Baxter: know yourself

Thursday, November 21, 2024
Meditation:
    Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.
    —James 3:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be thoroughly acquainted with your corruptions and temptations, and watch against them all the day; especially the most dangerous sort of your corruptions, and those temptations which your company or business will unavoidably lay before you.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. I, ed. William Orme, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 468 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 3:13-15; Pr. 16:18; Matt. 26:41; Luke 21:34; 1 Cor. 8:1-3; 10:12-13; Gal. 5:19-21; 6:1; Phil. 2:3-4; 1 Tim. 4:16; 6:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You guard me from falling. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Law: indulgence

Wednesday, November 20, 2024
    Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
    Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
Meditation:
    Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
    —Colossians 3:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You must not deceive yourself with saying, Where can be the harm of clothes? for the covetous man might as well say, Where can be the harm of gold or silver? but you must consider, that it is a great deal of harm to want that wise, and reasonable, and humble state of heart, which is according to the spirit of religion, and which no one can have in the manner that he ought to have it, who indulges himself either in the vanity of dress, or the desire of riches.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 124-125 (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:2; Ex. 20:17; Matt. 6:19-21,28-30; 13:22; 19:23-24; 23:5; Luke 12:15,33-34; 18:24-25; John 6:27; Eph. 5:5; 1 Tim. 2:9-10; Heb. 13:5; 1 Pet. 3:3; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free me from my self-indulgence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Newman: life is for action

Tuesday, November 19, 2024
    Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
    Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
    Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
Meditation:
    And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
    —1 John 3:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences; we shall never have done beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our foundations; we shall turn theology into evidences, and divines into textuaries... Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, v. 8, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 556 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:23-24; Ps. 119:32; Luke 6:46; John 14:21; 15:10-14; 1 John 2:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me always the faith to act. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Taylor: an account

Monday, November 18, 2024
Meditation:
Teach us to number our days aright,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
    —Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends; but so that for every hour of our life, after we are persons capable of laws and know good from evil, we must give account to the great Judge of men and angels.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 90:12; 39:4-5; 89:47; Isa. 40:6-8; Matt. 12:35-36; Rom. 12:2; 14:12; Eph. 6:7-8; Heb. 2:2-3; 10:36; Jas. 1:10; 4:13-15; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your judgment is true. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Laubach: the bright discovery

Sunday, November 17, 2024
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    For [God] says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
    —2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All day I see souls dead to God look sadly out of hungry eyes. I want them to know my discovery! That any minute can be paradise, that any place can be heaven! That any man can have God! That every man does have God the moment he speaks to God, or listens for him!
    ... Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970), Letters by a Modern Mystic: excerpts, Student Volunteer Movement, 1937, p. 24 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 6:2; Matt. 5:6; John 12:20-21; Acts 2:41,47; 4:4; 13:48; 17:32; Rom. 8:30; Eph. 2:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may _____ and _____ hear Your voice. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Swete: abiding in Christ's teaching

Saturday, November 16, 2024
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
    —Jude 3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    True progress is not found in breaking away from the old ways, but in abiding in the teaching of Christ and His Spirit in the Church. There is an apparent contradiction here, for how can we abide, and yet advance? It is a paradox, like much else in scripture; but Christian experience proves it true. Those make the best progress in religion who hold fast by the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and not those who drift away from their moorings, rudderless upon a sea of doubt.
    ... Henry Barclay Swete (1835-1917), The Life of the World to Come, London: Society for the Promoting of Christian Knowleldge, 1918, p. 106 (see the book)
    See also Jude 1:3; John 15:4-7; 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Gal. 2:5; 1 Tim. 1:15; 4:16; 2 Tim. 2:2; Tit. 1:9; 2:1; 2 Pet. 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word has brought me home from doubt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Henry: discontent

Friday, November 15, 2024
    Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
Meditation:
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me:
    and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
    —Psalm 50:23 (KJV)
Quotation:
    No condition of life will of itself make a man content, without the grace of God; for we find Haman discontented in the court, Ahab discontented on the throne, Adam discontented in paradise; nay, and higher we cannot go, the angels that fell discontented in heaven itself.
    ... Matthew Henry (1662-1714), The life of the Rev. Philip Henry, A.M. [1697], London: B. J. Holdsworth, 1825, p. 237 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 50:23; 145:1-2; 2 Cor. 9:8; 1 Tim. 6:6; Heb. 13:5; 2 Pet. 1:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your contentment descend upon me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth