Glover: the testament of suffering

Wednesday, April 8, 2026
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
    Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...
    —2 Timothy 1:8-10 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Belief in immortality for us does not depend on a story, however well attested, in an ancient book... No, here was a sequence of great character and emancipated spirit, all attached to and explained by such a personality as the world never saw; and the central doctrine of the risen Christ squared with the rationality and the goodness of God... The wise said that God and the godlike could have no contact with suffering, but Jesus was no phantom feigning to be crucified; he truly suffered on the cross, he truly rose. Suffering is a language all can understand, and none can quite exhaust; and the suffering Christ, victorious over pain and death, meant for all who grasped his significance a new faith in God, a new freedom of mind in God.
    ... T. R. Glover (1869-1943), The Influence of Christ in the Ancient World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929, p. 99 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 1:8-10; Col. 2:8,18-22; 1 Tim. 4:7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have paid a far higher price for my liberty than I ever shall. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Glover: the living testament

Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Meditation:
    “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.
    —John 7:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The real conviction of the living Christ was not carried to the world by a book nor by a story. Men might allege that they had seen the risen Lord; that was nothing till they themselves were known. The witness of the resurrection was not the word of Paul (as we see at Athens) nor of the Eleven; it was the new power in life and death that the world saw in changed men...
    The legend of a reputed resurrection of some unknown person in Palestine nobody needed to consider; but what were you to do with the people who died in the arena, the re-born slaves with their newness of life in your own house? And when you “looked into the story,” it was no mere somebody or other of whom they told it. The conviction of the people you knew, amazing in its power of transforming character and winning first the goodwill and the trust and then the conversion of others, was supported and confirmed by the nature and personality of the Man of whom they spoke, of whom you read in their books. “Never man spake like this man,” you read, nor thought like this man, nor like this man believed in God. I can not but think that the factors that make a man Christian to-day were those that won the world then. Our age and that age, in culture, in hopes and fears, in loss of nerve, are not unlike. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... T. R. Glover (1869-1943), The Influence of Christ in the Ancient World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929, p. 96,98-99 (see the book)
    See also John 7:46; 5:21; Acts 17:18,32; 1 Cor. 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 10:5; Eph. 4:14; 1 Tim. 1:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I was dead, and You raised me to life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Michelangelo: Now hath my life across a stormy sea

Monday, April 6, 2026
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
    O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
    —Psalm 30:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
On the Brink of Death.

Now hath my life across a stormy sea,
    Like a frail bark, reached that wide port where all
    Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
    Of good and evil for eternity.
Now know I well how that fond phantasy
    Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
    Of earthly art is vain; how criminal
    Is that which all men seek unwillingly.
Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed,
    What are they when the double death is nigh?
    The one I know for sure, the other dread.
Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
    My soul, that turns to His great love on high,
    Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, v. II, J. A. Symonds, London: J. C. Nimmo, 1893, p. 309 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 30:11-12; John 6:51; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 9:25; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Raise me, Lord, to meet You.

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Winter: the resurrected Lord

Sunday, April 5, 2026
    Easter
Meditation:
    When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
    —John 21:9-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It was undoubtedly a real body. Hundreds of people could not have been so mistaken, especially when Jesus offered clear evidence of it. But it was not an earthbound body. It was something that bore a developmental relationship to an earthly human body, but it was not identical with it. There was clearly a continuity of life between the body of Jesus and the body of the resurrected Jesus, but in the time between his death and resurrection it had undergone a very fundamental change. That, at least, seems clear.
    So much for the list of dissimilarities: the body of Jesus after the resurrection had a different appearance and also a different form. It was like the previous body, it had some sort of developmental relationship to it, but it was obviously not identical with it.
    Now we must consider the similarities. Strangely, they all came down to one factor, but that factor is so important that it outweighs all the dissimilarities. It is simply this: Jesus before and after the resurrection was undeniably the same person. No matter what extraordinary changes had taken place in his bodily form, all who knew him well had no doubt at all who he was. They “knew” it was the Lord.
    ... David Winter, Hereafter, Wheaton, Ill.: Shaw Publishers, 1972, p. 58-59 (see the book)
    See also John 21:9-12; Luke 24:30-31,36-43; John 20:26-27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, though I have not seen You with my eyes, I know it is You in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Collyer: Easter

Saturday, April 4, 2026
    Holy Saturday
Meditation:
    But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
    —Luke 24:1-7 (ESV)
Quotation:
Morning breaks upon the tomb,
Jesus dissipates its gloom.
Day of triumph through the skies—
See the glorious Saviour rise.

Christians dry your flowing tears,
Chase those unbelieving fears;
Look on his deserted grave,
Doubt no more his power to save.

Ye who are of death afraid,
Triumph in the scatter’d shade:
Drive your anxious cares away,
See the place where Jesus lay.
    ... William Bengo Collyer (1782-1854), Hymns, partly collected and partly original, London: Longman, Hunt, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1812, p. 887 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:1-12; Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-10; John 20:1-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have broken the curse we were under. Show me where I must spread the good news.

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Meynell: all alone

Friday, April 3, 2026
    Good Friday
Meditation:
    The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
    —Matthew 28:5-7
Quotation:
All night had shouts of men and cry
    Of woeful women filled His way;
Until that noon of sombre sky
    On Friday, clamour and display
Smote Him; no solitude had He.
No silence, since Gethsemane.

Public was death; but Power, but Might,
    But Life again, but Victory,
Were hushed within the dead of night,
    The shutter’d dark, the secrecy.
And all alone, alone, alone
He rose again behind the stone.
    ... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), A Father of Women: and other poems, Burns & Oates, 1917, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 28:5-7; 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; John 19:25-27
Quiet time reflection:
    You rose again, according to the promise of the Father. Because of You, I now have the same promise.

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Mary Elizabeth Coleridge: Good Friday

Thursday, April 2, 2026
    Maundy Thursday
Meditation:
    When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
    —John 21:15-17 (ESV)
Quotation:
Good Friday in my heart! Fear and affright!
My thoughts are the disciples when they fled,
My words the words that priest and soldier said,
My deed the spear to desecrate the dead.
And day, Thy death therein, is changed to night.

Then Easter in my heart sends up the sun.
My thoughts are Mary, when she turned to see.
My words are Peter, answering, “Lov’st thou me?”
My deeds are all Thine own drawn close to Thee.
And night and day, since thou dost rise, are one.
    ... Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907), Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, 1908, p. 148-149 (see the book)
    See also John 21:15-17; Ps. 51:7; Isa. 53:2-11; Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50; John 16:32; 19:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I return Your love to me.

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