Green: the team of elders

Sunday, February 16, 2025
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”
    —Acts 20:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We never find a presbyter in the singular in the New Testament. He is always a member of a team. In the modern church, the ordained man is almost always on his own in the community, unless he is lucky enough to have a colleague, or to be a member of a team ministry. We expect the ordained man to be almost omnicompetent, and complain at his deficiencies. This is an extremely serious error. It is very bad for the man himself to be made to feel that he is the sole minister: it may lead to despair, arrogance, blindness to the true situation, and inhibiting the gifts of others. It is bad for the parish: they become critical and lazy. When the different limbs in Christ’s body are not allowed their special ministry, they are harmed and their gifts atrophy. The ordained man too is harmed, for he has to attempt to do various ministries for which he has no charisma from God, and the church cannot be adequately cared for.
    ... Michael Green (1930-2019), “Mission and Ministry”, E. M. B. Green, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 75-76 (see the book)
    See also Acts 20:28; 14:23; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:5; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, raise up more helpers in my church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dawn: richly indwelling

Saturday, February 15, 2025
    Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730
Meditation:
    Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
    —Colossians 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Gentleness and patience, humility and thankfulness, compassion and kindness, love—these are totally irrelevant in the culture that surrounds us. But they are the language of grace, the culture of faith, the characteristics of the kingdom.
    We are formed with such virtues when... the Word of Christ dwells in us richly.
    ... Marva J. Dawn (b. 1948), A Royal “Waste” of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church For The World, Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, p. 14 (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:12-17; Job 23:12; Ps. 119:11; John 15:7; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 4:2; Jas. 3:17; 1 John 2:14; 2 John 1:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Word of Christ, dwell in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: safe from love

Friday, February 14, 2025
    Feast of Cyril & Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 & 885
    Commemoration of Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
Meditation:
    Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
    —1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (KJV)
Quotation:
    To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up save in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Four Loves, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 121 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Pr. 10:12; Col. 3:12; 1 Pet. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, you are love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: wealth an opportunity for doing good

Thursday, February 13, 2025
Meditation:
    If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
    —1 John 3:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wealth and riches; that is, an estate above what sufficeth our real occasions and necessities, is in no other sense a blessing than as it is an opportunity put into our hands, by the providence of God, of doing more good.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VI, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CXLII, p. 551 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:17; Luke 12:15; Gal. 6:9-10; Jas. 2:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me more aware of the needs around me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: evil

Wednesday, February 12, 2025
    Commemoration of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (Nicolas Herman), spiritual writer, 1691
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!”
    —John 8:44-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    However difficult the idea of a power of evil may be theologically or philosophically, it is an idea which experience understands only too well. Those who cannot believe in and accept the good news of Christ are those who have so given themselves over to the evil of the world that they can no longer hear God’s invitation. It is not that God has shut them out or abandoned them; they by their own conduct have shut themselves off from him.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Letters to the Corinthians, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 2nd ed., 1956, p. 219 (see the book)
    See also John 8:44-45; Isa. 30:9-12; John 3:19; 10:25-27; 12:42-43; Rom. 2:7-8; Heb. 3:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, without Your grace, I resist the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yancey: changing the deal

Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Meditation:
    The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.
    —James 1:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In a world ruled by law, grace stands as a sign of contradiction. We want fairness; the gospel gives us an innocent man nailed to a cross who cries out, “Father, forgive them.” We want respectability; the gospel elevates tax collectors, prodigals, and Samaritans. We want success; the gospel revises the terms, moving the poor and downtrodden to the head of the line and the wealthy and famous to the rear.
    ... Philip Yancey (b. 1949), Soul Survivor, New York: Doubleday, 2001, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Jas.1:9-10; Matt. 9:10-13; 11:19; 19:30; Mark 2:15-17; 9:35; 10:31; Luke 5:30-32; 13:30; 23:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be released from clinging to things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mangalwadi: the challenge

Monday, February 10, 2025
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
    For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
    —Romans 8:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To bear witness to the Kingship of Christ is to pick a fight with the prince of death, who wishes to keep this world in bondage to decay.
    ... Vishal Mangalwadi (b. 1949), in Nailing India to the Cross, Albinus Minz, M. Kiran & Company, 2000, p. 198 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:20-21; John 12:31; Eph. 2:1-2; 6:12; Col. 2:15; 2 Pet. 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have overcome the prince of this world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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