Temple: faith is fellowship with God

Wednesday, November 6, 2024
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
    —Matthew 23:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith is not the holding of correct doctrines, but personal fellowship with the Living God... What is offered to man’s apprehension in any specific Revelation is not truth concerning God but the Living God Himself.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Nature, Man and God, London: Macmillan, 1934, 1949, p. 322 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:2-3; John 3:18-19; 8:24,39; Heb. 11:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: hope for ruined humanity

Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
    —1 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.
    ... James I. Packer (1926-2020), Knowing God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:3-5; Isa. 42:1-4; Matt. 8:20; 27:54; Luke 1:76-79; 2:6-7,14; 19:42; John 14:27; 16:33; Rom. 15:12-13; Eph. 1:11-12; Col. 1:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let the hope of glory spread throughout Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gregory of Nazianzus: the divine poverty

Monday, November 4, 2024
Meditation:
    For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
    —2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who gives riches becomes poor; for He assumes the poverty of my flesh, that I may assume the riches of His Godhead. He that is full empties Himself; for He empties Himself of His Glory for a short while, that I may have a share in His Fulness.
    ... St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389/390), from Oration XLV, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. VII, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., Christian literature Company, 1894, p. 426 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 8:9; Isa. 53:2-3; Matt. 8:20; Rom. 15:3; Phil. 2:6-8; Heb. 2:9; 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given Your people sonship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Henry: the antichrist philosophy

Sunday, November 3, 2024
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
    My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
    —James 2:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are so steeped in the antichrist philosophy—namely, that success consists in embracing not the values of the Sermon on the Mount but an infinity of material things, of sex and status—that we little sense how much of what passes for practical Christianity is really an apostate compromise with the spirit of the age.
    ... Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003), Twilight of a Great Civilization, Westchester, Il: Crossway Books, 1988, p. 15 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:1-4; Matt. 6:25; 16:26; Mark 4:18-19; 8:36-37; Luke 8:14; 12:15-21; 16:9-13; John 12:42-43; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 5:16; Heb. 12:1; 1 Pet. 1:24-25; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free Your people from the entanglements of culture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moody: holding the blessing

Saturday, November 2, 2024
    Feast of All Souls
Meditation:
    And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
    —Acts 13:52 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A great many think because they have been filled once, they are going to be full for all time after; but O, my friends, we are leaky vessels, and have to be kept right under the fountain all the time in order to keep full. If we are going to be used by God we have to be very humble. A man that lives close to God will be the humblest of men. I heard a man say that God always chooses the vessel that is close at hand. Let us keep near Him.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), Glad Tidings, New York: E. B. Treat, 1876, p. 291 (see the book)
    See also Acts 13:52; Isa. 11:1-4; 61:1-3; Mic. 3:8; Luke 1:14-15,41,67; 4:1,14,18-19; 10:21; Acts 2:4; 4:8,31; 6:3-5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me again with Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: the silences of God

Friday, November 1, 2024
    Feast of All Saints
Meditation:
    This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
    —1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I never think of [the silences of God] without thinking how great is the delight which comes when any man discovers that God really has been answering him all the time when he thought that his prayers were all unheard. That must be one of the most exquisite joys of heaven.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Light of the World, and Other Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1904, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:14-15; Ps. 4:1; 10:1; 22:1; 35:22; 46:1,10; 83:1; 88:14; Hab. 1:2; Luke 15:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are never far from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: unconditional grace

Thursday, October 31, 2024
    Reformation Day
Meditation:
    I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
    —Romans 1:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Luther had grasped by faith the free and unconditional forgiveness of all his sins. That experience taught him that this grace had cost him his very life, and must continue to cost him the same price day by day. So far from dispensing him from discipleship, this grace only made him a more earnest disciple.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 1:16-17; Hab. 2:4; John 3:36; 14:1; Rom. 3:3; 6:1-2; Gal. 3:11; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 3:8-9; Heb. 11:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace has drawn me to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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