Westcott: by faith

Sunday, January 11, 2026
    Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
Meditation:
    [Jesus] replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
    —Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is indeed the energy of our whole nature directed to the highest form of being. Faith gives stability to our view of the universe... By faith we are convinced that our impressions of things without are not dreams or delusions, but for us true representations of our environment. By faith we are convinced that the signs of permanence, order, progress, which we observe in nature are true. By faith we are convinced that fellowship is possible with our fellow-men and with God.
    ... Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), The Historic Faith, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1883, p. 176 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 17:20; Mark 9:23-24; Rom. 1:16-17; Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 10:37-39; 11:1; 1 Pet. 1:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we know You only through Your gift of faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: faith at death

Saturday, January 10, 2026
Meditation:
    On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
    —Isaiah 25:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is the leading grace in all our spiritual warfare and conflict; but all along while we live, it hath faithful company that adheres to it, and helps it. Love works, and hope works, and all other graces,—self-denial, readiness to the cross,—they all work and help faith. But when we come to die, faith is left alone. Now, try what faith will do...
    Not to be surprised with any thing is the substance of human wisdom; not to be surprised with death is a great part of the substance of our spiritual wisdom.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. IX, New York: R. Carter, 1851, Sermon XXVII, 1680, p. 340 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 25:7-8; 1 Cor. 15:26,31; 1 Tim. 6:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Your victory over death is final, O Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: resisting God

Friday, January 9, 2026
Meditation:
“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
    I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
    creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,
    “and I will heal him.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
    for it cannot be quiet,
    and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
    —Isaiah 57:18-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    There is never any peace for those who resist God.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Letters of Archbishop Fénelon. Letters to men, London: Rivingtons, 1877, p. 340 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 57:18-21; 48:22; Rom. 3:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Break down, O Lord, the last barriers my hard heart and bent will have thrown up in resistance to Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Saint: the end of sacrifice

Thursday, January 8, 2026
    30th anniversary of CQOD
    Commemoration of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, martyrs, Ecuador, 1956
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
    —John 12:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God would grant us the vision, the word “sacrifice” would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short; we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich.
    ... Nate Saint (1923-1956), in End of the Spear, by Steve Saint, Tyndale House, 2010, p. 309 (see the book)
    See also John 12:25; Matt. 12:47-50; Luke 14:26-27; Acts 20:24; Rev. 12:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my cup overflows with Your goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: den of thieves

Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Meditation:
    Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’”
    —Matthew 21:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You rob, and spoil, and eat his people as bread, by extortion, and bribery, and deceitful weights and measures, and deluding oaths in buying and selling, and then come hither, and so make God your receiver, and his house a den of thieves. His house is sanctum sanctorum, the holiest of holies, and you make it only sanctuarium; it should be a place sanctified by your devotions, and you make it only a sanctuary to privilege malefactors, a place that may redeem you from the ill opinion of men, who must in charity be bound to think well of you, because they see you here.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon LXVIII, p. 217 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 21:12-13; Ps. 47:2; 65:5; 69:9; 97:2; Isa. 56:6-7; Jer. 7:11; John 2:13-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are cleansing Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: what Jesus would do

Tuesday, January 6, 2026
    EPIPHANY
Meditation:
    We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
    —1 John 5:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The wonder of the life of Jesus is this—and you will find it so and you have found it so if you have ever taken your New Testament and tried to make it the rule of your daily life—that there is not a single action that you are called upon to do of which you need be, of which you will be, in any serious doubt for ten minutes as to what Jesus Christ, if He were here, Jesus Christ being here, would have you do under those circumstances and with the materials upon which you are called to act.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 126 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:19-20; Matt. 5:6-9; 9:4-6; 18:21-22; Mark 6:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lighten my way. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sayers: cleaning up the Gospel

Monday, January 5, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
    —Luke 7:33-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims and His reputation as a political firebrand, only two accusations of personal depravity seem to have been brought against Jesus of Nazareth. First, that He was a Sabbath-breaker. Secondly, that He was “a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners”—or (to draw aside the veil of Elizabethan English that makes it all sound so much more respectable) that He ate too heartily, drank too freely, and kept very disreputable company, including grafters of the lowest type and ladies who were no better than they should be. For nineteen and a half centuries, the Christian Churches have laboured, not without success, to remove this unfortunate impression made by their Lord and Master. They have hustled the Magdalens from the Communion-table, founded Total Abstinence Societies in the name of Him who made the water wine, and added improvements of their own, such as various b ans and anathemas upon dancing and theatre-going. They have transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and, feeling that the original commandment “Thou shalt not work” was rather half-hearted, have added to it a new commandment, “Thou shalt not play.”
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Unpopular Opinions, London: Gollancz, 1946, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1947, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also Luke 7:33-35; Matt. 11:16-19; 26:6-12; John 2:7-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me know the joy of Your presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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