Guder: fate to face

Sunday, May 25, 2025
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
    —John 15:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    New forms of community, shaped largely by media and consumer choices, are displacing many of the former structures of community. But they carry with them a major drawback: they often do not bring persons into face-to-face relationships. Many people today desperately search for a face-to-face community, “a place where everybody knows your name.” Yet many remain alone, trapped in the individualism of the modern condition. Social and ethnic diversity represents a threat, not a resolution.
    ... 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. 43 (see the book)
    See also John 15:12-13; 13:34-35; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:11,23; 4:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free this generation from its isolation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: O for a heart to praise my God

Saturday, May 24, 2025
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    [The Lord:] “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
    —Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
O for a heart to praise my God,
    A heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels Thy blood
    So freely shed for me.

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
    My great Redeemer’s throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
    Where Jesus reigns alone.

A humble, lowly, contrite, heart,
    Believing, true and clean,
Which neither life nor death can part
    From Christ who dwells within.

A heart in every thought renewed
    And full of love divine,
Perfect and right and pure and good,
    A copy, Lord, of Thine.
    ... Charles Wesley (1707-1788), A Collection of Hymns, for the use of the people called Methodists, John Wesley, London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1876, p. 322 (see the book)
    See also Eze. 36:25-27; John 14:16-17; Rom. 8:3-4,29; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 4:16-17; Gal. 2:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart like Yours.

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Juliana of Norwich: having all

Friday, May 23, 2025
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
    —Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth,—but only in Thee I have all.
    ... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love, Grace Harriet Warrack, ed., Methuen, 1901, ch. V, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Luke 11:9-10; Ps. 27:8; 105:3-4; Pr. 8:17; Matt. 6:33; 7:7-8; Heb. 11:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Saphir: the missionary character of the church

Thursday, May 22, 2025
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
    —Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us remember how very soon the missionary character of the Church was forgotten, and the Church, instead of obeying the commandment of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations (in fact, that it was chiefly a missionary association), neglected this great and important calling... It is astonishing how a commandment so simple and distinct, and how a duty which you would have imagined would be eagerly greeted by the impulse of gratitude, of affection, and of compassion, was forgotten for so long a time, in the churches of the Reformation especially. Now we are accustomed to hear of mission work among the heathen nations, and to find that a great multitude of people are interested in it, and regard it with respect; but it was only at the commencement of the last century, and with great difficulty, [that] the attention of the Church was roused to this important duty; and even in the... Church of Scotland there were a number of ministers who thought that the state of heathenism was so utterly corrupt, and that there was so much to be done in our own country, that it was altogether a Utopian project to think of converting the idolaters, and that it was not our imperative duty to trouble ourselves with their wretched condition.
    ... Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), Christ and Israel, London: Morgan and Scott, 1911, p. 83-84 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 28:19-20; Ps. 22:27-31; 98:2-3; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; 2:38-39; 10:45-48; 13:46-47; 28:28; Col. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word cover the earth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: all the difference

Wednesday, May 21, 2025
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
    —John 10:27-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How dry and hard you are without Jesus! How foolish and vain if you desire anything but Him! Is it not a greater loss than losing the whole world? For what, without Jesus, can the world give you? Life without Him is a relentless hell, but living with Him is a sweet paradise. If Jesus be with you, no enemy can harm you.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.viii.1-2, p. 95-96 (see the book)
    See also John 10:27-29; Ps. 27:1; 46:1-3; 56:4,11; 118:6; Matt. 16:26; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25; John 11:28-29; Rom. 8:31; 1 John 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence transforms the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the new era

Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Meditation:
    All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
    —2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [The Kingdom of God] is the reconciliation of the world to God. And here is the consequence of this reconciliation: a new world, a new aeon, a new heaven, and a new earth, which are new because they are surrounded by the peace of God... The end and purpose of the world is the coming of the Kingdom.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Prayer, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p. 35 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Ps. 29:11; 85:8; Matt. 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; John 14:27; Acts 10:36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our reconciliation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: women inferior?

Monday, May 19, 2025
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
    —Matthew 9:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Suppose the evidence had been reversed: suppose Jesus’ first convert in Samaria had been a man, and His favorite friends in Bethany had been two active brothers and a silent sister; suppose a woman had betrayed Him with a kiss, and another woman had cursed Him for fear of a manservant in the High Priest’s courtyard; suppose two men had first found His tomb empty, and the women had come to see it only in doubt and fear; suppose that the church in Caesarea had been served by the four sons of Phillip, all prophets, and Aquila’s name had always been mentioned before his wife’s—would we not assert without fear of contradiction that the New Testament reinforces the teaching of the Old, that women are and must remain inferior to men?
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985)
    See also Matt. 9:22; 16:13-15; 17:12; 26:47-49,69-74; 28:1; Luke 24:9-12; John 4:7-10; 11:1-2; Acts 18:26; 21:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have honored the women in the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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