Niebuhr: called out and sent back

Sunday, January 18, 2026
    Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
    —John 17:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The power and attraction Jesus Christ exercises over men never comes from him alone, but from him as Son of the Father. It comes from him in his Sonship in a double way, as man living to God and God living with men. Belief in him and loyalty to his cause involve men in the double movement, from world to God and from God to world. Even when theologies fail to do justice to this fact, Christians living with Christ in their cultures are aware of it. For they are forever being challenged to abandon all things for the sake of God; and forever being sent back into the world to teach and practice all the things that have been commanded them.
    ... H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), Christ and Culture, New York: Harper, 1951, reprint, Harper & Row, 1956, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also John 17:15-18; Isa. 55:11; Matt. 28:19-20; John 5:19-23; 17:23; 20:21; Phil. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are always sending me back into the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the will makes heaven and hell

Saturday, January 17, 2026
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
    —Romans 8:6-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The will is that which has all power; ... it makes heaven and it makes hell: for there is no hell but where the will of the creature is turned from God; nor any heaven but where the will of the creature worketh with God.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Way to Divine Knowledge [1752], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VII, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 217 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:6-9; Matt. 12:41; Rom. 7:5; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:17-19; Col. 1:21-22; Jas. 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, convert my mind to seek Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: wickedness v. heterodoxy

Friday, January 16, 2026
Meditation:
    If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
    —1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Men stand much upon the title of orthodox, by which is usually understood, not believing the doctrine of Christ or His apostles, but such opinions as are in vogue among such a party, such systems of divinity as have been compiled in haste by those whom we have in admiration; and whatever is not consonant to these little bodies of divinity, though possibly it agree well enough with the Word of God, is error and heresy; and whoever maintains it can hardly pass for a Christian among some angry and perverse people. I do not intend to plead for any error, but I would not have Christianity chiefly measured by matters of opinion. I know no such error and heresy as a wicked life... Of the two, I have more hopes of him that denies the divinity of Christ and lives otherwise soberly, and righteously, and godly in the world, than of the man who owns Christ to be the Son of God, and lives like a child of the devil.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. IX, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CCXXVII, p. 343 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:2; John 20:31; Gal. 6:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take my sins from my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: exclusive Christianity

Thursday, January 15, 2026
Meditation:
    I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
    —1 Corinthians 1:10-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Many we have who plead themselves to be Christians; which might be allowed them, ... would they not do such things as the Christian religion abhoreth. But this is the least part of their claim. They will also be the only Christians, all others who differ from them—however falsely so called, being only a drove of unbelievers, hasting unto hell.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Church of Rome No Safe Guide, in Works of John Owen, v. XIV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 487 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:10-13; John 17:20-23; Rom. 16:17; 1 Cor. 3:3; 11:18,19; Tit. 3:10; 2 Pet. 2:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You prayed for our unity. Make it so in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: praise God for the body

Wednesday, January 14, 2026
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
    —Hebrews 11:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, IV.xii, p. 70 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 11:3; Ps. 103:2-3; Acts 17:24-26; 1 Pet. 1:23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the root and origin of all things praiseworthy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chadwick: the example of Judas

Tuesday, January 13, 2026
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.
    —Philippians 1:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Contemplating this blighted and sinister career, the lesson is burnt in upon the conscience, that since Judas by transgression fell, no place in the Church of Christ can render any man secure. And since, falling, he was openly exposed, none may flatter himself that the cause of Christ is bound up with his reputation, that the mischief must needs be averted which his downfall would entail, that Providence must needs avert from him the natural penalties for evil-doing. Though one was as the signet upon the Lord’s hand, yet was he plucked thence. There is no security for any soul except where love and trust repose, upon the bosom of Christ.
    Now if this be true, and if sin and scandal may conceivably penetrate even the inmost circle of the chosen, how great an error it is to break, because of these offenses, the unity of the Church, and institute some new communion, purer far than the Churches of Corinth and Galatia, which were not abandoned but reformed, and more impenetrable to corruption than the little group of those who ate and drank with Jesus.
    ... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 90-91 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 1:27-28; John 12:4-6; Acts 5:1-5; 1 Cor. 1:10,30; Eph. 4:3; Phil. 1:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your church rely on no power but Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: faith

Monday, January 12, 2026
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
    To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
    —Titus 1:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is illuminative, not operative; it does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it heightens guilt, but it does not prevent sin. The will is the source of action.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Lectures on certain difficulties felt by Anglicans in submitting to the Catholic Church, London: Burns & Lambert, 1850, p. 236 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 59:9-14; John 16:2-3; Rom. 1:25; Tit. 1:15; 1 John 3:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my will, that I might not sin against You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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