Newton: thankfulness for trials

Sunday, September 7, 2025
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
    —1 Corinthians 11:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Trials ... are medicines, which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires... Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription.
    ... John Newton (1725-1807), in a letter, 1787, The Aged Pilgrim’s Triumph over Sin and the Grave, p. 43-44 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 11:32; Heb. 12:5-7; Eze. 20:37; John 16:20; Heb. 12:5-8; Jas. 1:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have blessed me with Your correction. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Alford: We walk by faith, and not by sight

Saturday, September 6, 2025
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
    Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
    —Mark 9:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
We walk by faith, and not by sight;
    No gracious words we hear
From Him who spoke as never man,
    But we believe Him near.

We may not touch His hands and side,
    Nor follow where he trod;
But in His promise we rejoice,
    And cry, “My Lord and God.”

Help Thou, O Lord, our unbelief;
    And may our faith abound,
To call on Thee when Thou art near,
    And seek where Thou art found:

That when our life of faith is done,
    In realms of clearer light
We may behold Thee as Thou art,
    With full and endless sight.
    ... Henry Alford (1810-1871), [1835], The Poetical Works of Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury, London: Strahan & Company, 1868, p. 300 (see the book)
    See also Mark 9:23-24; John 20:24-28; 2 Cor. 5:7; Eph. 1:17-18; Heb. 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I see You in Your glory.

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Calvin: firm knowledge

Friday, September 5, 2025
Meditation:
    For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
    —2 Corinthians 5:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
    ... 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, III.ii.7, p. 496 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:4-5; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:14-17; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:13-14; Heb. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed in my heart confidence in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: faith in Christ alone

Thursday, September 4, 2025
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
    Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
    —Matthew 9:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All that Christ wanted was faith in Himself. He had no interest in any institutional organization with worldly offices and laws. Neither did He give any dogmas or creeds which may be used to distinguish believers from non-believers. When He praised the faith of people, it was not because of their orthodox theology, or the fact that they belonged to some organization, but on account of their simple faith in His person.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 6 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 9:20-22; 8:5-13; 9:28-30; 15:22-28; Mark 5:25-34; 10:46-52; Luke 7:2-10,50; 8:43-48; 17:12-19; 18:35-43; John 9:35-38; 11:25-27,45; 12:44; 14:1; 1 Tim. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Marshall: mere belief

Wednesday, September 3, 2025
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
    —James 2:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel no personal loyalty to Him at all—indeed, pay no attention whatever to His commandments and His will for one’s life. One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.
    ... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 71 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:19; Matt. 23:23-24; Rom. 1:18-23; 1 Cor. 8:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, touch the hearts of _____ and ____ that they may truly know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Messiaen: All encompassing in all places

Tuesday, September 2, 2025
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
    —Psalm 139:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
All encompassing in all places,
All encompassing in each place,
Bestowing being upon each place,
On all that occupies a place,

The successive for You is simultaneous,
In these spaces and times that you created,
Satellites of your Gentleness.
Alight yourself like a seal, on my heart.
    ... Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Three Small Liturgies of the Divine Presence [1944], Paris: Editions Durand & Cie., c1952, sec. III
    See also Ps. 139; Job 38:4-5; Ps. 20:6; Ps. 34:18; Matt. 4:17; Col. 1:27; Jas. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enfold me in Your Spirit.

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Baillie: disengaged

Monday, September 1, 2025
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 10:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The apologetic of the New Testament, and of the early centuries generally, was addressed to men who had been brought up within one or other of the great pre-Christian religious systems and who staunchly defended their own inherited traditions against the innovation of the Christian outlook; whereas any apologetic that is to be effective in this country today must be addressed to men who stand within the inheritance of the Christian tradition and know nothing, save by hearsay, of any other, but who have now in varying degrees disengaged themselves from this tradition and whose quarrel with Christianity is therefore undertaken from the point of view either of no religion at all or of some very vague and tenuous residuum of Christian religiosity.
    ... John Baillie (1886-1960), Invitation to Pilgrimage, Oxford University Press, 1942, and New York: Scribner, 1942, p. 7-8 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:1-12; Matt. 12:39; Acts 2:40; 17:21; Rom. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 4:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak to the present generation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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