de Dietrich: ready to obey

Saturday, November 25, 2023
    Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
Meditation:
    “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
    —Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Bible tells us very clearly that to “know” God is not an affair of the mind only, but an act in which our whole being, heart, mind, and will, is vitally engaged; so that sheer intellectual speculation would enable us to form certain ideas about God but never to “know” Him. To be grasped, God’s will must be met with a readiness to obey.
    ... Suzanne de Diétrich (1891-1981), Discovering the Bible [1953], Coonoor, Nilgiris [India]: India Sunday School Union, 1952, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 31:33-34; Ps. 22:27-31; Pr. 1:7; Isa. 11:9; Hos. 6:6; Hab. 2:14; John 17:3; Rom. 6:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people are ready to obey Your leading. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: the reason for loving God

Friday, November 24, 2023
Meditation:
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
    apart from you I have no good thing.”
    —Psalm 16:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable. When one asks, Why should I love God? he may mean, What is lovely in God? or What shall I gain by loving God? In either case, the same sufficient cause of love exists, namely, God Himself.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On Loving God, CCEL, ch. 3, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 16:2; Deut. 6:5; Ps. 115:1; Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27; John 3:16; 14:6; 15:13; Rom. 5:10; 8:32; 1 John 4:19; 5:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are worthy of our love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnston: what failed?

Thursday, November 23, 2023
    Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
    Thanksgiving (U.S.)
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
    —Matthew 18:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The neglect of the spiritual cannot be laid directly at the door of advertising. It may be better laid at the door of the church [that] has failed to preach the God of the Bible, heaven and hell, repentance, faith, and eternal life. It can be argued that a society only gets the advertising it deserves. Yet the power to commend certain patterns of spending behaviour to millions with regularity is an open invitation to orchestrate the covetousness, envy, lust, and desire to dominate, which lie in the heart of sinful man.
    ... Raymond Johnston (1927-1985), “The Power of the Media”, in The Changing World, Bruce Kaye, ed., vol. 3 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 55 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:6; Isa. 59:7; Matt. 15:17-20; Mark 7:20-23; Luke 12:15; 1 Cor. 10:32-33; Eph. 5:3-4; Col. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Jas. 1:13-15; 4:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead Your people away from covetousness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: one in need

Wednesday, November 22, 2023
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
    —Matthew 5:40-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been ‘had for a sucker’ by any number of imposters; but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Letters to an American Lady, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:40-42; 25:32-46; Luke 6:30; 14:12-14; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; Gal. 2:9-10; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; Heb. 13:16; 1 John 3:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a fool, so that I may be wise. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kingsley: delivery from sin

Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Meditation:
    For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    —Romans 6:23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is our comfort, there is our hope—Christ, the great healer, the great physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us from the remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not, indeed, at once, or by miracle; but by slow education in new and nobler motives, in purer and more unselfish habits. And better for us, perhaps, that He should not cure us at once, lest we should fancy that sin was a light thing, which we could throw off whenever we chose; and not what it is, an inward disease, corroding and corrupting, the wages whereof are death. Therefore it is, that because Christ loves us He hates our sins, and cannot abide or endure them, will punish them, and is merciful and loving in punishing them, as long as a tincture or remnant of sin is left in us.
    ... Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), All Saints’ Day, and other sermons, ed. William Harrison, London: Kegan Paul, 1878, p. 299-300 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:23; Isa. 57:15; Matt. 1:21; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32; 19:10; John 3:17; Acts 20:21; 1 Tim. 1:15; 2 Tim. 2:25-26; 2 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hate my sins and desire to leave them. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brent: penitence, pardon, and peace

Monday, November 20, 2023
    Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
    Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
Meditation:
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
    —1 John 1:9 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Peace comes when there is no cloud between our lives and God. Peace is the consequence of forgiveness, God’s removal of that which obscures His face, and [so] breaks union with Him. The happy sequence culminating in fellowship with God is penitence, pardon, and peace—the first we offer, the second we accept, and the third we inherit.
    ... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), With God in Prayer, London: Jacobs & Co., 1907, p. 53 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:9; Deut. 7:9; Ps. 51:1-2; Eze. 34:25; 37:26; 1 Cor. 1:9; Tit. 2:12-14; Heb. 13:20; 1 John 1:3,7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a penitent spirit, forgiveness, and peace in Your Son, Jesus Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Basil: keeping all the commandments

Sunday, November 19, 2023
    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:
    For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
    —James 2:10 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We must always be on our guard lest, under the pretext of keeping one commandment, we be found breaking another.
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), The Ascetic Works of Saint Basil, tr. W. K. L. Clarke, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1925, p. 170 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:10; Deut. 27:26; 30:6; Ps. 37:31; Jer. 31:33; Eze. 11:19; Matt. 5:18-19; Gal. 3:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me grace to keep Your whole law. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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