Gossip: no time for Christ

Sunday, May 26, 2024
    Trinity Sunday
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, Spiritual Writer, 1954
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.”
    Luke 8:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Even those of us who are inside it will agree that, in the main, the Church, and all for which it stands, occupy a palpably smaller place in the life of the average member than it did in former days. We explain it on the ground that life has become fuller, and that, of necessity, our attention nowadays has to percolate over a wide area instead of rushing foam-flecked down a narrower channel—which is to say, in other words, that Christ is getting lost to us in the crush and throng of things, does not loom up as arresting, as unique, as all-important, as He did to our forefathers. Yet that, when you come to think of it, is no bad definition of unspirituality.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 61-62 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:14; Matt. 6:24-25; 13:22; Mark 4:18-19; 8:27-29; Luke 16:13; 18:24-25; 21:34; Rom. 7:18; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; 1 John 2:15-17; Jas. 3:13-15; Jude 1:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, reform my priorities, so that I place Christ first. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: knowledge of good and evil

Saturday, May 25, 2024
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
    —Philippians 3:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really... Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 93 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 3:18-19; Gen. 3:22; Matt. 15:18-20; Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 14:23; 1 Thess. 5:22; Tit. 1:15-16; 2 Tim. 3:1-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me to know my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: stewards

Friday, May 24, 2024
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
    —Luke 14:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not at liberty to use what he has lodged in our hands as we please, but as he pleases, who alone is the possessor of heaven and earth, and the Lord of every creature. We have no right to dispose of any thing we have but according to his will, seeing we are not proprietors of any of these things.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. I, New York: J. Emory and B. Waugh, 1831, p. 449 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:12-14; Deut. 15:7-14; Ps. 37:21; 112:5; Pr. 19:17; Matt. 5:42; 22:16-21; 25:35-40; Luke 6:30; 8:1-3; Rom. 13:7; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; 1 Pet. 4:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all things You have given me are Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Isaac: the purpose of illness

Thursday, May 23, 2024
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
    —2 Corinthians 4:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When you are ill say: “Blessed are those who have found the purpose set by God in these things which He inflicts for our profit.” God brings illness for the health of the soul.
    ... St. Isaac of Syria (d. c. 700), fifth discourse, On Ascetical Life, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989, p. 88 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:17; Ps. 119:67,71; Matt. 5:4; John 9:2-3; Rom. 5:3-5; 8:18; Jas. 5:15; 1 Pet. 1:6; 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my faith in Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Price: lifting Christ up

Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
    —John 6:44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I want to emphasize for the sake of clarity, and for Jesus’ sake, that there is no one set way of leading a man, woman or child to Christ. Our part is merely to “lift Him up” and let Him do His own work.
    ... Eugenia Price (1916-1996), Discoveries: Made from Living My New Life, Zondervan, 1979, p. 118 (see the book)
    See also John 6:44; Ps. 19:7; Matt. 28:19-20; John 15:26; Acts 2:47; 11:20-21; 13:48; 20:27; 21:19; Rom. 15:18-19; 1 Cor. 12:11; Col. 1:25-28; 2 Tim. 2:24-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people lift up Your Name before the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chadwick: Fire and love

Tuesday, May 21, 2024
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    ...for our “God is a consuming fire.”
    —Hebrews 12:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Fire is the chosen symbol of Heaven for moral passion. It is emotion aflame. God is love; God is fire. The two are one. The Holy Spirit baptises in fire. Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They believe with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with a fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the Fire of God.
    ... Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932), The Way to Pentecost, Hodder and Stoughton, 1932, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:29; Ex. 3:2; 13:21-22; 24:17; Ps. 97:3; Isa. 6:4-7; 66:16; Dan. 7:9-10; Joel 2:28-29; Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 2:3-4; 11:15-16; Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 3:12-15; 1 Thess. 5:19; 2 Thess. 1:6-7; Heb. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7; 1 John 4:8,18; Jude 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with Your burning love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: second class?

Monday, May 20, 2024
Meditation:
    For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
    —2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I don’t see how any Christian can read the New Testament and still go on insisting that his relationship to other Christians makes no demands on him, or that his Lord has no call on a life which He has bought and paid for. Does anyone really think they are at liberty to “go second-class” if they wish? Do they truly expect to be “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease”? Do they possibly intend to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and offer, for His approval, deeds done by hands other than theirs? If so, they need to read the New Testament again, for the Holy Spirit has not yet taught them anything out of it: they have not yet found their place in the Body of Christ.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Amateur Ministry” (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Matt. 20:25-29; John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:2,10; 15:27; 1 Cor. 3:17; 6:19-20; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2,11-13; Col. 1:24; Jas. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2:5-9; Rev. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I will use my own hands to work for the Kingdom and the Body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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