The Christian Quotation of the Day

MacDonald: the Vine

2012-02-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, February 4, 2012
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
    —John 15:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No worst thing ever done in the name of Christianity, no vilest corruption of the Church, can destroy the eternal fact that the core of it is the heart of Jesus. Branches innumerable may have to be lopped off and cast into the fire, yet the word “I am the Vine” remaineth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Malcolm: a romance, Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1875, p. 248 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may you yet reap fruit from my branch. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rousseau: the Scriptures

2012-02-03T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, February 3, 2012
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Peruse the books of philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how meager, how contemptible they are when compared with the Scriptures! The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration.
    ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Emile, or, On education, UPNE, 2009, p. 147 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word shames the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: until the Spirit rules all

2012-02-02T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, February 2, 2012
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
    —1 John 2:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Most of our conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and practical aspects of our life separately instead of realising them as parts of one whole. If our practical life is centred on our own interests, cluttered up by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a sense of our own rights and importance, or anxieties for our own future, or longings for our own success, we need not expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this. The soul’s house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are few sound-proof partitions in it. Only when the conviction—not merely the idea—that the demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, comes first and IS first, rules the whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory, and drowning all the quieter voices by their din.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Spiritual Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1985, p. 33-34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cover my distractions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: personal holiness

2012-02-01T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
    He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
    —Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    (Continued from yesterday)
    [We look for a time when Christians] will consider and practically remember, that all Christians are “called [to be] Saints,” and endued with the Holy Spirit of God; not indeed to inspire them with a new revelation, or to confer any miraculous gifts, (which do not either prove, or make, the possessor the more acceptable in God’s sight,) but to enable them to purify their own hearts and lives. The wicked Balaam was a prophet; and the traitor Judas worked miracles. These extraordinary powers, therefore, are neither any proof of superior personal holiness, nor any substitute for it in God’s sight. Nor is the absence of these miraculous gifts in ourselves, any argument that a less degree of Christian virtue will suffice for our salvation, than was required of the Apostles.
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 159-160 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the sign of Your presence is written within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: the future of Christianity

2012-01-31T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
    —1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Meanwhile it is a great consolation to us to look forward, as I think we are authorized to do, to a time when not only the knowledge of the Gospel will be greatly extended, but also, the influence of the Gospel on Christians’ hearts, and tempers, and lives—“the knowledge and love of God,” and the “fruits of his Spirit,”—will be still much more increased;—when those who are Christians in name, will be much less disposed to content themselves with the name,—much more careful to be Christians in principle and in conduct, than the far greater part of them are now:—when Christians, generally, will not look, as they are apt to do now, on the Apostles and others of the early Church whom it is usual to distinguish by the title of Saint, as possessing a degree and a kind of Christian excellence which it would be vain and presumptuous for ordinary Christians to th! ink of equalling. (Continued tomorrow)
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 158-159 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: truth in consummation

2012-01-30T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 30, 2012
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
    —2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we accept the authority of the Bible, then we understand ourselves as being in via, not possessors of eternal truth, but part of a living tradition of discipleship, on the way to the truth that will be perfectly known on the day when the Author of the story brings it to its end and consummation.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Truth and Authority in Modernity, Gracewing Publishing, 1996, p. 70 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are blessed as You reveal Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: sin is in all of us

2012-01-29T09:02:00.002-06:00

Sunday, January 29, 2012
Meditation:
    For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
    —Romans 11:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing will help you as much in meeting people, no matter how far out they are or how caught up in the modern awfulness, than for them to perceive in you the attitude “we are both sinners.” This does not mean that we minimize sin, but we can still exhibit that we understand him because we stand in the same place. We can say “us” rather than just “you.” To project shock as though we are better slams the door shut. Each of us does not need to look beyond himself to know that men and women are sinners.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), No Little People, Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974, reprint, Crossway, 2003, p. 46 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You remind me, Lord, that my sin is no better than my neighbor’s.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aquinas: our beneficial ignorance

2012-01-28T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 28, 2012
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.
    —Ecclesiastes 9:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If all the predestined knew they were predestined, then all those not predestined would know they were not predestined from the very fact that they did not know if they were predestined. This would, in some way, lead them to despair. Now, considering those who are predestined, security is the mother of negligence; and if the predestined were certain about their predestination, they would be secure about their salvation. Consequently, they would not exercise so great care in avoiding evil. Hence, it has been wisely ordained by God’s providence that men should be ignorant of their predestination or reprobation.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274), Truth, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1994, p. 281-282 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your assurance is sufficient. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: chosen by God

2012-01-27T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 27, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus] was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
    —Acts 10:41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow. The piercing truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it. God chooses us in order to use us.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of Luke, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I could not bear my cross were You not bearing it with me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: absolutely free

2012-01-26T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 26, 2012
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
    —Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is atonement that makes repentance, not repentance that makes atonement. Repentance comes because the Father of love has proved Himself a ‘Holy Father.’ He has closed the rent that sin had made; He offers a pardon that is a pardon, and that is absolutely free.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), from “God as Holy Father,” in Homiletic Review, v. XXXIII, I. K. Funk & D. S. Gregory, eds., New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1897, p. 236 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your forgiveness has turned me away from my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sadgrove & Wright: universal salvation?

2012-01-25T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Any theory which asserts universal salvation in Christ must involve not only the potential notion of “anonymous faith” but also some doctrine of a future state in which those whose religion has not made them “anonymous Christians”, and those who have professed and lived by no faith at all (a category often conveniently ignored in this context), are presented over and over again with the chance of faith in Christ. Such a theory is not only without scriptural warrant; it cuts clean across all that Scripture teaches about the historical nature of Christianity. Those who are saved at the last are those who are genuinely in Christ in this life.
    ... Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, in The Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 78 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only by grace can I be saved. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: honesty in prayer

2012-01-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
    —Ecclesiastes 12:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... if you lie to God’s Holy Spirit, you can scarcely wonder that He refuses you His comfort.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, p. 334 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have opened up the secrets of my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: sorrow

2012-01-23T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
Meditation:
    To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
    They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
    Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
    —John 8:31-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What sort of Christians are we that go about asking for the things of this life first, thinking that it shall make us prosperous to be Christians, and then a little higher asking for the things that pertain to the eternal prosperity, when the Great Master, who leaves us the great law, in whom our Christian life is spiritually set forth, has as His great symbol the cross, the cross, the sign of consecration and obedience? It is not simply suffering too. Christ does not stand primarily for suffering. Suffering is an accident. It does not matter whether you and I suffer. “Not enjoyment and not sorrow” is our life, not sorrow any more than enjoyment, but obedience and duty. If duty brings sorrow, let it bring sorrow. It did bring sorrow to the Christ.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust You with my future. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reeves: the common life of the Body

2012-01-22T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 22, 2012
Meditation:
    Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
    —Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whatever gifts we possess belong to the Body, and are useful only as they are used in the common life of the Church. All this is made very plain in the New Testament Epistles, for in them we are taught that in each local Christian community is a fellowship in which every member is to live in humility and in love to the brethren. Yet no local church is to live to itself. Again and again, local churches are reminded of their close relationship to one another, in life, work, worship, pain, and death. Not that such a relationship is to be regarded either as a matter of convenience or as a question of organization. On the contrary, this intimate relationship is seen as the direct outcome of the saving work of Christ. This unity with one another, and of local churches with each other, is the unity which belongs to the Body of Christ, arising from the unity of God Himself, uttered in the dying and rising again of Jesus, and now expressed in the order and! structure of the Church.
    ... Ambrose Reeves (1899-1980), Bishop of Johannesburg [1956], Church and Race in South Africa, David M. Paton, London: SCM Press, 1958, p. 31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Spirit, Lord, animates the whole church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Marshall: sons, not slaves

2012-01-21T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 21, 2012
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
    —Isaiah 1:18-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    By giving humans freedom of will, the Creator has chosen to limit His own power. He risked the daring experiment of giving us the freedom to make good or bad decisions, to live decent or evil lives, because God does not want the forced obedience of slaves. Instead, He covets the voluntary love and obedience of sons who love Him for Himself.
    ... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 26 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create a willing heart in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rolle: love of the Lord

2012-01-20T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 20, 2012
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
    —Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The commandment of God is, that we love Our Lord in all our heart, in all our soul, in all our thought. In all our heart; that is, in all our understanding without erring. In all our soul; that is, in all our will without gainsaying. In all our thought; that is, that we think on Him without forgetting. In this manner is very love and true, that is work of man’s will. For love is a willful stirring of our thoughts unto God, so that it receive nothing that is against the love of Jesus Christ, and therewith that it be lasting in sweetness of devotion; and that is the perfection of this life.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), The Commandments, in English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif, David Lyle Jeffrey, tr., Regent College Publishing, 1988, 73:8-9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people the purpose of fulfilling this commandment. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the wrath of God

2012-01-19T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 19, 2012
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    See, the day of the LORD is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.
    —Isaiah 13:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. Not only is it right for God to display anger at sin, but I find it impossible to understand how He could do otherwise.
    God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades or destroys.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1966, p. 111 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with intolerance for my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: Tune Thou my harp

2012-01-18T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
    —Revelation 14:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Tune Thou my harp;
There is not, Lord, could never be,
The skill in me.

Tune Thou my harp,
That it may play Thy melody,
Thy harmony.

Tune Thou my harp;
O Spirit, breathe Thy thought through me
As pleaseth Thee.
... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Rose from Brier [1933], London: SPCK, 1950, p. 128-129 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Fill my heart with Your song, Lord.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: God's will

2012-01-17T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    [Jesus] went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
    —Matthew 26:42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We do not know if it is God’s will that this or that person should recover from sickness, or this or that calamity should be averted. God is wiser than we are. We do not know whether it is God’s will that we should have rain that is so necessary for our crops. There are things like these that lie in a region of uncertainty into which the intelligence of man cannot penetrate. So then as the object of prayer is not to bring the divine will down to the human, but to lift the human up into correspondence with the divine, for all these uncertain things we can pray indeed, but uncertainly—‘If it be possible, let this or that come to pass; nevertheless, not my will, but Thine, be done.’
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Sermon on the Mount [1910], London: John Murray, 1905, p. 141 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to submit to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: life without leaving the world

2012-01-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 16, 2012
Meditation:
    Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
    —1 Peter 4:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is further objected that [Jesus] hath left us no example of that, which by many is esteemed the only religious state of life; viz. perfect retirement from the world, for the more devout serving of God, and freeing us from the temptations of the world, such as is that of monks and hermits; this, perhaps, may seem to some a great oversight and omission: but our Lord in great wisdom thought fit to give us a pattern of a quite different sort of life, which was, not to fly the conversation of men, and to live in a monastery or a wilderness, but to do good among men, to live in the world with great freedom, and with great innocency. He did, indeed, sometimes retire himself for the more free and private exercise of devotion, as we ought to do; but he passed his life chiefly in the conversation of men, that they might have all the benefit that was possible of his instruction and example. We read, that “he was carried into the wilderness to be tempted;” but not that he lived there to avoid temptation. He hath given us an example of denying the world, without leaving it.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VIII, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CXC, p. 274 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown the way. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stevenson: for self-blame

2012-01-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 15, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
    —Luke 6:41-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s. Let us feel our offences with our hands, make them great and bright before us like the sun, make us eat them and drink them for our diet. Blind us to the offences of our beloved, cleanse them from our memories, take them out of our mouths for ever. Let all here before Thee carry and measure with the false balances of love, and be in their own eyes and in all conjunctures the most guilty. Help us at the same time with the grace of courage, that we be none of us cast down when we sit lamenting amid the ruins of our happiness or our integrity: touch us with fire from the altar, that we may be up and doing to rebuild our city: in the name and by the method of him in whose words of prayer we now conclude.
    ... Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), from “Prayers Written for Family Use at Vailima”, in The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, v. IV, London: T. & A. Constable for Longmans Green & Co.1896, p. 387 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lift up the least and humble the greatest. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: the persistence of election

2012-01-14T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 14, 2012
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
    —Jonah 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In reality (spiritual reality) it is much too simple to think that God offers his grace to man and man accepts or refuses. When God has graciously chosen a man his grace continues even though the man does not do what God has decided. On the other hand, this persistence of election... does not entail a negation of man’s will. God pursues this man, conducts him through his whole life, in order to bring about the consent of this man’s will to what God has decided.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 24 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank you, Lord, that You pursued me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hilary: divinity and eternity

2012-01-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 13, 2012
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.”
    —John 8:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We proclaim ... that the Father is eternal and the Son eternal, and demonstrate that the Son is God of all with an absolute, not a limited, preexistence; that these bold assaults of... blasphemous logic—He was born out of nothing, and He was not before He was born—are powerless against Him; that His eternity is consistent with sonship, and His sonship with eternity; that there was in Him no unique exemption from birth but a birth from everlasting, for, while birth implies a Father, Divinity is inseparable from eternity.
    ... St. Hilary (ca. 300-367?), On the Trinity, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. IX, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1902, p. 50 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: conveying the knowledge

2012-01-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 12, 2012
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness
    to a people yet unborn—
    for he has done it.
    —Psalm 22:30-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The religion of a hundred years ago or of two thousand years ago does not seem quaint, for men can speak to each other about their knowledge of God, unhindered by the barriers of centuries.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Knowledge of God, Harper & Brothers, 1939, p. 107 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You planned our salvation from the foundation of the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Denney: the authority of Jesus

2012-01-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
    Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
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:
    The displacement of ‘the Son of Man’ by ‘man’ [according to the recommendation of textual critics] has only a superficial plausibility in logic. The healing of the palsy by Jesus does not prove that man generically can forgive sins. The man who does the visible miracle in confirmation of his claim to do the invisible is to be taken at his word: but it is no more true that man generically can speak the word of forgiveness with divine effect than that man generically can effectively bid the lame walk. The only question raised, and the only question settled, is one concerning the power claimed by Jesus; and it is settled, not by bringing Jesus under the general category of humanity, but by an act of Jesus Himself which was as impossible for men in general as the forgiveness of sins. It is not any man, but only He who has the right to think of Himself as the Son of Man, who can forgive sins upon the earth.
    ... James Denney (1856-1917), Jesus and the Gospel: Christianity justified in the mind of Christ, New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1908, p. 275 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, to You all power is given. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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