Stott: the Christian counterculture

Sunday, July 27, 2025
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
    “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete description anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counterculture. Here is a Christian value system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle and network of relationships—all of which are the total opposite of the non-Christian world. The Sermon presents life in the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Sermon on the Mount [1978], InterVarsity Press, 2000, p. 6 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:12-14; 5:14,22,28,32,39-42; 6:19-20,24,33-34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long for Your rule to come. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: absolute sovereignty

Saturday, July 26, 2025
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
    —Acts 17:24-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is necessary to point out that our responsibility is a relative one only, for as we think of the world-wide disintegration of the human family, the prospect before us could easily fill us with alarm and despondency, if we were not sure first of the absolute sovereignty of God who (I speak reverently) knows what He is doing in conducting this enormous experiment that we call life.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 15 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:24-26; 1 Chr. 29:10-12; Ps. 24; Isa. 45:5-6; Hag. 2:7; John 10:29; Rev. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    You are our Rock, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: on success and failure

Friday, July 25, 2025
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
    Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
    —Luke 12:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. Such thought is a denial of eternal justice. Neither the triumph of the successful nor the bitter hatred which the successful arouse in the hearts of the unsuccessful can ultimately overcome the world. Jesus is certainly no apologist for the successful men in history, but neither does He head the insurrection of shipwrecked existences against their successful rivals. He is not concerned with success or failure but with the willing acceptance of God’s judgement. Only in this judgement is there reconciliation with God and among men.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Ethics, tr. Reinhard Krauss, Charles C. West, Douglas W. Stott, Fortress Press, 2005, reprint, Simon and Schuster, 2012, p. 78 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:13-14; Ex. 20:17; Eze. 33:31; Luke 1:53; 12:15-21; Rom. 5:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; 1 Tim. 6:3-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me careful only to do Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: thankfulness

Thursday, July 24, 2025
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.”
    —Luke 9:48 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be thankful, therefore, for the least benefit, and thou shall be worthy to receive greater. Let the least be unto thee even as the greatest, and let that which is of little account be unto thee as a special gift. If the majesty of the Giver be considered, nothing that is given shall seem small and of no worth, for that is not a small thing which is given by the Most High God.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.x.5, p. 103 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:48; Matt. 22:21; 25:40; Mark 12:41-44; Luke 14:10; 21:1-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You that I am small. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: governing the tongue

Wednesday, July 23, 2025
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
    —Luke 6:45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If a man, whenever he was in company, where any one swore, talked lewdly, or spoke evil of his neighbour, should make it a rule to himself, either gently to reprove him, or if that was not proper, then to leave the company as decently as he could, he would find that this little rule, like a little leaven hid in a great quantity of meal, would spread and extend itself through the whole form of his life.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 66 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:45; Ps. 34:12-13; Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:12; Eph. 4:29; 5:4; Col. 3:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, restrain my tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: light on Jesus

Tuesday, July 22, 2025
    Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”
    —John 15:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, “Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me,” but always, “Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace.” The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.
    ... James I. Packer (1926-2020), Keep in Step with the Spirit, Baker Books, 2005, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also John 15:26; 1:29; 6:40; Phil. 3:20-21; Heb. 12:2-3; Rev. 19:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, bring me to Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: the suffering of Christ

Monday, July 21, 2025
Meditation:
    And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    —Mark 15:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Creed sets forth what Christ suffered in the sight of men, and then appositely speaks of that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent in the sight of God in order that we might know not only that Christ’s body was given as the price of our redemption, but that he paid a greater and more excellent price in suffering in his soul the terrible torments of a condemned and forsaken man.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, II.xvi.11, p. 465 (see the book)
    See also Mark 15:34; Ps. 22:1; Isa. 53:5; Matt. 27:46; Acts 2:24; 1 Pet. 3:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have suffered for my sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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