Phillips: our Contemporary

Saturday, January 6, 2024
    EPIPHANY
Meditation:
    For through [Christ Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
    —Ephesians 2:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God has become Man! From henceforth God is no absentee impersonal Omnipotence. God and Man are indissolubly linked. God has not only made His Personal Visit, not only given us the pattern of true and happy living, not only died to reconcile us to Himself, not only risen again both to shatter the fear of death and to prove His own claims, but there is no barrier now between Him and us. God in Christ is our Contemporary, and if that is not Good News it would be difficult to know what is!
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God With Us: a Message for Christmas, London: Epworth Press, 1957, p. 12 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:18; Zech. 12:10; Matt. 26:64; Mark 16:19; John 1:14; Acts 2:32-33; 5:30-31; Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1; Heb. 7:25; 8:1-2; 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your intercession is life to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: loving God "because"

Friday, January 5, 2024
Meditation:
    It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
    —Philippians 1:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow—for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), quoted in Works of Meister Eckhart, London: J. M. Watkins, 1924, p. 52 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 1:15; 2 Kings 5:15-16; Pr. 15:26; Matt. 10:8; Luke 16:13; John 20:29; Acts 8:18-23; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:16; 4:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break my self-service. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Peterson: qualification for leadership

Thursday, January 4, 2024
Meditation:
    Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
    The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
    —Exodus 4:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is almost always a mistake to recruit exceptional people for leadership; look for ordinary Christians—that is mostly what you have anyway. But prize them, value them. And appoint them as leaders.
    ... Eugene H. Peterson (1932-2018), The Unnecessary Pastor, Marva J. Dawn, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000, p. 204 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 4:10-11; 3:11; Amos 7:14-15; Matt. 4:18-22; 11:25; Luke 10:21; 1 Cor. 1:18-24; 2:12-14; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove all apprehension from those whom You have chosen for work in Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: vainglory

Wednesday, January 3, 2024
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
    —Matthew 6:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That same state and temper of mind which makes our alms and devotions acceptable, must also make our labour or employment a proper offering unto God. If a man labours to be rich, and pursues his business, that he may raise himself to a state of figure and glory in the world, he is no longer serving God in his employment; he is acting under other masters, and has no more title to a reward from God, than he that gives alms that he may be seen, or prays that he may be heard of men.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 51 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:1-6,24; 13:22; Luke 16:13; Rom. 14:8; Eph. 4:28; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:7-13; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; 1 Pet. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my employment bring honor to Your name. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Basil: brethren

Tuesday, January 2, 2024
    Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
    Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
    For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life
    —Romans 5:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Though we were not His brethren, but were enemies through wicked works, yet [Jesus], being not man alone, but God, after He Himself has given us freedom, calls us brethren. He who redeemed us was, if we consider His nature, neither our brother nor man; but if we regard His gracious condescension to us, He calls us brethren and descends to humanity.
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), Homily on Ps. XLVIII, quoted in Saint Basil the Great, Richard T. Smith, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879, p. 109-110 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 5:10; Ps. 49:7-9; Isa. 52:3; Rom. 3:25-26; 8:3; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Col. 1:21-23; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we call You brother and savior. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: There's a wideness in God's mercy

Monday, January 1, 2024
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
    —2 Corinthians 11:3 (KJV)
Quotation:
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
    Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice
    Which is more than liberty.

If our love were but more simple,
    We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
    In the sweetness of our Lord.
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), Hymns Selected from Frederick William Faber, Part 4, Northampton, Mass.: Bridgman and Childs, 1867, p. 54-55 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 11:3; Ps. 36:5; 85:10; 100:5; 116:6; 118:1-4; 136; 146:7-8; Matt. 18:2-3; Luke 6:36; Rom. 11:32; Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me simple love.

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Wordsworth: Wicliffe

Sunday, December 31, 2023
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
    —Revelation 12:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear,
And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear,
Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind,
Though seldom heard by busy human kind,)
“As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear
Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main Ocean they, this Deed accurst
An emblem yields to friends and enemies
How the bold Teacher’s Doctrine, sanctified
By Truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.”
    ... William Wordsworth (1770-1850), The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 357 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 12:10-11; Matt. 24:9; Luke 11:47-48; 21:17; John 1:17; 4:24; Acts 5:29; 7:55-60; 2 Cor. 1:19-20; 4:2; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Thess. 2:14-16; 2 Tim. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth pours into the world through Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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