Seaver: every circumstance an opportunity

Saturday, November 18, 2023
Meditation:
    Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
    —Hebrews 12:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was his steadfast and unalterable conviction that for a man who has wrapped his will in God’s will, put his life consciously in the stream of the divine Life, freed his soul from all personal ambitions, taken his life on trust as a divine gift—that for such a man there is an over-ruling Providence which guards and guides him in every incident of his life, from the greatest to the least. He held that all annoyances, frustrations, disappointments, mishaps, discomforts, hardships, sorrows, pains, and even final disaster itself, are simply God’s ways of teaching us lessons that we could never else learn. That circumstances do not matter, are nothing, but that the response of the spirit that meets them is everything; that there is no situation in human life, however apparently adverse, nor any human relationship, however apparently uncongenial, that cannot be made, if God be in the heart, into a thing of perfect joy; that, in order to attain this ultimate perfection, one must accept every experience and learn to love all persons... that the worth of life is not to be measured by its results in achievement or success, but solely by the motive of one’s heart and the effort of one’s will.
    ... George Seaver (1890-1976), The Faith of Edward Wilson, London: J. Murray, 1948, quoted in A Treasury of the Kingdom: an anthology, Emmeline Alethea Blackburn, ed., Oxford University Press, 1954, p. 183 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:5-11; Deut. 8:5; Pr. 3:11-12; Rom. 8:38-39; Heb. 5:7-10; Jas. 1:2-4,12; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; Rev. 3:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me in the center of Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Halverson: come to church?

Friday, November 17, 2023
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
    —Luke 6:36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nowhere in the Bible is the world exhorted to “come to church.” But the church’s mandate is clear: she must go to the world... the work of the ministry belongs to the one in the pew, not the one in the pulpit.
    ... Richard C. Halverson (1916-1995), The Timelessness of Jesus Christ, Regal Books, 1982, p. 104 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:36; Prov. 3:3-4; Joel 2:28-31; Matt. 24:14; 28:19-20; Rom. 12:6-8; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the ministry of Your people to the world prosper and increase. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Traherne: the present glory

Thursday, November 16, 2023
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
    —John 15:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are Christians that place and desire all their happiness in another life, and there is another sort of Christians that desire happiness in this [life]. The one can defer their enjoyment of Wisdom till the World to come, and dispense with the increase and perfection of knowledge for a little time: the other are instant and impatient of delay, and would fain see that happiness here, which they shall enjoy hereafter. Not the vain happiness of this world, falsely called happiness, truly vain: but the real joy and glory of the blessed, which consisteth in the enjoyment of the whole world in communion with God; not this only, but the invisible and eternal, which they earnestly covet to enjoy immediately: for which reason they daily pray Thy kingdom come, and travail towards it by learning Wisdom as fast as they can... [God] offereth it now, now they are commanded to have their conversation in Heaven, now they may be full of joy and full of glory.
    ... Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674), Centuries of Meditations, edited and published by Bertram Dobell, in London, 1908, p. 245-246 (see the book)
    See also John 15:11; Matt. 6:10; Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30; Rom. 15:14; Col. 1:27; Jas. 1:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence brings glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: relatedness

Wednesday, November 15, 2023
    Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
Meditation:
    Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
    —1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    From its first page to its last, the Bible is informed by a vision of human nature for which neither freedom nor equality is fundamental; what is fundamental is relatedness.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 118 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 4:8; Ps. 133:1; Matt. 20:26-28; John 13:34; 15:12; Rom. 12:10; Eph. 5:1-2; Phil. 2:3; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Pet. 1:22; 5:5; 1 John 2:7-10; 4:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cast out ambition and envy from my heart, so that I may love the brothers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Henry: the effects of prosperity

Tuesday, November 14, 2023
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
    —Hosea 13:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pride, security, and other sins that are common effects of prosperity, are enemies more dangerous than beasts of the field, and more apt to increase upon us.
    ... Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Concise Commentary on the Bible [1706], Deut. 7:12-26 in loc (see the book)
    See also Hos. 13:6; Deut. 7:12-26; 8:10-14; 31:20; Ps. 127:1; Pr. 18:11-12; Matt. 19:23-24; Luke 6:24-25; 16:13; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; Jas. 5:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me greater caution with prosperity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Simeon: more grace

Monday, November 13, 2023
    Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
    —1 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Does not every man feel, that there is corruption enough within him to drive him to the commission of the greatest enormities, and eternally to destroy his soul? He can have but little knowledge of his own heart who will deny this. On the other hand, who that is holding on in the ways of righteousness, does not daily ascribe his steadfastness to the influence of that grace which he receives from God; and look daily to God for more grace, in order that he may be “kept by his power through faith unto salvation?” No man can in any measure resemble the scripture saints, unless he be of this disposition. Why then must these [doctrinal distinctions] be put in opposition to each other, so that every advocate for one of these points must of necessity controvert and explode the other? Only let any pious person... examine the language of his prayers after he has been devoutly pouring out his soul before God, and he will find his own words almost in perfect consonance with the foregoing statement.
    ... Charles Simeon (1759-1836), Horae Homileticae, v. I, London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1832, p. xvii (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:3-5; Zech. 4:9; Matt. 12:34-35; Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 3:22-23; 7:18-20; 14:5; 1 Cor. 2:14; 4:6-7; Gal. 3:22; Eph. 2:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, nothing good is within me save Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hilton: dead to sin

Sunday, November 12, 2023
Meditation:
    So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
    —Romans 7:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns, and wholly devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretence of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God.
    ... Walter Hilton (1330?-1396), The Scale of Perfection [early 15th century], ed. Serenus Cressy, Book I, I.i (see the book)
    See also Rom. 7:4; Isa. 29:13; Matt. 6:2-6,16-18; Rom. 6:1-6,10-11; 8:10; Gal. 2:19; 6:3,14; Col. 3:1-3; 1 Pet. 2:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grow me into the Lord’s likeness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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