:51; Eph. 4:30; Phil. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the Author of reason. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: fellowship

Monday, July 24, 2023
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
    We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
    —1 John 1:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Why do we talk and gossip so continually, seeing that we so rarely resume our silence without some hurt done to our conscience? ... Devout conversation on spiritual things helpeth not a little to spiritual progress, most of all where those of kindred mind and spirit find their ground of fellowship in God.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.x.1, p. 42-43 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:3; Lev. 19:16; Pr. 20:19; Jer. 31:34; Rom. 12:9; Eph. 4:31; Col. 1:27; Tit. 3:1-2; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 3:13; 1 John 3:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me to guard my tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hauerwas: self-knowledge

Sunday, July 23, 2023
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
    —1 John 1:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not only is knowledge of self tied to knowledge of God, but we know ourselves truthfully only when we know ourselves in relation to God. We know who we are only when we can place our selves—locate our stories—within God’s story.
    ... Stanley Hauerwas (b. 1940), The Peaceable Kingdom, University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:5-7; Pr. 1:7; Hos. 6:6; Matt. 18:10; 22:39; Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 8:3; 13:9-12; Phil. 3:8; 1 John 3:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people are secure in Your plan. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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