Rolle: Come into me, my Beloved!

Saturday, January 20, 2024
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he browses among the lilies.
    —Song of Solomon 6:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Come into me, my Beloved!
All that I had I gave for Thee, and that I should have,
    for Thee I have forsaken,
    that Thou in my soul mightest have a mansion for to comfort it.
Never forsake Thou him that Thou feelest so sweetly glow with desire for Thee;
    so that with most burning desire I desire,
    to be ever within Thy embrace.
So grant me grace to love Thee, and in Thee to rest,
    that in Thy kingdom I may be worthy for to see Thee withouten end.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), Fire of Love [1343], tr. Richard Misyn, I.ii (see the book)
    See also Song of Solomon 6:3; 2:6,10-13,16; John 14:2; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, set the fire of love for You within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: grafted onto Christ

Friday, January 19, 2024
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
    —Romans 11:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is only by being grafted into Christ that we produce good fruit. Other religions say, “Do good and you will become good.” Christianity says, “Be in Christ, and you will do good.” The meaning of the Atonement and the Blood that washes away our sins is that we are grafted into Christ, I in Him, and He in me. It is a bitter sprig which is grafted into the tree, but, once it is grafted in, the sweet juice of the tree flows through the bitter sprig and makes it sweet.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:17-18; Ps. 51:7; Matt. 7:17-20; 12:33; Luke 6:43-45; John 15:5; 1 Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:4-5; Heb. 10:19-22; Rev. 7:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your goodness flows into Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: unkindness

Thursday, January 18, 2024
    Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
    —Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:1-2; Matt. 27:28-31; Luke 23:34; Rom. 15:1-2; Gal. 6:2; Col. 3:12; 2 Pet. 1:5-7; 1 John 2:10-11; 3:17-18; 4:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge my thoughts of what offends. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: full disclosure

Wednesday, January 17, 2024
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.”
    —John 17:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The self-disclosure of God which reached its culmination in Jesus Christ is final, and that by the very necessity of the case. That is to say, if Jesus Christ is God incarnate, no fuller disclosure of God in terms of manhood than is given in His person is conceivable or possible.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The New Theology and the Old Religion, E.P. Dutton, 1907, p. vii (see the book)
    See also John 17:6-7; Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 1:14,18; 12:44-46; 14:7-9; 17:26; 2 Cor. 4:6; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3; 1 John 4:9; 5:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given me the gift of Your true self. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the purpose of its summons

Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.”
    —Luke 8:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The community does not speak with words alone. It speaks by the very fact of its existence in the world; by its characteristic attitude toward world problems; and, moreover and especially, by its silent service to all the handicapped, weak, and needy of the world. It speaks, finally, by the simple fact that it prays for the world. It does all this because this is the purpose of its summons by the Word of God. It cannot avoid doing these things, since it believes.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1979, p. 38 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:16; Matt. 5:13-16; Mark 4:21; Luke 12:8; 21:15; 2 Cor. 6:14; Phil. 1:27-28; 2:14-16; 2 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, uphold Your church before the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: God in the Sacrament

Monday, January 15, 2024
Meditation:
    ... if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
    —2 Timothy 2:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every single time a sacrament is celebrated, God takes action, there and then—does something, not on Calvary, but in that church. And what He does is to come to each soul partaking in the Sacrament and to assure it that He stands to the best and biggest of His promises and to the fullness of His grace in Christ; ... de-universalizes the Scriptures and individualizes them, makes them a personal promise, couched no longer in general terms but offered to very you, and very me, as individually as if they covered no other but referred to you and me alone. We may be cold and dead and unresponsive. None the less, something happens in the Sacrament. For God stands to His side of the Covenant, whether we stand to ours or not.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 166 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 2:13; Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Matt. 24:35; 1 Cor. 5:8; Heb. 6:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have received according to Your promise. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Colson: the metaphorical kingdom?

Sunday, January 14, 2024
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
    —Revelation 11:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One reason I, like many others, missed the deeper meaning of Christ’s radical declaration is that I had always read the term kingdom metaphorically. Like the Jews in that Nazareth synagogue, most of us think of kingdoms as geographic entities, physical realms with boundaries and defenses and treasuries. But the Kingdom of God is a rule, not a realm. It is the declaration of God’s absolute sovereignty, of His total order of life in this world and the next.
    ... Charles W. Colson (1931-2012), Kingdoms in Conflict, HarperCollins Canada, Limited, 1990, p. 120-121 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 11:15; Ps. 45:6; Isa. 9:6-7; Dan. 2:44; 7:13-14; Luke 17:20-21; John 18:36; Rom. 14:17-18; Col. 1:10-14; Heb. 1:8-9; Rev. 5:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, wherever You lead Your people is Your kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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