MacDonald: They were all looking for a king

Saturday, December 23, 2023
Meditation:
    While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
    —Luke 2:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
They were all looking for a king
To slay their foes, and lift them high;
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, v. 2, London: Chatto & Windus, 1893, p. 323 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:6-7; Matt. 2:6; 26:52-54; Luke 22:37; 24:25-26; John 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people seek You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: to be like Him

Friday, December 22, 2023
Meditation:
    As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
    —1 Corinthians 15:48-49 (NIV)
Quotation:
    My brethren, we must not, on this our day of rejoicing, content ourselves with even holy feelings and thankfulness; we must not even think that we joy in the Lord, unless we seek to become like the Lord. They only can joy in Him who are like Him; man, when humbled, in a Humble God.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), from The Incarnation, a Lesson of Humility, in Sermons during the season from Advent to Whitsuntide, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1848, p. 68 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:48-49; Lev. 21:8; Isa. 53:2-4; Matt. 11:29; John 13:13-17; 1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 4:22-24; 5:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:21; 1 John 2:4-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may become more like You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: the Vision

Thursday, December 21, 2023
Meditation:
    [The Angel:] “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    —Luke 2:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Remember, too, who they were who were admitted into His Manger. None without a special, miraculous call, as though to teach us that we cannot attain to an interior life without our vocation be of God, and that those He calls must resemble the Shepherds in lowliness and freedom from worldly longings; in vigilance, for it was during their night watch that they were called; in faith, for had they doubted the Heavenly Vision, they would never have found Christ.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:12,16-18; 1 Sam. 3:10; Matt. 4:18-23; 9:9; John 15:16; Rom. 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 2:11-12; Heb. 3:1; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3,10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility to hear You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: making Himself known

Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Meditation:
    At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
    —Mark 1:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God may be inscrutable; but if He is really God, there can be nothing to prevent Him from making known everything about Himself that can be known by man. And this is exactly what He has done.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), Jesus Through Many Eyes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976, p. 145 (see the book)
    See also Mark 1:9-11; Ex. 3:1-6,13-14; Matt. 3:17; 16:17; 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35; John 3:16; 14:9; 15:15; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:1-2; 2:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we know You through Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?

Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Meditation:
    The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
    —Luke 2:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
    My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too: a flock it feeds
    Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy Word, the streams, Thy Grace
    Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
    Out-sing the daylight hours.
Then we will chide the sun for letting night
    Take up his place and right:
We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
    Himself the candle hold.
I will go searching, till I find a sun
    Shall stay, till we have done;
A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,
    As frost-nipt suns look sadly.
Then we will sing, and shine all our own day,
    And one another pay:
His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,
Till ev’n his beams sing, and my music shine.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Poetical Works of George Herbert, New York: D. Appleton, 1857, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:20; Ps. 33:1-4; 98:1-8; 104:33; 119:105; 1 Cor. 15:14; Eph. 5:19-20; Col. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    May Your people ever sing Your praises, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Keble: What sudden blaze of song

Monday, December 18, 2023
Meditation:
    Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What sudden blaze of song
        Spreads o’er th’ expanse of Heav’n?
    In waves of light it thrills along,
        Th’ angelic signal given—
    “Glory to God!” from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry choir;

    Like circles widening round
        Upon a clear blue river,
    Orb after orb, the wondrous sound
        Is echoed on for ever:
    “Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
“And love towards men of love—salvation and release.”
    ... John Keble (1792-1866), The Christian Year [1827], G. W. Doane, ed., Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842, p. 35-36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:13-14; 19:38; Ps. 85:9-12; 96:11-13; Isa. 44:23; 49:13; Eph. 3:20-21; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 5:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent Your salvation.

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Sayers: the most helpful message

Sunday, December 17, 2023
    Advent III
    Commemoration of Dorothy Sayers, Teacher and Spiritual Writer, 1957
    Commemoration of Eglantyne Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’”
    —Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Surprisingly] the Christian Church now finds herself called upon to proclaim the old and hated doctrine of sin as a gospel of cheer and encouragement. The final tendency of the modern philosophies—hailed in their day as a release from the burden of sinfulness—has been to bind man hard and fast in the chains of an iron determinism. The influences of heredity and environment, of glandular make-up and the control exercised by the unconscious, of economic necessity and the mechanics of biological development, have all been invoked to assure man that he is not responsible for his misfortunes and therefore not to be held guilty. Evil has been represented as something imposed upon him from without, not made by him from within. The dreadful conclusion follows inevitably, that as he is not responsible for evil, he cannot alter it... Today, if we could really be persuaded that we are miserable sinners—that the trouble is not outside us but inside us, and that therefore, by the grace of God, we can do something to put it right, we should receive that message as the most hopeful and heartening thing that can be imagined.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World, Eerdmans, 1969, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 15:17-20; 6:22-23; 12:34; 23:25-28; Mark 7:15,18-23; Luke 11:34-36; 17:20-21; Rom. 8:6-8; Eph. 3:20-21; Jas. 1:13-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your redemption from sin be preached again. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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