Rossetti: Give me the lowest place

Sunday, April 27, 2025
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
    —Matthew 23:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
Give me the lowest place: not that I dare
    Ask for that lowest place, but Thou hast died
That I might live and share
    Thy glory by Thy side.

Give me the lowest place: or if for me
    That lowest place too high, make one more low
Where I may sit and see
    My God and love Thee so.
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 181 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:11-12; Ps. 18:27; Pr. 15:33; 25:6-7; 29:23; Isa. 57:15; Luke 14:8-11; 18:10-14; Jas. 1:9-10; 1 Pet. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant my heart more humility.

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Green: the false dichotomy

Saturday, April 26, 2025
Meditation:
    Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
    He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
    —Mark 3:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We suffer today from a false distinction between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual. The Christian church has sometimes behaved as though only the spiritual element in man was the subject of God’s concern. The actions of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels give the lie to this, and show that God’s salvation concerns the whole man (Mark 3:4). Indeed the word [salvation] is used most frequently in the Gospels with reference to the healing of disease.
    ... Michael Green (1930-2019), The Meaning of Salvation, Regent College Publishing, 2000, p. 112 (see the book)
    See also Mark 3:4-5; Matt. 8:25; 14:30,36; Mark 6:56; 10:52; Luke 8:36; 17:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all my time and work belong to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Westcott: the mark of saints

Friday, April 25, 2025
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.
    —Philemon 4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The mark of a saint is not perfection but consecration. A saint is not a man without faults, but a man who has given himself without reserve to God. In the language of the New Testament every baptized Christian—dead and buried and raised in Christ—is a saint. We are dwelling among saints: we are saints. That is the will of God for us. If it is unaccomplished, the failure comes through our faithlessness.
    ... Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), Social Aspects of Christianity, Macmillan, 1887, p. 156-157 (see the book)
    See also Philemon 1:4-5; John 17:15-19; Rom. 15:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me from faithlessness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: indwelling the Bible

Thursday, April 24, 2025
    Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624
Meditation:
    [The two travelers on the road to Emmaus] got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
    —Luke 24:33-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Just as character can only be truly rendered in narrative form, so the answer to the question “Who am I?” can only be given if we ask “What is my story?” and that can only be answered if there is an answer to the further question, “What is the whole story of which my story is a part?” To indwell the Bible is to live with an answer to those questions, to know who I am and who is the One to whom I am fully accountable.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:33-35; Ps. 22:30-31; 102:18; Mark 16:12-13; John 1:14; 16:13; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I embrace Your story and Your salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wycliffe: condemning the word

Wednesday, April 23, 2025
    Feast of George, Martyr, Patron of England, c.304
    Commemoration of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1988
Meditation:
    ... so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The clerks of the law have great need [of penance], which have been ever against God the Lord, both in the old law, and in the new, to slay the prophets that spake to them the Word of God. Ye see that they spared not the Son of God... and so forth of the apostles and martyrs that hath spoken truly to the word [of] God to them, and they say it is heresy to speak of the holy Scripture in English, and so they would condemn the Holy Ghost that gave it in tongues to the apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Wyckett, in Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe, Robert Vaughan, ed., London: Blackburn and Pardon, 1845, p. 275 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:11; Matt. 4:4; 23:27; 27:24; Isa. 40:8; Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:4; 1 John 2:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word go forth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: one of us

Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Meditation:
    So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
    —1 Corinthians 4:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is we who are Christians who hold the secret behind the façade [of Christmas], but it was never meant to be a secret; on the contrary, from the beginning it was meant to be ‘good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people’. By thought, by prayer, by every tried and untried means let us do all that we possibly can to make known that astonishing mystery, which is also an historical fact, that God became one of us that we might become like Him.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God With Us: a Message for Christmas, London: Epworth Press, 1957, p. 13 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 4:1; Luke 2:10; Rom. 16:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:7-8; Eph. 3:2-6,9-10; Col. 1:25-27; 2:2-3; 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist me to proclaim Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nee: the savour of the Savior

Monday, April 21, 2025
    Feast of Anselm, Abbot of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1109
Meditation:
    For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
    —2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered—someone who has gone through experiences with the Lord that have brought limitation, and who, instead of trying to break free in order to be ‘used’, has been willing to be imprisoned by Him and has thus learned to find satisfaction in the Lord and nowhere else—then immediately you become aware of something. Immediately your spiritual senses detect a sweet savour of Christ.
    ... Watchman Nee (1903-1972), The Normal Christian Life, Tyndale House Publishers, 1977, p. 281 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 2:15; Matt. 6:33; 1 Cor. 1:18; Eph. 5:1-2; Phil. 3:8; 4:11-13; 1 Tim. 6:6-9; Heb. 10:34; 13:3; Jas. 1:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the aroma of holiness visit me today. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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