Whitefield: free grace alone

Sunday, December 28, 2025
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
    —James 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To check therefore all suggestions to spiritual pride, let us consider, that we did not apprehend Christ, but were apprehended of him. That we have nothing but what we have received. That the free grace of God has alone made the difference between us and others; and, was God to leave us to the deceitfulness of our own hearts but one moment, we should become weak and wicked, like other men. We should farther consider, that being proud of grace, is the most ready way to lose it.
    ... George Whitefield (1714-1770), The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., v. VI, London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772, p. 247 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:6; John 15:15-16; Acts 10:41; Rom. 9:15-16; 2 Cor. 2:11; 1 John 4:10,19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am clay. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Law: narrow enough?

Saturday, December 27, 2025
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “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 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If there is nothing in my life and conversation that shows me to be different from ... Heathens; if I use the world, and worldly enjoyments, as the generality of people now do, and in all ages have done; why should I think that I am amongst those few who are walking in the narrow way to heaven?
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 32 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:13-14; 5:16,46-47; John 12:36; Eph. 2:1-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me to the narrow path. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Lewis: men like gods

Friday, December 26, 2025
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
    When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
    —Genesis 3:4-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 3:4-7; Ps. 12:3-4; Acts 12:21-23; 2 Cor. 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, life without You is unthinkable. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Augustine: Christ in the heart

Thursday, December 25, 2025
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
    He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
    —Luke 11:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ, than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For to a certain one who said, “Blessed is the womb, which bare Thee,” He Himself made answer, “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God, and keep it.” Lastly, to His brethren, that is, His kindred after the flesh, who believed not in Him, what profit was there in that being of kin? Thus also her nearness as a Mother would have been of no profit to Mary, had she not borne Christ in her heart after a more blessed manner than in her flesh.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), De Virginitate [ca. 401], III (see the book)
    See also Luke 11:27-28; Matt. 7:20-21; 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 1:41-42; 2:19; 8:19-21; John 6:29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Christmas reign in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Donne: Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb

Wednesday, December 24, 2025
    Christmas Eve
Meditation:
    When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
    —Matthew 2:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves his well beloved imprisonment,
There he hath made himself to his intent
Weak enough, now into our world to come;
But Oh, for thee, for him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent
The effects of Herod’s jealous general doom;
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith’s eyes, how he
Which fills all place, yet none holds him, doth lie?
Was not his pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss him, and with him into Egypt go,
With his kind mother, who partakes thy woe.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. VI, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Holy Sonnets, III, p. 444 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 2:13-15; Luke 2:5-7; 2 Cor. 13:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I go beside You wherever You go. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Milton: Yea, Truth and Justice then

Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Meditation:
Love and faithfulness meet together;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
    —Psalm 85:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
Yea, Truth and Justice then
Will down return to men,
    Orb’d in a Rain-bow, and like glories wearing;
Mercy will sit between,
Throned in celestial sheen,
    With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;
And Heav’n, as at some festival,
Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall.
    ... John Milton (1608-1674), [1629] from On the morning of Chist’s Nativity, The Complete Poems of John Milton, New York: P. F. Collier, 1909, p. 12 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 85:10-11; 33:5; 40:11; 89:14; Pr. 8:20; Zech. 7:9; 2 John 1:3; Rev. 15:2-3; 19:11; 21:2,25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have opened Heaven to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Chesterton: The world grows terrible and white

Monday, December 22, 2025
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
    —John 17:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
The world grows terrible and white,
    And blinding white the breaking day;
We walk bewildered in the light,
For something is too large for sight,
    And something much too plain to say.

The Child that was ere worlds begun
    (...We need but walk a little way,
We need but see a latch undone...)
The Child that played with moon and sun
    Is playing with a little hay.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, v. X, Ignatius Press, 1994, p. 187 (see the book)
    See also John 17:5; Isa. 66:4; Mic. 5:2; John 1:1-3; 8:58; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; Col. 1:15-18; Heb. 13:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Advent is too great to comprehend.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth