The Christian Quotation of the Day

Tillotson: a new commandment

2010-03-16T02:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Meditation:
    If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
    —1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Are we not all members of the same Body and partakers of the same Spirit and heirs of the same blessed hope of eternal life?
    ... Why do we not, as becomes brethren, dwell together in unity? but are so apt to quarrel and break out into heats, to crumble into sects and parties, to divide and separate from one another upon every trifling occasion.
    Give me leave... in the name of our dear Lord ... to recommend to you this new commandment of his, that ye love one another. Which is almost a new commandment still, and hardly the worse for wearing; so seldom is it put on, and so little hath it been practised among Christians.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. II, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon XX, p. 247-248 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we long for You to bring about the love among the fellowship that You commanded. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: treatment for modern demons

2010-03-15T02:00:00.000-05:00

Monday, March 15, 2010
Meditation:
    As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
    —Acts 5:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I wonder how often the spiritual cure of faith in the Son of Man, the Great Healer, has been tried on those possessed with our modern demons. Is it proved that insanity has its origin in the physical disorder which, it is now said, can be shown to accompany it invariably? Let it be so; it yet appears to me that if the physician would, like the Son of Man himself, descend as it were into the disorganized world in which the consciousness of his patient exists, and receiving as fact all that he reveals to him of its condition—for fact it is, of a very real sort—introduce, by all means that sympathy can suggest, the one central cure for evil, spiritual and material, namely, the truth of the Son of Man, the vision of the perfect friend and helper, with the revelation of the promised liberty of obedience—if he did this, it seems to me that cures might still be wrought as marvelous as those of the ancient time.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), David Elginbrod, vol. 2 [1863], Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1871, p. 239-240 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your authority over all human conditions is absolute. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: the consequences of using money

2010-03-14T03:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, March 14, 2010
Meditation:
    Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them." They went out and preached that people should repent.
    —Mark 6:7-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Another age may learn to look upon our use of activities much as we look upon the use of the sword by an earlier age. Because in them money takes so prominent a place, ours may one day be known as the age of financial Christianity, just as we look upon that earlier age as the age of military Christianity. As we regard the sword so a later age may regard money. It may learn the wisdom of the Apostle and decline to use such an ambiguous weapon. If the sword was an ambiguous weapon which might easily confuse the issue, money and activities which depend upon money, are not less ambiguous and may as easily confuse the issue. The time is not yet full. We have yet to learn the consequences of our use of money.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Mission Activities [1927], included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 109 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a missionary where I am now. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Joad: an excluded category

2010-03-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, March 13, 2010
Meditation:
    I tell you this [about riches in Christ] so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
    —Colossians 2:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The fact that a belief is subjectively determined does not mean that it is untrue; it may be a rationalization of our wishes and may, nevertheless, be in accordance with the evidence. Sometimes we are in the fortunate position of knowing that this is so. We may hold a belief to be true because we wish it to be true, and we may at a later date gratefully acknowledge that the evidence is strongly in its favour. It is by no means to be taken for granted that religious beliefs do not fall within this category. I make this point because many people argue as if it were sufficient to show that our religious beliefs are rationalizations, ... in order to disprove them; as if the fact that religious beliefs fulfilled our wishes and comforted our feelings was in itself a reason for supposing them to be false.
    ... C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), God and Evil, New York: Harper, 1943, p. 228 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, rid my mind of all controversies concerning You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ambrose: the rules of art

2010-03-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, March 12, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”
    “The son of David,” they replied.
    He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”
    —Matthew 22:42-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Very many deny that the Sacred writers wrote according to the rules of art. Nor do we contend for the contrary; for they wrote not according to art, but according to grace, which is above all art; for they wrote that which the Spirit gave them to speak. And yet they who wrote on art made use of their writings from which to frame their art, and to compose its comments and rules.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (339-397), letter to Justus, A.D. 381, The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Oxford, J. Parker, 1881, p. 27 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed beauty of language in Your word that we may recognize the marks of Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Freeman: not even among the heathen

2010-03-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, March 11, 2010
Meditation:
    Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
    He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.
    —Mark 6:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The shameful apostasy of Israel is unparalleled among the heathen nations of the world, God charges (Jer. 2:9-13). Search through every pagan nation, inquire in every idol temple, investigate the religious life of the idolaters of the world, and there will be found a fidelity to these false gods that will put Israel’s unfaithfulness to her God to shame. Israel’s conduct was unheard of even among the heathen. The idolatrous nations remained true to their gods, in spite of the fact that they did not actually exist and could not help them in any way. God, as it were, marvels at Israel’s unbelief.
    ... Hobart E. Freeman (1920-1984), An Introduction to the O. T. Prophets, Chicago: Moody Press, 1968, p. 238 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith that I may believe and repent. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: all things possible

2010-03-10T02:00:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Meditation:
    Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
    —Jeremiah 32:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If all things are possible with God, then all things are possible to him who believes in him.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), Sermons on Several Occasions, v. II, New York: Carlton & Phillips, 1855, p. 446 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have performed a miracle within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: on being cut off

2010-03-09T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Meditation:
    I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
    —Lamentations 3:19-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I get not my feasts without some mixture of gall; neither am I free of old jealousies; for he hath removed my lovers and friends far from me; he hath made my congregation desolate, and taken away my crown; and my dumb sabbaths are like a stone tied to a bird’s foot, that wanteth not wings; they seem to hinder my flight, were it not that I dare not say one word, but “Well done, Lord Jesus.”
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Feb. 20, 1637, p. 192-193 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I will wait on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Studdert Kennedy: reason grows in faith

2010-03-08T02:00:00.000-06:00

Monday, March 8, 2010
    Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
Meditation:
    Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
    —Amos 5:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The faculty of faith is not meant to kill the faculty of criticism and the instinct of curiosity, but rather to keep them keen and alive, and prevent them dying of despair. Faith is the mark of those who seek and keep on seeking, who ask and keep on asking, who knock and keep on knocking, until the door is opened. The passive, weak-kneed taking of everything on trust which is often presented as faith is a travesty of its truth. True faith is the most active, positive, and powerful of all virtues. It means that a man, having come into spiritual communion with that great personal Spirit Who lives and works behind the universe, can trust Him, and, trusting Him, can use all his powers of body, mind, and spirit to cooperate with Him in the great purpose of perfection; it means that the man of faith will be the man of science in its deepest, truest sense, and will never cease from asking questions, never cease from seeking for the reason that lies behind all mysteries.
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Hardest Part, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919, p. 83-84 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace enables me to know You better. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the God of good

2010-03-07T02:00:00.000-06:00

Sunday, March 7, 2010
    Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
Meditation:
    And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD'S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
    —Deuteronomy 10:12-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There were in the eighteenth century terrible theologians who held that “God did not command certain things because they are right, but certain things are right because God commanded them.” To make the position perfectly clear, one of them even said that though God has, as it happens, commanded us to love Him and one another, He might equally well have commanded us to hate Him and one another, and hatred would then have been right. It was apparently a mere toss-up which He decided on. Such a view of course makes God a mere arbitrary tyrant. It would be better and less irreligious to believe in no God and to have no ethics than to have such an ethics and such a theology as this.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Reflections on the Psalms, Edinburgh: James Thin, 1958; G. Bles, 1958, p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your are good, and You have rejected evil. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: answering prayer

2010-03-06T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Meditation:
    Then [the other criminal crucified with him] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
    Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
    —Luke 23:42-43 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), The Life and Remains, Letters, Lectures, and Poems of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar, New York: R. Carter, 1866, p. 168 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your provision has exceeded my wants as the ocean exceeds a drop of water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. John: from the ashes

2010-03-05T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, March 5, 2010
Meditation:
    By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 3:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
... stooping very low, He engraves with care
His Name, indelible, upon our dust,
And, from the ashes of our self-despair,
Kindles a flame of hope and humble trust.
He seeks no second site on which to build,
But on the old foundation, stone by stone,
Cementing sad experience with grace,
Fashions a stronger temple of His own.
    ... Patricia St. John (1919-1993), from “The Alchemist”, in Patricia St. John Tells Her Own Story, Kingsley Press, 2004, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have founded Your temple in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barna: the lack of zeal

2010-03-04T02:00:00.000-06:00

Thursday, March 4, 2010
    Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Meditation:
    Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
    —Galatians 1:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It occurred to me that in our work with secular organizations, the leader shapes the heart and passion of the corporate entity. In our work with non-profit organizations, we have found the same principle to be operative. When it comes to the focus of the organization, the people who serve there tend to take on many of the core personality traits of the leader toward fulfilling the mandate of the organization. If this is true, and most churches seem to lack the fervor and focus for evangelism, is it reasonable to conclude that it may be because of the lack of zeal most pastors have for identifying, befriending, loving and evangelizing non-Christian people?
    ... George Barna (b. 1955), Evangelism that Works, Gospel Light Pubns., 1995, Regal Books, 1995 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your people that we may each take the Gospel to the world to which we are called. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: light in the darkness

2010-03-03T02:00:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Meditation:
    Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
    —John 12:35-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Light shines in the darkness, there we are aware of it. What good is light or learning unless people can enjoy it? In darkness, in suffering, they shall see the light.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Works of Meister Eckhart, London: J. M. Watkins, 1924, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust You as the only source of light for my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: voluntary clergy

2010-03-02T02:00:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
    Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Meditation:
    For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.
    —2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Clerics often say that if voluntary clergy were admitted, the laity would cease to support stipendiary clergy, and that they would say, “We can get clergy for nothing, why should we pay for them?” That argument suggests that the laity do not want stipendiary clergy and must be compelled to have them against their will. Whatever truth there may be in it, and it is a very serious indictment of the present stipendiary clergy as a body, one thing is certain: we cannot make people want what they do not want by compelling them to pay for it.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Case for Voluntary Clergy, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 149 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made your Gospel completely free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Demant: original sin

2010-03-01T02:00:00.000-06:00

Monday, March 1, 2010
    Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
Meditation:
    For if you possess these qualities [faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness, love] in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
    —2 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Original sin ... is that which makes us paint in white and black the relative good we do and the evil we combat; it is that which sends us corporately from one false absolute to its dialectical opposite; it is that which moves us to fight for our prejudices as if we were fighting for God, or else to contract out of decision in the world unless we can envisage the choice as having unconditional divine warrant; it is that which bids us attribute others’ evil to their free will and our own to the pressure of circumstances.
    ... V. A. Demant (1893-1983), The Religious Prospect, London: F. Muller, 1941, p. 226 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Reach out, Lord, to your people who are caught in the moral ambiguity of this world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the purpose for decline

2010-02-28T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, February 28, 2010
Meditation:
    Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”
    —Zechariah 3:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
Well may this body poorer, feebler grow!
It is undressing for its last sweet bed;
But why should the soul, which death shall never know,
Authority, and power, and memory shed?
It is that love with absolute faith would wed;
God takes the inmost garments off his child,
To have him in his arms, naked and undefiled.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Diary of an Old Soul, London: by the author, 1880; Arthur C. Fifield, 1905, p. 59 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long for the day that sin shall depart from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: the definition of a minister

2010-02-27T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, February 27, 2010
    Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633
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:
    A pastor is the deputy of Christ for the reducing of man to the obedience of God. This definition is evident, and contains the direct steps of pastoral duty and authority. For, first, man fell from God by disobedience. Secondly, Christ is the glorious instrument of God for the revoking of man. Thirdly, Christ being not to continue on earth, but, after He had fulfilled the work of reconciliation, to be received up into heaven, He constituted deputies in His place; and these are priests. And therefore St. Paul, in the beginning of his epistles, professeth this; and in the [letter] to the Colossians [1:24] he plainly avoucheth, that he “fills up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, for His body’s sake, which is the church.” Wherein is contained the complete definition of a minister.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Priest to the Temple [1632], London: H. Washbourne, 1842, p. 1-2 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have provided pastors for Your sheep. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: true selflessness

2010-02-26T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, February 26, 2010
Meditation:
    You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
    —James 4:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [God] wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. [He] wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour’s talents—or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things... When they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Screwtape Letters, Macmillan, 1944, p. 73 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Grant, Lord, that I may find peace in humility. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nida: translation pitfalls

2010-02-25T02:00:00.000-06:00

Thursday, February 25, 2010
Meditation:
    It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.”
    —Genesis 31:49 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In one language of East Africa, missionaries have been saying for more than fifty years, “The Lord be with thy spirit,” but they never realized until recently that, because of subtle grammatical distinctions, this important benediction actually implied, “Yes, the Lord be with your spirit, for we don’t want him.” When this fact was discovered, the missionaries protested to their native brethren and demanded [to know] why they would permit missionaries to go on making such a mistake for so many years. The only reply from the natives was that the missionaries were in the habit of saying a good many strange things, and since the missionaries all agreed in making the mistake, it must have been true, regardless of the strange implications. But this is scarcely [more] incongruous than the manner in which we have taken the Mizpah declaration, “The Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from the other” [Gen. 31:49], and have twisted it from its original context in which two jealous, cheating men called upon God for protection one from the other, and have appropriated it as a request for mutual blessings and benefits.
    ... Eugene A. Nida (b. 1914), God’s Word in Man’s Language, Harper, 1952, p. 18 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Grant, Lord, that Your people shall deal honestly with one another. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John of the Cross: the gate

2010-02-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Meditation:
    My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
    —Colossians 2:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ, “In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attain them, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket of suffering, enduring interior and exterior labors, and unless it first receives from God very many blessings in the intellect and in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.
    The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), from the commentary, The Spiritual Canticle, XXXVII.4, XXXVI.13 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I seek only Your cross. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John of the Cross: the richest treasure

2010-02-23T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory...
    —Romans 9:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Though holy doctors have uncovered many mysteries and wonders, and devout souls have understood them in this earthly condition of ours, yet the greater part still remains to be unfolded by them, and even to be understood by them. We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig, we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), from the commentary, The Spiritual Canticle, XXXVII.4 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have more riches of glory for those who follow You, and more beside. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: praying for laborers

2010-02-22T02:00:00.000-06:00

Monday, February 22, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.”
    —John 4:35-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is true that [people] are praying for a worldwide revival. But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Eternal Punishment, Swengel, Pa. : Bible Truth Depot, 1951, Introduction (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, call out Your people, that the world may be saved. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Unbelief.com

2010-02-21T19:54:00.004-06:00

        A significant part of the price of faith is the loss of one’s illusions. Naturally, this comes in some measure to most adults at some time in life. But for believers, it is a signal event (or process, since it seldom happens all at once). In particular, one who places faith in Christ finally comes to give up all hope of saving himself, knowing it to be a vain and empty ambition, regardless the vehicle, i.e., culture, career, church, or character. It cannot happen, and it will not happen. We rely entirely on God’s grace. The sooner one faces that, the better.
        That train of thought was stimulated last week by seeing a web site that invites people to post videos of their confessions of unbelief. Blasphemies abound on these videos, as one might expect, and some people have posted videos that feature explicit denial of the Holy Spirit, presumably the “unforgivable sin.” At the end of one such, the subject, a teenage girl, expressed her contempt by saying, “See ya in hell.” The originator of the web site, named something like “Blasphemy Contest”, explains that he is providing a place for people, particularly young people, to throw off the bondage of oppressive religion. Setting aside the preponderance of monkey-business and fatuous jokes, there is no doubt that it does work in that way, to some extent.
        The site itself caused a modest uproar among Christian spokesmen and the media, three years ago when it first emerged. All the fire and smoke has long since passed, of course, but I wonder if Christian leaders heard the message. Illusions must be discarded along the path that follows Christ. One of those illusions is that religious belief and practice saves. It is one of the most common myths of childhood: follow the dictates of your family’s religion or you will go to hell. Even, and perhaps especially, when the parents are evangelical Christians, young people often acquire this myth at an early age. The reason is that it maps well to typical early training. The child’s behavior is first controlled through a rewards-and-punishment system, from the earliest experiences of life. So, when one first learn about God, the natural response is to press what is known of the cosmic organization into this rewards-and-punishment framework. Since culture very often reinforces this view, it is not surprising that this nascent works salvation ideal is very widespread.
        Perhaps none of us are entirely free of it even at mature age: God, the hair-splitting accountant, watches our every move, noting our merits and demerits with pristine and indelible precision, and our job is to make the merits outweigh the demerits. Half an hour with the book of Romans ought to be enough to disabuse us of this illusion. But, like the “old” man that still haunts us, we carry around the myth of works salvation because we want to accomplish something. It enables us to feel good about ourselves when we need it from time to time.
        While some Christians were aghast at the unbelief web site, I drew the tiniest degree of comfort from it. Here, at least, were some people who have definitively rejected false religion. Having denied the myths of childhood, perhaps they will now be open to the true Gospel and able to receive the genuine love and grace of God, which is through Jesus Christ. I am not saying that I think blasphemy is a good idea (although truth be told, in blaspheming a false religion, it is hard to see how anyone is any worse off). I am saying that the god of the religious myth is no true god. Rejecting that god is a good thing. Of course, many will stop right there, but for some it might be a step towards discovering the God Who is there. That alone should define for us a strategy for reaching those lost souls and perhaps many more: preach Christ and Christ alone. Forget worldview (it is as wrong as one’s remaining illusions). Forget the myth. Forget the dos and don’ts, the musts and mustn’ts, the shoulds and shouldn’ts. It is the person of Jesus that alone is the starting place for faith and salvation. He is calling people from every background and persuasion.
        No illusions.

Runyan: Lord, I have shut the door

2010-02-21T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, February 21, 2010
Meditation:
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
—Matthew 6:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
Lord, I have shut the door, speak now the word
Which in the din and throng could not be heard;
Hushed now my inner heart, whisper Thy will,
While I have come apart, while all is still.

In this blest quietness clamorings cease;
Here in Thy presence dwells infinite peace;
Yonder, the strife and cry, yonder, the sin:
Lord, I have shut the door, Thou art within!

Lord, I have shut the door, strengthen my heart;
Yonder awaits the task—I share a part.
Only through grace bestowed may I be true;
Here, while alone with Thee, my strength renew.
... William M. Runyan, [1923]The Complete Book of Hymns, William J. Petersen, ed., Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006, p. 574 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Speak, Lord, for I am listening.

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