Eckhart: take Him along

Sunday, August 10, 2025
    Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258
Meditation:
    [Paul in Athens:] “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
    —Acts 17:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One ought to keep hold of God in everything and accustom his mind to retain God always among his feelings, thoughts, and loves. Take care how you think of God. As you think of him in church or closet, think of him everywhere. Take him with you among the crowd and turmoil of the alien world.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), quoted from Talks of Instruction, in A Journey Through Christian Theology, William P. Anderson, ed., Fortress Press, 2000, p. 86 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:27-28; Gen. 16:13; Ps. 139:3-10; Isa. 57:15; Jer. 23:23-24; Matt. 28:19-20; John 14:23; 1 Cor. 12:6; Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 3:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You be always in my mind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sherrill: everything touched by the Gospel

Saturday, August 9, 2025
    Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”
    —Luke 12:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    We know with our heads that the Bible and the Gospel have a bearing, sooner or later, upon every issue in life, every problem, every relationship, every practice. But is it not true that in our hearts we are afraid that the full-orbed, unfiltered revelation of God will disturb some custom, some privilege, some status by which we benefit in society, business, occupation, or government? And knowing that we are profiting by the blood, sweat, and tears of the many, we feel wrath rising in us whenever it is proposed that religion touches the thing in question.
    ... Lewis J. Sherrill (1892-1957), Lift Up Your Eyes, Richmond: John Knox Press, 1949, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:2-3; Ps. 139:7-12; Matt. 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; 1 Cor. 4:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have exposed my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sherrill: a classless church?

Friday, August 8, 2025
    Feast of Dominic, Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers, 1221
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
    —Luke 7:44-47 (NIV)
Quotation:
    With our heads, we believe that the church ought to be one truly “classless society,” with all men standing on a plane of perfect equality at the foot of the Cross. But if in our hearts we do not genuinely want it, the unwanted know it well enough, count us as their enemies, and turn to other faiths. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Lewis J. Sherrill (1892-1957), Lift Up Your Eyes, Richmond: John Knox Press, 1949, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Luke 7:44-47; 18:10-14; Acts 10:34-35; Rom. 2:9-11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; Jas. 2:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forgive my arrogance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adam of St. Victor: In the Law the types lay shaded

Thursday, August 7, 2025
    Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866
Meditation:
    So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
    —Genesis 3:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
In the Law the types lay shaded:
In the promised End they faded,
CHRIST, Who all things consummates;
CHRIST, Whose Blood aside hath turned
That devouring sword which burned,
Waving wide, at Eden’s gates.

Jonah, by the tempest followed,
Whom the whale of old time swallowed,
Type of our True Jonah giving,
Three days pass’d, is rendered living
From that dark and narrow space.
Now the myrrh of Cyprus groweth,
Widelier spreadeth, sweetlier bloweth;
Law its withered blossoms throweth
That the Church may take their place.
    ... Adam of Saint Victor (d. 1146) & John Mason Neale (1818-1866), Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, London: Joseph Masters, 1863, 119,121 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 3:23-24; Jon. 1:17; Matt. 11:27; 12:40; Luke 10:22; John 1:3; 13:3; Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-2; 9:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace has made a new way.

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Brent: the use of silence

Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Meditation:
    But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.
    —Matthew 27:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God is never silent excepting when silence speaks more clearly than a voice.
    ... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), With God in the World [1899], London: Longmans Green, 1914, p. 38 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 27:14; 1 Kings 19:11; Ps. 22:1-2; 35:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You is my silence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: the truth that makes men free

Tuesday, August 5, 2025
    Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
    —John 8:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For the searchings of those who are weary of a meaningless freedom, which becomes so easily the bondage of self-centeredness, this faith is likewise an answer. They find that Christ offered peace, not in the sense of freedom from disturbance, but in the midst of the disturbance, and that he offered it at the price of the glad acceptance of discipline. The truth which makes men free is not a gift, but comes as a result of abiding in his word. “Take my yoke upon you,” he said, “and learn of me...and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Our tragedy, and even our stupidity, is that we think we can have peace without wearing the yoke.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Life We Prize, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951, p. 207-208 (see the book)
    See also John 8:32; Ps. 23:5; Matt. 11:29; John 14:27; 16:33
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your peace is worth all I can give. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: radical opposition to wrong

Monday, August 4, 2025
    Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
Meditation:
    Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
    —2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian is the real radical of our generation, for he stands against the monolithic, modern concept of truth as relative. But too often, instead of being the radical, standing against the shifting sands of relativism, he subsides into merely maintaining the status quo. If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), The God Who is There [1968], in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy, Good News Publishers, 1990, p. 118 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 2:15; John 14:6; 2 Tim. 4:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Quicken our conscience, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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