Yaconelli: our mess

Sunday, October 6, 2024
    Feast of William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr, 1536
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
    —John 6:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives.
    ... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Messy Spirituality [2002], Zondervan, 2007, p. 14 (see the book)
    See also John 6:27; Ps. 1:1-2; 119:11; Jer. 9:23-24; Luke 19:5-9; Rom. 8:6-7; 12:2; 1 John 4:6-7; 5:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are healing my broken life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warfield: faith in Christ

Saturday, October 5, 2024
Meditation:
    For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
    —Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is never on account of its formal nature as a mental act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving,—as if this frame of mind or attitude of heart were itself a virtue with claims on God for reward... It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith.
    ... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), in “Faith”, q.v., Dictionary of the Bible, v. I, James Hastings, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911, p. 837 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:8-9; John 6:44,65; Rom. 1:16; 3:22-24; 4:16; 10:9-10; Gal. 1:8-9; 3:14,22; Col. 2:16-18; 1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 5:10-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace is all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Havergal: Jesus came!

Friday, October 4, 2024
    Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226
Meditation:
    Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
    —Luke 5:31-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
Jesus came!—and came for me.
    Simple words! and yet expressing
Depths of holy mystery,
    Depths of wondrous love and blessing.

Holy Spirit, make me see
    All His coming means for me;
Take the things of Christ, I pray,
    Show them to my heart today.
    ... Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1888, p. 167 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:31-32; Matt. 9:10; Mark 2:17; John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:15; 2 Tim. 1:10; Tit. 2:12-14; 3:4-7; Heb. 9:26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have revealed Yourself to our hearts.

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Figgis: the wedge

Thursday, October 3, 2024
    Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896
    Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”
    —Matthew 10:34-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Any one can believe that Jesus was a god—what is so hard to credit is that He who hung upon the cross was the God. That is what you are asked as Christians to believe.
    And it is the sword, glittering but fearful. It must cut your life away from the standards of this world, away from its thought and its measures, no less than its aims and hopes. Hard and bitter is the separation; and you will be parted from many great and noble men, some perhaps your own teachers, who can accept about Jesus everything but the one thing needful. The Christian faith, if accepted, drives a wedge between its own adherents and the disciples of every other philosophy or religion, however lofty or soaring. And they will not see this; they will tell you that really your views and theirs are the same thing, and only differ in words, which, if only you were a little more highly trained, you would understand. Even among Christ’s nominal servants there are many who think a little goodwill is all that is needed to bridge the gulf—a little amiability and mutual explanation, a more careful use of phrases, would soon accommodate Christianity to fashionable modes of speaking and thinking, and destroy all causes of provocation. So they would. But they would destroy also its one inalienable attraction: that of being... a wonder, and a beauty, and a terror—no dull and drab system of thought, no mere symbolic idealism.
    ... John Neville Figgis (1866-1919), The Gospel and Human Needs, London: Longman’s, Green & Co., 1911, p. 149-150 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:34-36; Mic. 7:5-6; Matt. 24:10; Mark 13:12-13; Luke 21:16; Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 1:19-23; 3:18-19; 2 Cor. 10:5; Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:20-21; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16; 21:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Jesus, You are Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: is God boring?

Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”
    —Matthew 15:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God bores you, tell Him that He bores you, that you prefer the vilest amusements to His presence, that you only feel at your ease when you are far from Him.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Letters of Archbishop Fénelon. Letters to men, London: Rivingtons, 1877, p. 58-59 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 15:7-8; Ps. 14; Amos 5:14-15; Heb. 11:6; 1 John 1:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to be honest with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: the purposes of God

Tuesday, October 1, 2024
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
    “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
    —Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is not intended to change God’s purpose, nor is it to move Him to form fresh purposes. God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), The Sovereignty of God [1918], CCEL, 1972, p. 181 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 40:8; Ps. 24:1; 119:89; Matt. 5:18; Luke 10:21; 16:17; Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:4-5,11-12; 1 Tim. 6:13-16; 1 Pet. 1:24-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Change my heart, Lord, so that it agrees with Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: finding out about humility

Monday, September 30, 2024
Meditation:
    Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
    —1 Peter 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What we need, and what is given us, is not how to educate ourselves for this life; we have abundant natural gifts for human society, and for the advantages which it secures: but our great want is how to demean ourselves... towards our Maker, and how to gain reliable information on this urgent necessity.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), On the Inspiration of Scripture, G. Chapman, 1967, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 5:5; Ps. 147:6; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Rom. 12:3; 15:17, 18; 1 Cor. 3:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 4:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, end my pride. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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