The Christian Quotation of the Day

Fox: proper offerings

2026-08-20T23:00:06.398-05:00

Friday, August 21, 2026
Meditation:
    Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
    —Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Take care that all your offerings be free, and of your own, that has cost you something; so that ye may not offer of that which is another man’s, or that which ye are entrusted withal, and not your own.
    ... George Fox (1624-1691), Journal, v. II, Philadelphia: B. & T. Kite, 1808, p. 323 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:1-4; 8:4; 9:30; Mark 1:44; Eph. 4:28; 1 Tim. 6:18; Heb. 13:16; 1 John 3:17-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, grant me a generous spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard of Clairvaux: love

2026-08-19T23:00:26.937-05:00

Thursday, August 20, 2026
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
    —1 John 5:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Honor and glory are indeed due to God and to Him alone, but He will accept neither of them if they be not preserved in the honey of love. Love is sufficient of itself; it pleases by itself and on its own account. It is itself merit and is itself its own reward. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit. It is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love that I may love. Love is a great thing provided it recurs to its beginning, returns to its origin, and draws always from that fountain which is perpetually in flood. Of all the feelings and affections of the soul, love is the only one by which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to respond to the Creator and to repay what it has received from Him... For when God loves us He desires nothing but to be loved. He loves for no other reason, indeed, than that He may be loved, knowing that by their love itself those who love Him are blessed.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Cantica Canticorum (Sermons of the Song of Songs), in Bernard of Clairvaux: selected works, Gillian Rosemary Evans, tr., Paulist Press, 1987, 83:4, p. 272-273 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:1-3; Mark 12:32-34; Rom. 5:5; 8:28; Rev. 4:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, quicken love within me, that I may love You above everything. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Peabody: the decisive factor

2026-08-18T23:00:51.482-05:00

Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Meditation:
    Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
    —Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    However important it may be to have a creed that is sound or an emotion that is warm, the Christian life, according to the Gospels, is primarily determined by the direction of the will, the fixing of the desire, the habit of obedience, the faculty of decision. Are you determined in your purpose? Have you the will to do the will? Then, even with half a creed and less than half a pious ecstasy, you are at least in the line of the purpose of Jesus Christ, and as you will to do the will, may come some day to know the teaching.
    ... F. G. Peabody (1847-1936), Mornings in the College Chapel, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1907, p. 201-202 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:21; Isa. 30:20-21; Jer. 31:33-34; Matt. 11:26-27; Mark 4:23; John 10:27; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 11:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, press me towards obedience, that I may learn Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Selden: giving to God

2026-08-17T23:00:49.653-05:00

Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Meditation:
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
    let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
    and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all the peoples see his glory.
    —Psalm 97:1-6 (ESV)
Quotation:
    All things are God’s already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service: just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord’s before as now.
    ... John Selden (1584-1654), Table-Talk [1689], Whitefriars: Davidson, 1821, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 97:1-6; 93:1; 96:10-11; 99:1; Obad. 1:21; Matt. 6:10; Luke 17:7-10; Rev. 11:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You own everything. All my possessions are at Your disposal for the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sundar Singh: how the center stays dry

2026-08-16T23:00:40.117-05:00

Monday, August 17, 2026
Meditation:
    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
    “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
    “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
    lest they see with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart, and turn,
    and I would heal them.”
    —John 12:37-40 (ESV)
Quotation:
    While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh, Friedrich Heiler & Olive Wyon, G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1927, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also John 12:37-40; Isa. 6:9-10; 53:1; Matt. 11:20; 13:3-23; Luke 16:31; John 1:11; 9:39; 15:24; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be instrumental in breaking the hard shell of indifference for those whom You choose. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: God's action, our reaction

2026-08-15T23:00:52.432-05:00

Sunday, August 16, 2026
Meditation:
    And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
    —John 12:44-48 (ESV)
Quotation:
    By a man’s reaction to Jesus Christ, that man stands revealed. By his reaction to Jesus Christ his soul is laid bare. If he regards Christ with love, even with wistful yearning, for him there is hope; but if in Christ he sees nothing lovely he has condemned himself. He who was sent in love has become to the man, judgment.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John, v. 1, Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1965, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also John 12:44-48; Matt. 10:40; Mark 9:37; John 13:20; 1 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I want to see You, my Savior. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: better sermons

2026-08-14T23:00:27.289-05:00

Saturday, August 15, 2026
Meditation:
    Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
    —1 Timothy 4:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... I heard a good man say long since, “Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame, if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.”
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. IV, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1826, p. 24 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 4:13-16; Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2; 77:12; 119:15; Phil. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to ever deeper knowledge of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buchanan: the one New-Testament church

2026-08-13T23:00:58.351-05:00

Friday, August 14, 2026
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
    And I will show you a still more excellent way.
    —1 Corinthians 12:27-31 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The doctrine of the “body” in First Corinthians... is a picture of the local church, [which] is distinguished by a great variety of gifts, outlooks, and cultures. The various members belong organically to each other in Christ, and are to exhibit that harmony practically in their common life. The recognition of how they differ from each other, and are yet one, is to enrich their worship, inspire their ministry, and quicken their love. To divide the local church is... to witness to a divided Christ, or to a discipleship to lesser masters than Christ, such as Paul or Apollos. Both implications are equally unthinkable. There is no New Testament pattern of serving the one Christ, except in one local body, formed by the incorporation given in the one baptism, and the continued life sustained by breaking and sharing the one bread.
    ... C. O. Buchanan (1934-2023), “The Unity of the Church”, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 117-118 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:27-31; Acts 2:42; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17; Gal. 3:26-28; Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant us unity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: laboring for purity

2026-08-12T23:00:07.898-05:00

Thursday, August 13, 2026
    Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
    Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
    Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912
Meditation:
    Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work withyour hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
    —1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment: for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; no easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste, if he could be tempted. But of all employments, bodily labour is the most useful, and of the greatest benefit for driving away the devil.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 4:11-12; Acts 20:33-35; 1 Cor. 4:12; Eph. 4:28; 2 Thess. 3:7-12; Tit. 3:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bless the work of my hands, that it may show the glory of Your mercy to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: praying well

2026-08-11T23:00:07.869-05:00

Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Meditation:
    And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
    —Isaiah 30:20-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622)
    See also Isa. 30:20-21; Gen. 5:24; Ps. 25:8-9; 119:105; Pr. 3:5-6; Isa. 58:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You for Your continual presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: knowing ourselves

2026-08-10T23:00:06.613-05:00

Tuesday, August 11, 2026
    Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253
    Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890
Meditation:
    ... keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
    —1 Peter 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Parochial Sermons, v. 1, New York: D. Appleton, 1843, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 3:16-17; Matt. 4:1; 26:39; 1 Cor. 10:13; Gal. 6:1; Heb. 2:18; 1 Pet. 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I ask forgiveness for my sins. In Your mercy, grant that I may receive a clear conscience, so that may represent the Gospel to Your lost sons and daughters. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: the importance of pride

2026-08-09T23:00:52.262-05:00

Monday, August 10, 2026
    Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258
Meditation:
    Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
    —1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (ESV)
Quotation:
    As Christians, and followers of Jesus, we have not taken pride half seriously enough. But the Devil has. The Devil knows that as long as he can control human pride it does not matter how many prayer meetings, how many services, how much devotion goes on—he can still wreck any group of Christians sooner or later, and frustrate God’s purpose for them; and for the world.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 3:18-20; Isa. 5:21; Rom. 12:16; 1 Cor. 1:18-21; 4:10; 8:1-2; Gal. 6:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I confess my sinful pride and ask that, in Your gracious mercy, You may purge all that pride from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: sin as a misdirection

2026-08-08T23:00:51.438-05:00

Sunday, August 9, 2026
    Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921
Meditation:
    Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
    —Hebrews 3:12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust, not in the living God but in dying men. The unbeliever denies the self-sufficiency of God and usurps attributes that are not his. This dual sin dishonors God and ultimately destroys the soul of the man.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, 1975, p. 42 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 3:12; Gen. 8:21; Jer. 18:21; Lam. 3:17-18; Matt. 17:17; Mark 7:21-23; 16:14; John 20:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I ask that the unbelief of my friends, ____ and ____, may be alleviated in favor of acknowledgement of You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brunner: eternal life

2026-08-07T23:00:07.950-05:00

Saturday, August 8, 2026
    Feast of Dominic, Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers, 1221
Meditation:
    Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
    —Romans 6:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Eternal life is not an unending continuance of this life—that would, perhaps, be Hell—but Eternal Life is quite a different life, divine, not mundane; perfect, not earthly; true life, not corrupt half-life. We cannot form a conception of Eternal Life. What we imagine is ever simply of the earth, temporal, worldly. Nor could we know anything about our eternal life if it had not appeared in Jesus Christ. In him we realize that we were created for the eternal life. If we ask, what is this eternal life? What sense is there in thinking about it if we can have no conception of it?, the answer is, “It is life with God, in God, from God; life in perfect fellowship.” Therefore it is a life in love, it is love itself. It is a life without the nature of death and of sin, hence without sorrow, pain, anxiety, care, misery. To know this suffices to make one rejoice in eternal life. If there were no eternal life, this life of time would be without meaning, goal, or purpose, without significance, without seriousness and without joy. It would be nothing, for what ends in nothing, is itself nothing. That our life does not end in nothing, but that eternal life awaits us, is the glad message of Jesus Christ. He came to give us this promise as a light in this dark world. A Christian is a man who has become certain of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), Our Faith [1936], tr. John William Rilling, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1954, p. 151-152 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:8; John 3:16; 4:13-14; 5:39-40; 10:28-30; 20:27; Rom. 8:37-39; Col. 3:3-4;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my life is hidden in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Davidman: the withering of morality

2026-08-06T23:00:07.248-05:00

Friday, August 7, 2026
    Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866
Meditation:
How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
    How long will mockers delight in mockery
    and fools hate knowledge?
    —Proverbs 1:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The essential amorality of all atheist doctrines is often hidden from us by an irrelevant personal argument. We see that many articulate secularists are well-meaning and law-abiding men; we see them go into righteous indignation over injustice and often devote their lives to good works. So we conclude that “he can’t be wrong whose life is in the right”—that their philosophies are just as good guides to action as Christianity. What we don’t see is that they are not acting on their philosophies. They are acting, out of habit or sentiment, on an inherited Christian ethic which they still take for granted though they have rejected the creed from which it sprang. Their children will inherit somewhat less of it.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1955, reprint, Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p.79 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 1:22; Ps. 10:4; 14:1-3; Pr. 1:7; 27:22; Rom. 1:18-23,28; Eph. 2:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I not be silent before atheism, but speak the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: zeal for souls

2026-08-05T23:00:08.531-05:00

Thursday, August 6, 2026
Meditation:
    A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
    —Matthew 12:35-37 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Let a clergyman but intend to please God in all his actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will know, that there is nothing noble in a clergyman but a burning zeal for the salvation of souls; nor anything poorer in his profession [than] idleness and a worldly spirit.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 19 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:35-37; Pr.11:30; Rom. 11:13-14; 1 Cor. 9:22; 1 Tim. 4:16; Jas. 5:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, inspire Your shepherds to zeal in pleasing You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Theologia Germanica: Christlikeness

2026-08-04T23:00:07.565-05:00

Wednesday, August 5, 2026
    Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642
Meditation:
    For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
    —Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In short: in all his ways and walks, whether as touching his own business, or his dealings with other men, he must keep his heart with all diligence, lest he do aught, or turn aside to aught, or suffer aught to spring up or dwell within him or about him, or let anything be done in him or through him, otherwise than were meet for God, and would be possible and seemly if God Himself were verily made Man.
    ... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous, ascribed to Johannes de Francfordia, (1380?-1440) & Susanna Winkworth, tr., published anonymously by Martin Luther, ch. LII (see the book)
    See also Heb. 4:15; Luke 22:28; Phil. 2:7-8; Heb. 2:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know all that we are tempted by. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baillie: giving thanks for blessings

2026-08-03T23:00:51.287-05:00

Tuesday, August 4, 2026
    Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
Meditation:
    Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
    —2 Corinthians 9:15 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered thy blessing upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater Things for us than Thou ever didst before:
    Making home sweeter and friends dearer:
    Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul’s victory:
    Robbing death of its sting:
    Robbing sin of its power:
Making peace more peaceful and joy more joyful and faith and hope more secure.
Amen.
    ... John Baillie (1886-1960) & Donald M. Baillie (1887-1954), A Diary of Private Prayer, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939, p. 103 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 9:15; Isa. 35:10; 1 Cor. 15:55-57; Tit. 3:4-7; 2 Tim. 1:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Praise be to You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the capacity for meaning

2026-08-02T23:00:05.902-05:00

Monday, August 3, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
    ”‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
    —Matthew 13:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning—just as, if there were no light in the universe, and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know that it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 13:14-15; Ps. 119:69-70; Isa. 29:10-12; 44:20; Matt. 4:16; Luke 11:34-35; John 1:5; 3:19; 2 Thess. 2:9-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your purposes fill the earth with meaning. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: can we pray about them?

2026-08-01T23:00:06.709-05:00

Sunday, August 2, 2026
Meditation:
    When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
    —James 4:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Perhaps there cannot be a better way of judging of what manner of spirit we are of, than to see whether the actions of our life are such as we may safely commend them to God in our prayers.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Perfection [1726], London: W. Baynes, 1807, p. 78 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:3; Job 35:12-13; Ps. 66:18; Prov. 15:8; Zech. 7:12,13; Jas. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me those parts of my life and thoughts that belong not to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the sufferings of God

2026-07-31T23:00:51.458-05:00

Saturday, August 1, 2026
Meditation:
    I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
    —John 17:15-18 (KJV)
Quotation:
    During the last year or so, I have come to appreciate the “worldliness” of Christianity as never before. The Christian is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as Jesus was man... It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. This is what I mean by worldliness—taking life in one’s stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness... How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world?
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Letters and Papers from Prison, London: Macmillan, 1962, p. 226-227 (see the book)
    See also John 17:15-18; Matt. 6:1-7; Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 4:10; Col. 1:24; 1 Pet. 4:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me strength to continue faithfully in the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ignatius of Loyola: personal evangelism

2026-07-30T23:00:28.344-05:00

Friday, July 31, 2026
    Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556
Meditation:
    Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
    —Ephesians 6:11,12 (KJV)
Quotation:
    As the devil showed great skill in tempting men to perdition, equal skill ought to be shown in saving them. The devil studied the nature of each man, seized upon the traits of his soul, adjusted himself to them and insinuated himself gradually into his victim’s confidence—suggesting splendours to the ambitious, gain to the covetous, delight to the sensuous, and a false appearance of piety to the pious—and a master of saving souls ought to act in the same cautious and skillful way.
    ... St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491/5-1556), quoted in Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, Paul Van Dyke, C. Scribner’s Sons, 1927, p. 87 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11-12; Matt. 10:16; Rom. 16:19; 1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 5:15-17; Jas. 3:13-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we know the enemy opposes evangelism. Grant us wisdom in telling the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wilberforce: a false economy

2026-07-29T23:00:33.937-05:00

Thursday, July 30, 2026
    Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
    —Matthew 7:24-27 (KJV)
Quotation:
    It is indeed a most lamentable consequence of the practice of regarding religion as a compilation of statutes, and not as an internal principle, that it soon comes to be considered as being conversant about external actions rather than about habits of mind. This sentiment sometimes has even the hardiness to insinuate and maintain itself under the guise of extraordinary concern for practical religion; but it soon discovers the falsehood of this pretension, and betrays its real nature. The expedient indeed of attaining to superiority in practice, by not wasting any of the attention on the internal principles from which alone practice can flow, is about as reasonable, and will answer about as well, as the economy of the architect, who should account it mere prodigality to expend any of his materials in laying foundations, from an idea that they might be more usefully applied to the rising of the superstructure. We know what would be the fate of such an edific e.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 167 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 6:48-49; 14:28-30; 1 Cor. 3:10-15; Eph. 2:19-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create a strong foundation in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the kingdom of self

2026-07-28T23:00:06.862-05:00

Wednesday, July 29, 2026
    Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord
Meditation:
    Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
    —Matthew 6:16-18 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Many people not only lose the benefit, but are even the worse for their mortifications [i.e., sacrifices, abstensions]. It is because they mistake the whole nature and worth of them. They practice them for their own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them, and look no further, but grow full of a self-esteem, and self-admiration for their own progress in them. This makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all those that fall short of their mortifications.
    And thus their self-denials do only that for them, which indulgences do for other people—they withstand and hinder the operation of God upon their souls; and instead of being really self-denials, they strengthen and keep up the kingdom of self.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 77-78 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:16-18; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 8:8; Col. 2:20-23; Heb. 13:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me humility, that I may please You and lift up my brother. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bergman: art and worship

2026-07-27T23:00:26.401-05:00

Tuesday, July 28, 2026
    Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, musician, 1750
Meditation:
All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your saints shall bless you!
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
    and tell of your power...
    —Psalm 145:10-11 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It is my opinion that art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an umbilical cord... In former days the artist remained unknown and his work was to the glory of God...
    Today the individual has become the highest form and the greatest bane of artistic creation.
    ... Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), The Seventh Seal, Lorrimer, 1984, introduction, p. 8 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 145:10-11; Rom. 1:20-21; Gal. 6:3; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    All beauty is Your beauty, O Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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