Phillips: the message of Advent

Saturday, December 20, 2025
Meditation:
    So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
    —Galatians 4:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    While we continue to pray and work for the spread of the kingdom in this transitory world, we know that its center of gravity is not here at all. When God decides that the human experiment has gone on long enough, yes, even in the midst of what appears to us confusion and incompleteness, Christ will come again. This is what the New Testament teaches. This is the message of Advent. It is for us to be alert, vigilant and industrious, so that his coming will not be a terror but an overwhelming joy.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Good News: Thoughts on God and Man, New York: Macmillan, 1963, p. 160 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 4:3-5; Gen. 49:10; Dan. 2:44; Matt. 24:42; Mark 13:33; Luke 12:35-36; 21:36; Eph. 1:9-10; 1 Thess. 5:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, awaken my expectation of Your return. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: the obsession for security

Friday, December 19, 2025
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
    —Matthew 24:36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In my judgment, the description which Christ gave of the days that were to come before his return is more accurately reproduced in this fear-ridden age than ever before in human history. Of course we do not know the times and the seasons, but at least we can refuse to be deceived by the current obsession for physical security in the here-and-now. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Good News: Thoughts on God and Man, New York: Macmillan, 1963, p. 159-160 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 24:36,3-31; 25:13; Mark 13:7-8,32; Luke 21:9-28; Acts 1:7; 1 Thess. 5:1-2; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You remind me that my home is with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pinnock: recalling the existential darkness

Thursday, December 18, 2025
Meditation:
    Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
    —Isaiah 9:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    H. J. Blackham, formerly director of the British Humanist Association, posed the great problem to his own position as “the pointlessness of it all.” How can one escape from the “unyielding despair” of Bertrand Russell, the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the absurdity of Jean-Paul Sartre if at the foundations of our existence there is nothing but blind chance. There is, indeed, a certain bleakness to humanism, for God has been removed and nothing comparable has yet been found to take his place.
    It is easy for believers to forget this, sustained as they are by such powerful symbols of hope: the love of the Father, the plan of salvation, the coming of the kingdom, and everlasting life. But they must not allow themselves to forget it for the sake of those who lack these supports and are searching for these foundations. Christians who have been converted early in their lives and never go through the exper ience of existential darkness before entering into the light of God’s coming kingdom have much to learn about these feelings of despair and doubt.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010), Reason Enough, Exeter: Paternoster, 1980, p. 24-25 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 9:1-2; Ps. 107:10-14; Isa. 42:6-7; 60:1-3; Matt. 4:15-16; Luke 2:30-32; 1 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You grant us the words to speak to those without hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sayers: transformation

Wednesday, December 17, 2025
    Commemoration of Dorothy Sayers, Teacher and Spiritual Writer, 1957
    Commemoration of Eglantyne Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
    —Galatians 3:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We find God continually at work turning evil into good. Not, as a rule, by irrelevant miracles and theatrically effective judgments—Christ was seldom very encouraging to those who demanded signs, or lightnings from Heaven, and God is too subtle and too economical a craftsman to make very much use of those methods. But He takes our sins and errors and turns them into victories, as He made the crime of the crucifixion to be the salvation of the world.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Creed Or Chaos?: and Other Essays in Popular Theology, Methuen, 1957, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:13-14; Matt. 11:2-5; 12:39-40; 16:4; Mark 8:11-12; Luke 11:29-30; John 2:18-19; 1 Cor. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have redeemed my sins. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Anstice: When came in flesh the Incarnate Word

Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Meditation:
    And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    —Luke 2:8-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
When came in flesh the Incarnate Word,
    The heedless world slept on,
And only simple shepherds heard
    That God had sent His Son.

When comes the Saviour at the last,
    From west to east shall shine
The awful pomp, and earth aghast
    Shall tremble at the sign.

Then shall the pure in heart be blest;
    As mild He comes to them,
As when upon the Virgin’s breast
    He lay at Bethlehem:

As mild to meek-eyed love and faith;
    Only more strong to save;
Strengthened, by having bowed to death,
    By having burst the grave.

Lord, who could dare see Thee descend
    In state, unless he knew
Thou art the sorrowing sinner’s Friend,
    The gracious, and the true?

Dwell in our hearts, O Saviour blest,
  & nbsp; So shall Thine advent-dawn
Twixt us and Thee, our bosom-Guest,
    Be but the veil withdrawn.
    ... Joseph Anstice (1808-1836), [1836], A Library of Religious Poetry: a collection of the best poems of all ages, Philip Schaff, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1880, p. 606-607 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:8-12; Ps. 99:1; Matt. 5:8; John 1:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Advent, Lord, has changed everything.

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Owen: with our eyes

Monday, December 15, 2025
Meditation:
    Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
    —1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ himself, in his own person, with all his glory, shall be continually with us, before us, proposed unto us. We shall no longer have an image, a representation of him, such as is the delineation of his glory in the Gospel . We “shall see him,” saith the apostle, “face to face...” “We shall see him as he is,” not as now, in an imperfect description of him...
    There will be use herein of our bodily eyes... That corporeal sense shall not be restored unto us, and that glorified above what we can conceive, but for this great use of the eternal beholding of Christ and his glory... It is not, therefore, the mere human nature of Christ that is the object of it, but his divine person, as that nature subsisteth therein... In the immediate beholding of the person of Christ, we shall see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Glory of Christ [1684, 1691], in Works of John Owen, v. I, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1850, p. 378-379 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:12; Job 19:25; Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36; John 1:14; 7:39; 12:23; 13:31-32; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may that day come soon when I will know You as I am known. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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