Yancey: marking time

Friday, December 6, 2024
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
    —1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
    ... Philip Yancey (b. 1949), Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:13-16; Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 4:20; 11:1; Eph. 4:1; Phil. 2:14-16; Col. 1:13-14,27; 1 Thess. 2:11-12; 1 Tim. 4:12; Tit. 1:2; 2:7-8; Heb. 4:6; 1 Pet. 2:21; Rev. 5:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help us to demonstrate the Kingdom to those around us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: the sound of the alarm

Thursday, December 5, 2024
Meditation:
[Mary:]
“His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.”
    —Luke 1:50 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Fear, the apprehension of personal evil, has the same function in the moral world as pain has in the physical. It is a symptom of disease, and is intended to bid us look for the remedy and the Physician. What is an alarm bell for, but to rouse the sleepers, and to hurry them to the refuge? And so this wholesome, manly dread of the certain issue of discord with God is meant to do for us what the angels did for Lot—to lay a mercifully violent hand on the shoulder of the sleeper, and shake him into aroused wakefulness, and hasten him out of Sodom, before the fire bursts through the ground, and is met by the fire from above. The intention of fear is to lead to that which shall annihilate it by taking away its cause.
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), Triumphant Certainties: and Other Sermons, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1905, p. 300 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:50; Gen. 19:12-13; Deut. 6:13; Ps. 103:17-18; 111:10; 119:120; Pr. 1:7; Hag. 1:12; 1 John 4:12,18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, our fear makes us return to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: Christ's virtues

Wednesday, December 4, 2024
    Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637
Meditation:
    Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
    “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
    —John 6:32-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is not in the gifts He received but in the virtues He practiced that Christ is our model. That which is asked of you, so that you may resemble Him, is to make the same use as He did of the gifts of God, according to the measure in which you have received them.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 101 (see the book)
    See also John 6:32-35; Matt. 11:29; John 13:15; Rom. 15:5-6; Eph. 5:1-2; Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Pet. 2:21; 1 John 2:6; 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the Spirit’s fruits find a place in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Anderson: the virgin birth

Tuesday, December 3, 2024
    Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552
Meditation:
    And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
    —Luke 1:26-28 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I have put no emphasis on the virgin birth in the course of this chapter. This is not because I do not believe in it, for I do; but because, as I understand it, the account of Christ’s miraculous birth was given in the Gospels for the sake of those who had already come to believe in him and who wished to know the facts, but was never used as a means of evoking faith in those who were not yet convinced on other grounds as to who he was. After all, a virgin birth would be possible without any implications of deity.
    ... J. N. D. Anderson (1908-1994), Christianity: the Witness of History, Tyndale Press, 1969, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:26-35; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22-23; Luke 1:1-4; 2 Cor. 11:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my heart to the riches of Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: facing the facts

Monday, December 2, 2024
Meditation:
    About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    —Matthew 27:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No book in the whole world has faced the fact of sorrow, and the mystery of pain so honestly, and with such steady eyes as the New Testament. It is not for nothing that the Christian symbol is—a Cross; and a most wonderful fact that it was a voice from the agony of crucifixion that has made masses of men entirely sure that God is Love.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 22:1; Isa. 53:3-8; Matt. 27:46; John 15:13; Rom. 8:18,22; 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:6; 2:21,24; 4:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your suffering gives witness to the truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grant: how to study the Bible

Sunday, December 1, 2024
    Advent I
    Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916
Meditation:
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
    —Psalm 63:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are frequently advised to read the Bible with our own personal needs in mind, and to look for answers to our private questions. That is good, as far as it goes... But better still is the advice to study the Bible objectively, ... without regard, first of all, to our own subjective needs. Let the great passages fix themselves in our memory. Let them stay there permanently, like bright beacons, launching their powerful shafts of light upon life’s problems—our own and everyone’s—as they illumine now one, now another dark area of human life... Following such a method, we discover that the Bible does “speak to our condition” and meet our needs, not just occasionally or when some emergency arises, but continually.
    ... Frederick C. Grant (1891-1974), How to Read the Bible, London: Thomas Nelson, 1959, p. 8-9 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 63:5-7; Deut. 8:3; Ps. 1:2-3; 23; John 3:16; Rom. 8:1-2; Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 3:14-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Feed me, Lord, with Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gordon: are miracles unnatural?

Saturday, November 30, 2024
    Feast of Andrew the Apostle
Meditation:
    When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to [Jesus], and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
    —Matthew 8:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Miracles of healing and dispossession are reminiscences of an unfallen Paradise and prophecies of a Paradise regained. Though we call them supernatural, they are not contranatural.
    ... A. J. Gordon (1836-1895), The Ministry of Healing, Boston: H. Gannett, 1883, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 8:16; 9:20-22; 12:43-45; Luke 8:28; Jas. 2:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is more in Your creation than we know. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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