Thomas a Kempis: all the difference

Wednesday, May 21, 2025
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
    —John 10:27-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How dry and hard you are without Jesus! How foolish and vain if you desire anything but Him! Is it not a greater loss than losing the whole world? For what, without Jesus, can the world give you? Life without Him is a relentless hell, but living with Him is a sweet paradise. If Jesus be with you, no enemy can harm you.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.viii.1-2, p. 95-96 (see the book)
    See also John 10:27-29; Ps. 27:1; 46:1-3; 56:4,11; 118:6; Matt. 16:26; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25; John 11:28-29; Rom. 8:31; 1 John 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence transforms the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the new era

Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Meditation:
    All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
    —2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [The Kingdom of God] is the reconciliation of the world to God. And here is the consequence of this reconciliation: a new world, a new aeon, a new heaven, and a new earth, which are new because they are surrounded by the peace of God... The end and purpose of the world is the coming of the Kingdom.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Prayer, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p. 35 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Ps. 29:11; 85:8; Matt. 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; John 14:27; Acts 10:36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our reconciliation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: women inferior?

Monday, May 19, 2025
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
    —Matthew 9:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Suppose the evidence had been reversed: suppose Jesus’ first convert in Samaria had been a man, and His favorite friends in Bethany had been two active brothers and a silent sister; suppose a woman had betrayed Him with a kiss, and another woman had cursed Him for fear of a manservant in the High Priest’s courtyard; suppose two men had first found His tomb empty, and the women had come to see it only in doubt and fear; suppose that the church in Caesarea had been served by the four sons of Phillip, all prophets, and Aquila’s name had always been mentioned before his wife’s—would we not assert without fear of contradiction that the New Testament reinforces the teaching of the Old, that women are and must remain inferior to men?
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985)
    See also Matt. 9:22; 16:13-15; 17:12; 26:47-49,69-74; 28:1; Luke 24:9-12; John 4:7-10; 11:1-2; Acts 18:26; 21:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have honored the women in the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: deep calls unto deep

Sunday, May 18, 2025
Meditation:
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
    all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
    —Psalm 42:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O my God, deep calls unto deep. The deep of my profound misery calls to the deep of Your infinite mercy.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), The Love of God, and Spiritual Friendship, ed. James Houston, Multnomah Press, 1983, p. 107 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 42:7; 57:10; 107:1; 108:4; Luke 1:50; Acts 3:19-20; Rom. 11:32; 1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have heard my cry and shown Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wright: the overthrow of death

Saturday, May 17, 2025
Meditation:
    [Peter:] “[Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”
    —Acts 2:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To imply that Jesus “went to heaven when he died”, or that he is now simply a spiritual presence, and to suppose that such ideas exhaust the referential meaning of “Jesus was raised from the dead”, is to miss the point, to cut the nerve of the social, cultural and political critique. Death is the ultimate weapon of the tyrant; resurrection does not make a covenant with death, it overthrows it. The resurrection, in the full Jewish and early Christian sense, is the ultimate affirmation that creation matters, that embodied human beings matter.
    ... N. T. Wright (b. 1948), The Resurrection of the Son of God, Fortress Press, 2003, p. 730 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:23-24; Matt. 17:22-23; Luke 9:22; 24:5-7; Acts 2:32; 3:15; 1 Cor. 15:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have created life anew. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yaconelli: the "wrong" question

Friday, May 16, 2025
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
    —Matthew 9:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday:]
    Assumption 4: Questions can be “right” or “wrong.” All of us have had the experience of asking a question, only to be told the question was inappropriate, irrelevant, or “wrong.” According to this rule, “wrong” questions reveal a lack of faith, a refusal to believe, a rebellion, a carnal heart. “Wrong” questions are unanswerable questions. “Wrong” questions threaten the majority viewpoint.
    ... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Dangerous Wonder: the Adventure of Childlike Faith, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1998, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 9:4-6; Mark 2:8-11; 10:18; Luke 5:22-24; 12:16-20; 18:19; John 5:41-44
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yaconelli: the dangerous question

Thursday, May 15, 2025
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
    —Luke 20:40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday:]
    Assumption 3: Questions can be dangerous. Many in our culture have opted to stay safe by limiting our knowledge to what we already know—a self-induced retirement of the mind. If we ask too many questions, the resulting answers might cause us to change. We might become accountable for truth and have to act on it. The Pharisees wanted to shut up Jesus for good. His constant questions were threatening to the status quo. Jesus’ questions were dangerous because the very asking of them was eroding the power structure. Jesus had to be killed because He had to be silenced. Asking “who is my neighbor?” and “whose image is on this coin?” can start a riot. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Dangerous Wonder: the Adventure of Childlike Faith, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1998, p. 38-39 (see the book)
    See also Luke 20:40; Matt. 22:18-21,42-46; Luke 10:29-36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, be not silent, but speak in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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