Underhill: a harmless exercise

Sunday, August 30, 2026
Meditation:
Keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from speaking deceit.
    —Psalm 34:13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    As to deliberate mortifications—I take it you do feel satisfied that you accept fully those God sends. That being so, you might perhaps do one or two little things, as acts of love, and also as discipline? I suggest by preference the mortification of the tongue—as being very tiresome and quite harmless to the health. Careful guard on all amusing criticisms of others, on all complaints however casual and trivial; deliberately refraining sometimes from saying the entertaining thing.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Letters of Evelyn Underhill, Charles Williams, ed., London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1991, p. 259 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:13; 39:1; Pr. 18:21; Matt. 12:35-37; Jas. 1:19,26; 3:5-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bridle my errant tongue for the sake of the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: the test of love

Saturday, August 29, 2026
Meditation:
    Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
    —Ephesians 5:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We must not measure the reality of love by feelings, but by results. Feelings are very delusive. They often depend on mere natural temperament, and the devil wrests them to our hurt. A glowing imagination is apt to seek itself rather than God. But if you are earnest in striving to serve and endure for God’s Sake, if you persevere amid temptation, dryness, weariness, and desolation, you may rest assured that your love is real.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 137 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:1-2; John 13:34; 1 Cor. 16:14; Eph. 4:2,15; Col. 3:14; 1 Thes. 4:9; 1 Pet. 4:8; 1 John 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to trust You rather than my own feelings. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: the cure for hostility

Friday, August 28, 2026
    Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
    —Luke 6:35 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Ye have enemies; for who can live on this earth without them? Take heed to yourselves: love them. In no way can thy enemy so hurt thee by his violence, as thou dost hurt thyself if thou love him not... And let it not seem to you impossible to love him... Believe first that it can be done, and pray that the will of God may be done in you. For what good can thy neighbor’s ill do to thee? If he had no ill, he would not even be thine enemy. Wish him well, then, that he may end his ill, and he will be thine enemy no longer. For it is not the human nature in him that is at enmity with thee, but his sin.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Sermon VI in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, v. VI, Philip Schaff, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888, p. 278 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:35; Matt. 5:44; 6:9-13; Luke 23:34; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 1 Cor. 4:12-13; 13:4-8; 1 Pet. 2:23; 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to love ____ and ____ with Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: the quintessence of sin

Thursday, August 27, 2026
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
    —Mark 14:37-38 (KJV)
Quotation:
    If there were a righteousness which man could have of his own, then we should have to concern ourselves with the question of how it can be imparted to him. But there is not. The idea of a righteousness of one’s own is the quintessence of sin.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 128 (see the book)
    See also Mark 14:37-38; Prov. 14:12; Isa. 5:21; 64:6; Matt. 5:20; 23:29-31; Luke 16:14,15; Rom. 10:3; 2 Cor. 10:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I always lift up Your righteousness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: doing vs. being

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Meditation:
    For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
    —Hebrews 9:13-14 (ESV)
Quotation:
    People should think less about what they ought to do and more about what they ought to be. If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly. Do not imagine that you can ground your salvation upon actions; it must rest on what you are. The ground upon which good character rests is the very same ground from which man’s work derives its value, namely, a mind wholly turned to God. Verily, if you were so minded, you might tread on a stone and it would be a more pious work than if you, simply for your own profit, were to receive the Body of the Lord and were wanting in spiritual detachment.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), quoted in The Perennial Philosophy [1945], Aldous Huxley, New York: HarperCollins, 2004, p. 178 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 9:13-14; Ps. 51:7,10; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 1 John 1:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge me from pursuit of dead works. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: the debt of praise

Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Meditation:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
    where their voice is not heard.
    —Psalm 19:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Oh my debt of praise, how weighty it is, and how far run up! Oh, that others would lend me to pay, and teach me to praise.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Jan. 1, 1637, p. 136 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 19:1-3; 25:4; 51:15; Rev. 5:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me words and voice to speak Your praises. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the price of mercy

Monday, August 24, 2026
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
    —Matthew 6:14-15 (KJV)
Quotation:
    To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “On Forgiveness” [1949], in Fern-seed and Elephants, Walter Hooper, Fontana, 1975, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:12,14-15; 18:21-35; Hos. 6:6; Mark 5:25,26; Luke 6:37; 11:4; 17:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, expose my hard-heartedness, that I may learn anew the privilege of forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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