The Christian Quotation of the Day

Francis: joy

2026-10-03T23:00:26.886-05:00

Sunday, October 4, 2026
    Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226
Meditation:
    When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
    —Matthew 6:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Study always to have Joy, for it befits not the servant of God to show before his brother or another sadness or a troubled face.
    ... St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), The Mirror of Perfection [c. 1280], tr. Robert Steele, London: J.M. Dent, 1903, p. 141 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:16-18; Mark 2:18; Luke 2:10; 10:21; John 15:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to maintain a cheerful demeanor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the Bible as literature?

2026-10-02T23:00:10.214-05:00

Saturday, October 3, 2026
    Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896
    Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958
Meditation:
    This is what God the LORD says—he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
    “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
    —Isaiah 42:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In most parts of the Bible, everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with “Thus saith the Lord.” It is... not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite—it excludes or repels—the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force... It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long, except to those who go to it for something quite different. I predict that it will in the future be read, as it always has been read, almost exclusively by Christians.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), They Asked for a Paper, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1962, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 42:5-7; 28:16; Hag. 2:6-7; Mark 12:36; 1 Cor. 14:3,22; 1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is both beautiful and powerful. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: reading as an adult

2026-10-01T23:00:10.043-05:00

Friday, October 2, 2026
Meditation:
    For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
    —Colossians 2:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The testimony of the New Testament cannot be lightly disregarded, nor can the claims of Christ be airily dismissed. Many otherwise intelligent people have never read with adult attention either the four Gospels or the Letters of the New Testament. When they so do, to my certain knowledge, they not infrequently become converted. Indeed, I know of no adult who has seriously studied the New Testament and rejected the stories of Christ as mythical or the evidence of changed lives in the Letters as mere fabrication.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God With Us: a Message for Christmas, London: Epworth Press, 1957, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Col. 2:1-3; Acts 4:31; 2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; 13:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I praise You for rescuing me from a life of skepticism and doubt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: new every morning

2026-09-30T23:00:57.522-05:00

Thursday, October 1, 2026
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
    For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
    —1 Corinthians 15:22 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Receive therefore every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account: and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 248-249 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:22; Ps. 8:1; 30:5; 2 Cor. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I praise You and thank You for new life this day. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chadwick: springing the trap

2026-09-29T23:00:37.639-05:00

Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Meditation:
    And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
    —Mark 11:27-33 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Here [Mark 11:27-33] they discerned a flaw, a heresy; and they would force Him either to make a fatal claim, or else to moderate His pretensions at their bidding, which would promptly restore their lost influence and leadership.
    Nor need we shrink from confessing that our Lord was justly open to such reproach, unless He was indeed Divine, unless He was deliberately preparing His followers for that astonishing revelation, soon to come, which threw the Church upon her knees in adoration of her God manifest in flesh.
    ... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also Mark 11:27-33; Matt. 23:21-27; 26:3-4; Luke 20:1-8; 20:40; 22:2; John 5:18; 7:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You come to my heart with truth and power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reid: the language of the Gospel

2026-09-28T23:00:42.759-05:00

Tuesday, September 29, 2026
    Feast of Michael & All Angels
Meditation:
    While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest id eas.)
    Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

    —Acts 17:16-23 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If those who say that we must preach the same message as Paul and the other apostles mean that we should also exhibit the same adaptability and sensitivity to the background culture, then they are right... If, however, they mean that we should expect results merely by repeating the actual phrases found in the New Testament, then they are mistaken. They are making, in fact, one of the basic mistakes in verbal communication, which is to confuse words with what they describe. The gospel is something God has done, not a series of phrases describing it.
    Saying this does not undermine the Christian’s belief in the inspiration of the Bible, for the important thing about the Bible is what it talks about, rather than the way it does the talking. If we considered that there was the same degree of essential inspiration in the way it does the talking, then we would have to insist that every Christian learn Hebrew and Greek. The mere fact that we in the Western world read translations of the scriptures is a clear admission that times and cultures have changed.
    ... Gavin Reid (b. 1934), The Gagging of God, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:16-23; Isa. 28:9-12; Acts 2:7-11; 1 Cor. 14:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak to all people in their own language. Show me what I must do to carry the Gospel to those You have chosen. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Percy: They cast their nets in Galilee

2026-09-27T23:00:51.830-05:00

Monday, September 28, 2026
Meditation:
    As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
    “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
    —Matthew 4:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
They cast their nets in Galilee, just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk, before the Lord came down.
Contented, peaceful fishermen, before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts brimful, and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail, homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net, head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod;
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing—the marvelous peace of God.
    ... William Alexander Percy (1885-1943), Enzio’s Kingdom: and other poems, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 4:18-19; 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; 14:27; Rom. 5:1-2; Phil. 4:7
Quiet time reflection:
    I thank You and praise You for Your victory in the church.

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Bonhoeffer: participate in the sufferings of God

2026-09-26T23:00:42.943-05:00

Sunday, September 27, 2026
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
    Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
    —Colossians 1:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Man is challenged to participate in the sufferings of God at the hands of a godless world.
    He must therefore plunge himself into the life of a godless world, without attempting to gloss over its ungodliness with a veneer of religion or trying to transfigure it. He must live a ‘worldly’ life and so participate in the suffering of God. He may live a worldly life as one emancipated from all false religions and obligations. To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to cultivate some particular form of asceticism (as a sinner, a penitent, or a saint), but to be a man. It is not some religious act which makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Letters and Papers from Prison, London: Macmillan, 1962, p. 174 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:24; Matt. 5:11; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 1:8; Phil. 2:17; 1 Thess. 2:14-16; Heb. 2:18; 5:8-10; 1 Pet. 2:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am Your servant to use in the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: redemptive Christianity

2026-09-25T23:00:52.385-05:00

Saturday, September 26, 2026
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
    —John 3:7-8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It is fatally easy to think of Christianity as something to be discussed and not as something to be experienced. It is certainly important to have an intellectual grasp of the orb of Christian truth; but it is still more important to have a vital, living experience of the power of Jesus Christ. When a man undergoes treatment from a doctor, he does not need to know ... the way in which the drug works on his body in order to be cured. There is a sense in which Christianity is like that. At the heart of Christianity there is a mystery, but it is not the mystery of intellectual appreciation; it is the mystery of redemption.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John, v. 1, Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1965, p. 123 (see the book)
    See also John 3:7-8; Matt. 9:5-6; 16:2-4; Mark 2:17; Luke5:31-32; Acts 2:4,41
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, life is a mystery, yet You are there in the midst of it. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Andrewes: What will move you?

2026-09-24T23:00:36.532-05:00

Friday, September 25, 2026
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
    —Mark 6:34 (ESV)
Quotation:
    What will move you? Will pity? Here is distress never the like. Will duty? Here is a Person never the like. Will fear? Here is wrath never the like. Will remorse? Here are sins never the like. Will kindness? Here is love never the like. Will bounty? Here are benefits never the like. Will all these? Here they be all, ... all in the highest degree.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), preached April 6, 1604, “Sermon on Good Friday”, in Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 154 (see the book)
    See also Mark 6:34; Matt. 5:7; 21:12,13; Luke 6:34,35; 11:37-54
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your mercy is beyond all that I can comprehend. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tournier: personal language

2026-09-23T23:00:52.367-05:00

Thursday, September 24, 2026
Meditation:
    Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
    —Matthew 13:10-13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. In them the Ancients personified living realities—intelligence, beauty, love, or lust, which are still at work in our hearts, and which fashion our person. The language they speak is that of image and myth, which touches the person much more directly than the explicit language of science and the intellectual dialectic of the modern world. It is also the language of the Bible, of the parables of Christ, which the rationalist of today finds it so difficult to understand, of the Word of God which demands of us not a discussion but a personal decision.
    ... Paul Tournier (1898-1986), The Meaning of Persons, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 13:10-13; 25:29; Luke 8:18; John 15:2-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I not shrink from the demands of Your parables. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jowett: right listening

2026-09-22T23:00:34.362-05:00

Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Meditation:
    If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
    —Mark 4:23 (ESV)
Quotation:
    When a man listens to the voice of the tempter within him, he is inclined to do as others do, not to resist when the temptation seems great. But when he looks into the law of God and hears the words of Christ, his natural sense of right and wrong is restored to him, and he becomes elevated, purified, sanctified.
    ... Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), Sermons on Faith and Doctrine, London: John Murray, 1901, p. 259 (see the book)
    See also Mark 4:23; Matt. 11:15; Mark 4:9; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Tim. 4:13; Heb. 2:18; Rev. 2:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Speak Your law into my heart, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: what would Abraham do?

2026-09-21T23:00:06.896-05:00

Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
    They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”
    —John 8:37-40 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Because they were prejudiced against the meanness of our Saviour’s birth and condition, and had upon false grounds (though, as they thought, upon the infallibility of tradition, and of Scripture interpreted by tradition) entertained quite other notions of the Messiah from what he was really to be; because they were proud, and thought themselves too wise to learn of him: and because his doctrine of humility, and self-denial, did thwart their interest, and bring down their authority and credit among the people; therefore they set themselves against him with all their might, opposing his doctrine, and blasting his reputation and persecuting him to the death; and all this while did bear up themselves with a conceit of the antiquity and privileges of their church, and their profound knowledge in the laws of God, and a great external show of piety and devotion, and an arrogant presence and usurpation of being the only church and people of God in the world.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. IV, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon LXXXII, p. 524-525 (see the book)
    See also John 8:37-40; 5:39-40; 16:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, prevent me from using You to my own ends. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: shallow comfort

2026-09-20T23:00:27.021-05:00

Monday, September 21, 2026
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
    —John 7:37-38 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them has run out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God (because that hunger is no ache in our own heart) nor [brought them] anywhere near to the end of self.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also John 7:37-38; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:1-2; 143:6-7; Isa. 26:8-9; 44:3; 59:21; John 4:14; 6:51; Gal. 5:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to point others to the Living Bread and the Living Water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rashdall: following Christ

2026-09-19T23:00:45.111-05:00

Sunday, September 20, 2026
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
    —Matthew 4:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Belief in God through Christ is the most important of all aids to the following of Christ, but (let us never forget) the following is the great thing. To those who, by whatever means they are attracted to Him, really seek to do God’s will as He revealed it, Christ will prove a Saviour—a Saviour from sin, a Saviour from the power of sin here, and from the misery which sin brings with it here and hereafter.
    ... James Hastings Rashdall (1858-1924), Principles and Precepts, Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1927, p. 127 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 4:19; 1:21; 8:19-23; 16:24; 19:21; Mark 1:17; 8:34; 10:21; Luke 5:27-28; 9:23,57-62; 14:27; 18:22; John 1:43; 10:3-4,27; 1 Cor. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I follow You more fully. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: keeping God in his place

2026-09-18T23:00:55.632-05:00

Saturday, September 19, 2026
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”
    —John 3:20-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    I think that most Christians would be better pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely. They want Him to save them, to keep them happy, and to take them off to heaven at last, but not to be too inquisitive about their conduct or services.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), That Incredible Christian, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1964, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also John 3:20-21; Amos 5:10; Luke 11:45; John 7:7; Jas. 1:23-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, shine Your light in the darkest places of my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the only fear

2026-09-17T23:00:10.459-05:00

Friday, September 18, 2026
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
    —John 18:37 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If I mistake, He will forgive me. I do not fear Him; I only fear lest, able to see and write these things, I should fail of witnessing, and myself be, after all, a castaway—no king but a talker; no disciple of Jesus, ready to go with Him to the death, but an arguer about the truth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Kingship”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 104 (see the book)
    See also John 18:37; 7:17; 8:47; 1 Pet. 1:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me true discipleship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: shrinking from health

2026-09-16T23:00:35.013-05:00

Thursday, September 17, 2026
    Feast of St. Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”
    —Mark 2:9-11 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The more we fear crosses, the more reason we have to think that we stand in need of them: let us not be dejected when the hand of God layeth heavy ones upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes us. It is a great argument of our wretchedness and of God’s mercy, that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery, He vouchsafes to undertake our cure.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Pious Reflections for Every Day in the Month, London: H. D. Symonds, 1800, p. 33-34 (see the book)
    See also Mark 2:9-11; Gen. 18:14; Ps. 41:4; 147:3; Hos. 14:4; Matt. 9:12-13; 17:20; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31; 14:27; Phil. 3:21; 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You are the Messiah, the great Physician. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: the grace of patience

2026-09-15T23:00:06.536-05:00

Wednesday, September 16, 2026
    Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258
    Commemoration of Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts, c. 430
    Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, tractarian, 1882
Meditation:
    May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
    —Colossians 1:11-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We have need of patience with ourselves and with others; with those below and those above us, and with our own equals; with those who love us, and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under daily burdens; [against] disappointments as to the weather or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others’ failure towards us; in every day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of old age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart, or its sickness amid delayed hopes... In all these things, from childhood’s little troubles to the martyr’s sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Parochial Sermons, v. II, London: Rivingtons, 1868, p. 80-81 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:11-12; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:3-5; 2 Cor. 12:9-10; Eph. 4:2; 2 Tim. 2:3; Heb. 12:1-2; Jas. 1:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, add patience to Your gifts to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lindskoog: society or humanity

2026-09-14T23:00:44.536-05:00

Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Meditation:
“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
You will rule them with an iron scepter;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
    —Psalm 2:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ did not die for society, but for humanity.
    ... Kathryn Lindskoog (1934-2003), C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian, Glendale, Cal.: G/L Publications, 1973, reprint, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1981, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 2:8-12; 22:27; Isa. 11:1-5,10; John 3:16-17; Rom. 8:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the nations groan to know Your rule. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Francis: temptation

2026-09-13T23:00:57.277-05:00

Monday, September 14, 2026
    Feast of the Holy Cross
Meditation:
    Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
    —James 1:2-4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.
    ... Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), quoting St. Francis, The Little Flowers of St. Francis, London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1912, p. 106,113 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 1:2-4; Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1-2; Heb. 2:10,18; 1 Pet. 1:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I do not greet trials with joy. May You straighten my heart out so that this Scripture becomes true in me as well. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. John Chrysostom: the nature of resurrection

2026-09-12T23:00:44.276-05:00

Sunday, September 13, 2026
    Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407
Meditation:
    It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
    —1 Corinthians 15:44 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life. These are words by which the slanderers of the nature of the body, the impeachers of our flesh, are completely overthrown... We do not wish to cast aside the body, but corruption: not the flesh, but death. The body is one thing, corruption another; the body is one thing, death another... What is foreign to us is not the body but corruptibility.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407), from On the Resurrection of the Dead, quoted in The New Christian Year, Charles Williams, London: Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:44; 15:54; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; Eph. 4:22-24; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rejoice in the life You have given me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browne: alms: charity or self-interest

2026-09-11T23:00:07.918-05:00

Saturday, September 12, 2026
Meditation:
    For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.
    —2 Corinthians 9:12-14 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If we are directed only by our particular natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but moralists; Divinity will still call us heathens. Therefore this great work of charity must have other motives, ends, and impulsions. I give no alms to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfil and accomplish the will and command of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoined it; I relieve no man upon the rhetoric of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition, for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than reason.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Religio Medici [1643], W. Murison, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1922, II.2, p. 85-86 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 9:12-14; Matt. 5:42; 2 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 13:16; 1 John 3:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear Your word and obey with my alms. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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White: by small steps

2026-09-10T23:00:48.576-05:00

Friday, September 11, 2026
Meditation:
    And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
    When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
    —2 Kings 22:8-13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Our faith and our friendships are not shattered by one big act, but by many small neglects.
    ... J. Gustav White (1881-1979) (see the book)
    See also 2 Kings 22:8-13; Luke 11:42; Rom. 12:6-8,12; 2 Cor. 9:6; 1 John 4:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my negligence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Niebuhr: the sociology of denominations

2026-09-09T23:01:49.504-05:00

Thursday, September 10, 2026
Meditation:
    I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.
    —1 Timothy 5:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The denominations, churches, sects, are sociological groups whose principle of differentiation is to be sought in their conformity to the order of social classes and castes. It would not be true to affirm that the denominations are not religious groups with religious purposes; but it is true that they represent the accommodation of religion to the caste system. They are emblems, therefore, of the victory of the world over the church, of the secularization of Christianity, of the church’s sanction of that divisiveness which the church’s gospel condemns.
    ... H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), The Social Sources of Denominationalism, Hamden, Conn.: Holt, 1929, reprint, Meridian Books, 1960, p. 25 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 5:21; Matt. 23:8; John 17:20-21; 1 Cor. 1:11-13; Eph. 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can unite Your people. We pray for the healing of divisions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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