Cassels: the storehouse of grace

Sunday, November 24, 2024
Meditation:
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and I will give thanks to him in song.
    —Psalm 28:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If [God] wants you to do something, he’ll make it possible for you to do it, but the grace he provides comes only with the task and cannot be stockpiled beforehand. We are dependent on him from hour to hour, and the greater our awareness of this fact, the less likely we are to faint or fail in a crisis.
    ... Louis Cassels (1922-1974), Christian Primer, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 28:7; 112:9; 118:14; Jonah 2:2,8-9; 1 Cor. 10:13; 15:10; 2 Cor. 9:8-10; Eph. 1:11-12; 3:16; 4:7; 1 Pet. 2:1-3; 4:10; 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your strength overcomes all difficulties. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Guder: church a place or what?

Saturday, November 23, 2024
    Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
    —Matthew 18:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The grammar commonly used to refer to or ask about the church still carries heavy baggage of being a “place where certain things happen.” We ask, for instance, “Where do you go to church?” “Where is your church?” “Did you go to church last Sunday?” Indeed, even when not referring to a tangible building, we tend to relate “church” to a meeting or activity, a set of programs, or an organizational structure. Only with awkwardness would one talk about being “part of a church.”
    In North America, this “place where” orientation manifests itself in a particular form. Both members and those outside the church expect the church to be a vendor of religious services and goods.
    ... Darrell L. Guder (b. 1939), Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 83-84 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:20; Ps. 139:7-10; Jer. 23:24; Matt. 12:28; 28:19-20; Luke 17:20-21; Acts 17:27-28; Rom. 14:17; Col. 1:17,27; Rev. 21:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, release us from our enslavement to personal comfort. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: chosen

Friday, November 22, 2024
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
    —John 15:16 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Christ, who said to the disciples “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who spreads the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Four Loves, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 89-90 (see the book)
    See also John 15:16; 6:35,53-56; Rom. 14:1-4; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to care for those You have placed me among. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baxter: know yourself

Thursday, November 21, 2024
Meditation:
    Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.
    —James 3:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be thoroughly acquainted with your corruptions and temptations, and watch against them all the day; especially the most dangerous sort of your corruptions, and those temptations which your company or business will unavoidably lay before you.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. I, ed. William Orme, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 468 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 3:13-15; Pr. 16:18; Matt. 26:41; Luke 21:34; 1 Cor. 8:1-3; 10:12-13; Gal. 5:19-21; 6:1; Phil. 2:3-4; 1 Tim. 4:16; 6:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You guard me from falling. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: indulgence

Wednesday, November 20, 2024
    Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
    Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
Meditation:
    Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
    —Colossians 3:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You must not deceive yourself with saying, Where can be the harm of clothes? for the covetous man might as well say, Where can be the harm of gold or silver? but you must consider, that it is a great deal of harm to want that wise, and reasonable, and humble state of heart, which is according to the spirit of religion, and which no one can have in the manner that he ought to have it, who indulges himself either in the vanity of dress, or the desire of riches.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 124-125 (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:2; Ex. 20:17; Matt. 6:19-21,28-30; 13:22; 19:23-24; 23:5; Luke 12:15,33-34; 18:24-25; John 6:27; Eph. 5:5; 1 Tim. 2:9-10; Heb. 13:5; 1 Pet. 3:3; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free me from my self-indulgence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: life is for action

Tuesday, November 19, 2024
    Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
    Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
    Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
Meditation:
    And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
    —1 John 3:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences; we shall never have done beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our foundations; we shall turn theology into evidences, and divines into textuaries... Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, v. 8, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 556 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:23-24; Ps. 119:32; Luke 6:46; John 14:21; 15:10-14; 1 John 2:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me always the faith to act. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: an account

Monday, November 18, 2024
Meditation:
Teach us to number our days aright,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
    —Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends; but so that for every hour of our life, after we are persons capable of laws and know good from evil, we must give account to the great Judge of men and angels.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 90:12; 39:4-5; 89:47; Isa. 40:6-8; Matt. 12:35-36; Rom. 12:2; 14:12; Eph. 6:7-8; Heb. 2:2-3; 10:36; Jas. 1:10; 4:13-15; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your judgment is true. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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