Luther: our suffering?

Sunday, January 26, 2025
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
    —Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ah! our suffering is not worthy the name of suffering. When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking what are they in comparison of the sufferings of my blessed Saviour Christ Jesus.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table-Talk [1566], CXCVI (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:18; Matt. 5:11-12; Acts 20:24; 2 Cor. 4:17-18; Col. 1:24; Heb. 2:9; 12:1-2; 13:12; 1 Pet. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bless my suffering, now and in the future, and help me not to think it great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: the triumphant cross

Saturday, January 25, 2025
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
    —Colossians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For as [Paul] had previously compared the cross to a signal trophy or show of triumph, in which Christ led about his enemies, so he now [in Col. 2:15] also compares it to a triumphal car, in which he shewed himself conspicuously to view. For although in the cross there is nothing but curse, it was, nevertheless, swallowed up by the power of God in such a way, that it has put on, as it were, a new nature. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the cross on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851, p. 190-191 (see the book)
    See also Col. 2:15; John 12:32; Acts 2:23-24; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; Gal. 3:13; Col. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Praise be to the Cross and the Savior Who made it sacred. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: peace in conversation

Friday, January 24, 2025
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
    —Romans 15:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be at peace regarding what is said or done in conversations: for if good, you have something to praise God for, and if bad, something in which to serve God by turning your heart away from it.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Spiritual Maxims, Longmans, Green, 1954, p. 179 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 15:7; Matt. 10:40; Mark 9:37; Luke 9:48; 15:2; John 6:37; 13:34; Rom. 14:1; 1 Tim. 6:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive peace from You concerning the past. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: furnish one life

Thursday, January 23, 2025
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
Meditation:
    Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.
    —Acts 15:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is for us, in whom the Christian Church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian faith, the Christian manhood, can do that for the world which the world needs. You say, “What can I do?” You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin, that the great Christian Church shall be the stronger for your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity is.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 22 (see the book)
    See also Acts 15:32; Luke 22:32; John 14:21; Acts 15:32; 1 Thess. 3:2-3; Heb. 12:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the strength to be faithful. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: security

Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Meditation:
    And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
    —1 Corinthians 15:49 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past, it is possible to be sure of the future, it is possible to be diligent in the present. Then how blessed such a life! For the past—“I was the chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy;” for the future—“We shall bear the image of the heavenly;” for the present—” I press toward the mark.”
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), Sermons preached in Manchester: Second series, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1902, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:49; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:13-14; 1 Tim. 1:13-15; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have set me free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: not of the world

Tuesday, January 21, 2025
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    [Jesus praying:] “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.”
    —John 17:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Even though I am in the midst of danger, temptation, sin and sorrow of this world, through Him who gave His life I am saved. The sea is salty and the fish lives all its life in it. But it never gets salty, because it has life. Even so if we receive life from Him, though in the world, we are not of the world. Not only here, but also in Heaven we shall find ourselves in Him.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 42 (see the book)
    See also John 17:14-18; 1:4; Rom. 6:23; 8:1-2,35; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 2:14; 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my eternal source of life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rolle: avoid profitless disputes

Monday, January 20, 2025
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
    —1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us seek rather that the love of Christ burn within us than that we take heed to unprofitable disputation. Whiles truly we take heed to unmannerly seeking, we feel not the sweetness of the eternal savour. Wherefore many now so much savour in the burning of knowledge and not of love, that plainly they know not what love is, or of what savour; although the labour of all their study ought to spread unto this end, that they might burn in the love of God.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), Fire of Love [1343], tr. Richard Misyn, I.v (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 8:1; Matt. 24:12-13; John 5:39-40; Col. 3:16; Eph. 3:16-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, renew my love once more. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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