Guyon: no love to give

Saturday, February 3, 2024
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
    —1 John 4:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
I love, my God, but with no love of mine
    For I have none to give;
I love Thee, Lord, but all that love is Thine,
    For by Thy life I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied and lost and swallowed up in Thee.
    ... Mme. Guyon (1648-1717), included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:8; Acts 20:24; Rom. 7:18; 1 Cor. 2:2; 2 Cor. 12:11; Gal. 6:3; Phil. 2:5-7; 3:8-9; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your love is all I can give. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: the sufficiency of Scripture

Friday, February 2, 2024
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    [Peter:] “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
    —Acts 5:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Scripture will ultimately suffice for a saving knowledge of God only when its certainty is founded upon the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, these human testimonies which exist to confirm it will not be vain if, as secondary aids to our feebleness, they follow that chief and highest testimony. But those who wish to prove to unbelievers that Scripture is the Word of God are acting foolishly, for only by faith can this be known.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.viii.13, p. 90-91 (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:32; Ps. 143:10; Jer. 6:10; Matt. 22:43; Luke 16:31; 24:45; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:13-16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Gal. 4:6; 5:25; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 John 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I pray that You will bring _____ and _____ to faith and trust in You, knowing and understanding the story of Your grace in Scripture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: hard words

Thursday, February 1, 2024
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!”
    —Mark 10:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our Lord was not in the habit of explaining away his hard words. He let them stand in all the glory of the burning fire wherewith they would purge us. Where their simplicity finds corresponding simplicity, they are understood.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Hardness of the Way”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 31 (see the book)
    See also Mark 10:24-25; Matt. 5:20,28,32,44; 6:5,16; 10:34-38; Luke 4:18-21,24-27; John 8:44
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people are humbled by Your judgments. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ham: concentration and training

Wednesday, January 31, 2024
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
    —Ephesians 6:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Groups that require little of their membership count for little outside their membership. Real spiritual capacity requires at least as much concentration and training as learning to play a musical instrument. Nobody has ever drifted into a genuine Christian experience.
    ... William T. Ham, “Candles of the Lord”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 171 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:12-18; Matt. 11:29-30; 1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 1 Tim. 1:18-19; 6:12; 2 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 12:4; Jas. 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, move us to desire Your instruction. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: ultimate purpose ignored

Tuesday, January 30, 2024
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant—the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God.
    —Jeremiah 11:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The effect of the post-Enlightenment project for human society is that all human activity is absorbed into labor. It becomes an unending cycle of production for the sake of consumption. The modern concept of “built-in obsolescence” makes this clear. The cycle of production and consumption has to be kept going, and the work of the artist or craftsman who aims to create something enduring becomes marginal to the economic order. Likewise, the world of action, of politics, is reduced to a conflict of views about how to keep the cycle of production and consumption going. Questions of ultimate purpose are excluded from the public world.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 11:3-4; Lev. 26:12; Ps. 2:6-9; 17:14; Dan. 7:26-27; Matt. 5:19-21,25-32; 20:25-28; Luke 12:22-30; John 16:33; Eph. 1:18-23; 4:17; Col. 1:15-16; 2:13-15; Heb. 8:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will defeat the system of this world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton: the sword

Monday, January 29, 2024
Meditation:
    Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
    Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
    —Matthew 18:21-22 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Christianity ... came in startlingly with a sword, and clove one thing from another. It divided the crime from the criminal. The criminal we must forgive unto seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all. It was not enough that slaves who stole wine inspired partly anger and partly kindness. We must be much more angry with theft than before, and yet much kinder to thieves than before. There was room for wrath and love to run wild.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Orthodoxy, London, New York: John Lane Company, 1909, p. 175 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:21-22; Pr. 28:13; Matt. 5:48; 6:12; Mark 11:25; Luke 3:8-14; 19:2-10; Acts 5:1-5; Rom. 12:21; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Eph. 4:28; Heb. 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me Your justice and mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aquinas: non-prayer

Sunday, January 28, 2024
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
    —1 Peter 4:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274) (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 4:1-2; Ps. 40:8; Matt. 6:10; 7:21; John 4:34; Rom. 8:26; 12:2; Eph. 6:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my every prayer accord with Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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