Merton: the big, warm, sweet interior glow

Sunday, March 15, 2026
Meditation:
    Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
    —1 John 4:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), New Seeds of Contemplation [1961], New Directions Publishing, 1972, p. 194 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:1; Jer. 29:8-9; Matt. 7:15-16; 2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to truth, regardless of my discomfort. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warfield: how God created a people

Saturday, March 14, 2026
Meditation:
    In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
    —Ephesians 1:11-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    The fundamental note of the Old Testament, in other words, is Revelation. Its seers and prophets are not men of philosophic minds who have risen from the seen to the unseen, and, by dint of much reflection, have gradually attained to elevated conceptions of him who is the author of all that is. They are men of God whom God has chosen, that he might speak to them and through them to his people. Israel has not in and by them created for itself a God. God has through them created for himself a people.
    ... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), “God’s Revelation of Himself to Israel”, in Sunday School Times, August 4, 1907, p. 289 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 1:11-12; Luke 24:44-45; Acts 10:43; Rom. 1:2; Heb. 1:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are Your people through Your grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warfield: how to think of God

Friday, March 13, 2026
Meditation:
    I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
    —Exodus 20:2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The Old Testament does not occupy itself with how Israel thought of God. Its concern is with how Israel ought to think of God. To it, the existence of God is not an open question; nor his nature; nor the accessibility of knowledge of him. God himself has taken care of that. He has made himself known to his people, and their business is not to feel after him if haply they may fumblingly find him, but to hearken to him as he declares to them what and who he is. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), “God’s Revelation of Himself to Israel”, in Sunday School Times, August 4, 1907, p. 289 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6; Ps. 50:7; 81:10; Hos. 13:4; Amos 1:1; Rom. 3:29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your mercy, You have shown Yourself to us in Jesus Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hoskyns: the recognition of sin

Thursday, March 12, 2026
Meditation:
    If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
    —1 John 1:8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The overwhelming recognition of human sin controls the Old Testament and the New Testament alike, and no understanding of our Lord’s words and actions is possible if we persist in denying it.
    ... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), Cambridge Sermons, London: SPCK, 1938, p. 58 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:8; Ps. 143:2; Pr. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Isa. 53:6; 64:6; Matt. 1:21; Acts 2:38; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:10; 3:6
Quiet time reflection:
    I avoid looking at my sin, Lord, but Your word is truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clark: our common task

Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Meditation:
    Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
    —Galatians 6:2 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Whatever task God is calling us to, if it is yours, it is mine, and if it is mine, it is yours. We must do it together—or be cast aside together, as God in his absolute freedom goes on by other means to use His Church in hastening His Kingdom.
    ... Howard Hewlett Clark (1903-1983), Foreword to Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. xiii (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:2; Matt. 23:11; Mark 10:43-44; Rom. 12:4-5; 15:1; 1 Pet. 2:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the heart of a servant. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Origen: discussing prayer

Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Meditation:
    And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
    —Romans 8:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The discussion of prayer is so great a task that it requires the Father to reveal it, His Firstborn Word to teach it, and the Spirit to enable us to think and speak rightly of so great a subject.
    ... Origen (185?-254?), Origen, book 4, Rowan A. Greer, tr., Paulist Press, 1979, p. 86 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:26-27; Luke 11:1-4; John 14:12-13, 26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the mind of Christ so that I might please you in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moule: valuing man

Monday, March 9, 2026
Meditation:
O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
    Out of the mouth of babes and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
&nb sp;   whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
    —Psalm 8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    As against Thee, as without Thee, man is a thing of naught; ... as of Thee, man is a pearl of price, the reflection of Thy own personal infinity, the child and heir of immortality. He was formed in Thy creative counsels, O Thou Lover of man, to transcend death forever, and to persist, not in a part of his being only, but in its indissoluble ideal whole, unto the life of the world to come.
    ... Handley Moule (1841-1920)
    See also Ps. 8; Gen. 2:7; Matt. 13:45-46; John 3:16; Rom. 8:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I was nothing till You breathed eternal life into me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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