The Christian Quotation of the Day

Banning: a Christian vocabulary

2009-11-09T02:00:00.002-06:00

Monday, November 9, 2009
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
    —Luke 17:7-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Too many of us have a Christian vocabulary rather than a Christian experience. We think we are doing our duty when we’re only talking about it.
    ... Charles F. Banning
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, stop my tongue, that I might work profitably in Your Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ramsay: not dogma, but life

2009-11-08T02:00:00.002-06:00

Sunday, November 8, 2009
    Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England
Meditation:
    Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations
    —Revelation 2:25-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was not dogma that moved the world, but life. Frequently, when rival parties and rival nations fought with one another as to which of two opposed dogmas was the truth, they had been arrayed against one another by more deep-seated and vital causes, and merely inscribed at the last the dogmas on their standards or chose them as watchwords or symbols. We are tired of those elaborate discussions of the fine, wire-drawn, subtle distinctions between sects, and those elaborate discussions of the principles involved in heresies, and we desire to see the real differences in life and conduct receive more attention.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939), The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1904, p. 347 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Give Your people strength to persevere, Lord, in the life to which You have led us.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: the greatest sufferer

2009-11-07T02:00:00.002-06:00

Saturday, November 7, 2009
    Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739
Meditation:
    Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.
    —Hebrews 2:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There never was a pain that befell a man, no frustration or discouragement, however insignificant, that, transferred to God, did not affect God endlessly more than man, and was not infinitely more contrary to Him. So, if God puts up with it for the sake of some good He foresees for you, and if you are willing to suffer what God suffers, and to take what comes to you through Him, then whatever it is, it becomes divine in itself; shame becomes honor, bitterness becomes sweet, and gross darkness, clear light. Everything takes its flavor from God and becomes divine; everything that happens [reveals] God when a man’s mind works that way; things all have this one taste; and therefore God is the same to this man alike in life’s bitterest moments and sweetest pleasures.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Works of Meister Eckhart, Watkins, 1952; reprint, Kessinger Publishing, 1997, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know our suffering.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Temple: traveling heavenward

2009-11-06T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 6, 2009
    Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
    —John 14:2-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are travelling heavenwards, we are already in heaven.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Readings in St. John’s Gospel, v. II, London: Macmillan, 1940, p. 228 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are already bringing Your people to our destiny.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Summer: complete Gospel

2009-11-05T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
    —John 3:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Complete Gospel: God loves you.
    Incomplete Gospel: God loves you if...
    ... P. M. Summer, over lunch one day
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our Savior!CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: a prayer for practical wisdom

2009-11-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Meditation:
    “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
    —Malachi 3:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Grant to us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which is worth loving, to praise that which pleaseth Thee most, to esteem that which is most precious unto Thee, and to dislike whatsoever is evil in Thine eyes.
    Grant us with true judgment to distinguish things that differ, and above all to search out and do what is well pleasing unto Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, L.vii, p. 211 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You are the source of all true discernment, Lord.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hooker: Scripture is enough

2009-11-03T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 3, 2009
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
    But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
    —2 Timothy 3:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is in Scripture therefore no defect, but that any man... may have thereby the light of his natural understanding so perfected... that there can want no part of needful instruction unto any good work which God himself requireth.
    ... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600), The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, Oxford: University Press, 1841, p. 271 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your grace, perfect my understanding of Your word.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: mixed motives

2009-11-02T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 2, 2009
    Feast of All Souls
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
    —Matthew 9:38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To some men it is hard seeing a call of God through difficulties; when if it would but clothe itself with a few carnal advantages, how apparent it is to them! They can see it through a little cranny.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. VIII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, Sermon VII, p. 237 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me clarity in Your calling.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: our work

2009-11-01T01:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 1, 2009
    Feast of All Saints
Meditation:
    Now, Lord, [the disciples prayed] consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
    —Acts 4:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. IV, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1826, p. 377 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    May Your power, Lord, enable us to speak boldly.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Studd: Enlist!

2009-10-31T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, October 31, 2009
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
    —Luke 6:43-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism... To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!
    ... C. T. Studd (1860-1931) (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I place my life at Your feet, to direct into the conflict.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: the priorities

2009-10-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, October 30, 2009
    Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546
Meditation:
But I cry to you for help, O LORD;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.
    —Psalms 88:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have so much to do (today) that I should spend the first three hours in prayer.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), attributed (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank you for the privilege of prayer.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: praying with people

2009-10-29T02:00:00.002-05:00

Thursday, October 29, 2009
    Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
    —Psalm 55:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend [Christopher] Smart showed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question... I did not think he ought to be shut up. His infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying with him; and I’d as lief pray with Kit Smart as any.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., v. I [1791], James Boswell, New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858, p. 317-318 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your peace to those who seek You in prayer.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: ask to receive

2009-10-28T02:00:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
    Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles
Meditation:
    This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
    —1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at home; but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need; prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer... So begins a communion, a talking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive; but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God’s end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to His knee, God withholds that man may ask.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Word of Jesus on Prayer”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 72-73 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You show me that all good things come from You.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: why we need to pray

2009-10-27T02:00:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Do not be like [the pagans], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
    —Matthew 6:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We know that the wind blows; why should we not know that God answers prayer?
    I reply, What if God does not care to have you know it at second hand? What if there would be no good in that? There is some testimony on record, and perhaps there might be much were it not that, having to do with things so immediately personal, and generally so delicate, answers to prayer would naturally not often be talked about; but no testimony concerning the thing can well be conclusive; for, like a reported miracle, there is always some way to daff it; and besides, the conviction to be got that way is of little value: it avails nothing to know the thing by the best of evidence... “But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?”
    I answer, What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need—the need of Himself? [Continued tomorrow]
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Word of Jesus on Prayer”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 66-67,72 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Above all, Lord, I need You in my prayer.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: power in prayer

2009-10-26T02:00:00.002-05:00

Monday, October 26, 2009
    Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
    Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664
Meditation:
    But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
    —Jude 20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All outward power that we exercise in the things about us is but a shadow in comparison of that inward power that resides in our will, imagination, and desires; these communicate with eternity and kindle a life which always reaches either Heaven or hell... Here lies the ground of the great efficacy of prayer, which when it is the prayer of the heart, the prayer of faith, has a kindling and creating power, and forms and transforms the soul into everything that its desires reach after: it has the key to the Kingdom of Heaven and unlocks all its treasures; it opens, extends, and moves that in us which has its being and motion in and with the divine nature. and so it brings us into real union and communion with God.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), An Appeal to All that Doubt [1740], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VI, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 134-135 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Spirit, Lord, permits me true prayer.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: prelude to obedience

2009-10-25T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, October 25, 2009
    Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285
Meditation:
    ... Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
    —1 Samuel 15:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late—and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Of God and Men, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1960, p. 55-57 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Goad me, Lord, into true obedience.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Marshall: depending on God

2009-10-24T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
    —John 15:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If your every human plan and calculation has miscarried, if, one by one, human props have been knocked out, and doors have shut in your face, take heart. God is trying to get a message through to you, and the message is: “Stop depending on inadequate human resources. Let me handle the matter.”
    ... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Adventures in Prayer, F.H. Revell, 1975, p. 26 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I depend solely on You.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Muggeridge: the short road to revival

2009-10-23T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, October 23, 2009
Meditation:
    What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
    —1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The early Christians... enjoyed the inestimable advantage of believing that the millennium was near, which precluded them from seeking to establish a beneficent regime in this world. In the time at their disposal, it was just not worth while. Perhaps the best hope of reviving the Christian religion would be to convince the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other dignitaries likewise that the world will shortly be coming to an end. A difficult undertaking, I fear, notwithstanding much evidence pointing that way.
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), The Green Stick, London: Collins, 1972, p. 43 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach us to value that which is permanent.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aristides: the observable testimony

2009-10-22T02:00:00.001-05:00

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
    —John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God. ... And if they hear that one of them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they all give him what he needs—if it is possible, they bail him out.
    If one of them is poor and there isn’t enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs... This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.
    ... Marcianus Aristides (2nd century), a lawyer, before HadrianThe Apology of Aristides on Behalf of the Christians, ed. J. Rendel Harris, Joseph Armitage Robinson, Cambridge: The University Press, 1891, p. 49-50 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your goodness shows forth through Your people.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tertullian: loyalty to God's appointees

2009-10-21T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Meditation:
    Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
    —1 Peter 2:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As to the Emperor and the charge of high treason against us, Caesar’s safety lies not in hands soldered on. We invoke the true God for the Emperor. Even if he persecute us, we are bidden pray for them that persecute us, as you can read in our books which are not hidden, which you often get hold of. We pray for him because the Empire stands between us and the end of the world. We count the Caesars to be God’s vice-regents and swear by their safety (not by their genius, as required). As for loyalty, Caesar really is more ours than yours; for it was our God who set him up. It is for his own good, that we refuse to call the Emperor God; Father of his Country is a better title. No Christian has ever made a plot against a Caesar; the famous conspirators and assassins were heathen, one and all. Piety, religion, faith are our best offering of loyalty.
    ... Tertullian (Quintus S. Florens Tertullianus) (160?-230?), Apology [ca. 193], quoted in The Influence of Christ in the Ancient World, T. R. Glover, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929, p. 34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, improve earthly government for all people.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chapman: the attraction of belonging

2009-10-20T02:00:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Meditation:
    Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
    —1 John 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The sure way to success for any commercial venture is to suggest that those people who buy things from it, or gamble on its terms, are members of a “club,” a “circle.” Study the advertisements in any popular magazine: people are “invited to apply for membership;” “members will receive a catalogue;” they are even offered “rules,” which they gladly accept because the need for authority lies heavily upon them; they then receive a card admitting them to the circle, with the “President’s signature” printed on it. In the need for belonging, the acknowledgement of dependence, may lie the greatest opportunity of the Christian evangelist. It is not unlike the conditions under which the early Church worked. In the later Roman Empire, crumbling under its own size, its communications and resources stretched to the utmost, the mystery-religions came into their own. Rites of initiation, the sharing of secret knowledge, offered to people of all classes an escape from the perplexities of life, a retreat into a closed circle of the elect where they might feel that their transformed personalities had some significance. Who can know how many weary souls there were who strayed into the Church through rumours of a secret rite of purification, of a shared meal that conferred wisdom, and who remained to comprehend the fullness of the Godhead, a belonging greater than they had ever imagined.
    ... Raymond Chapman (b. 1924), The Ruined Tower, London: G. Bles, 1961, p. 110-111 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, nothing can equal belonging to You.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ramsay: how Christianity spread

2009-10-19T02:00:00.002-05:00

Monday, October 19, 2009
    Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812
Meditation:
    Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.
    —Titus 3:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The life of the early Church lay in constant intercommunication between all its parts; its health and growth were dependent on the free circulation of the life-blood of common thought and feeling. Hence it was first firmly seated on the great lines of communication across the empire, leading from its origin in Jerusalem to its imperial center in Rome. It had already struck root in Rome within little more than twenty years after the Crucifixion, and it had become really strong in the great city about thirty years after the Apostles began to look round and out from Jerusalem. This marvelous development was possible only because the seed of the new thought floated free on the main currents of communication, which were ever sweeping back and forward between the heart of the empire and its outlying members. Paul, who mainly directed the great movement, threw himself boldly and confidently into the life of the time; he took the empire as it was, accepted its political conformation and arrangement, and sought only to touch the spiritual and moral life of the people.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939), Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? [1898], Putnam's Sons, 1898, p. 31-32 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your people see Your purpose beyond worldly affairs.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: interpreting the promises spiritually

2009-10-18T02:00:00.002-05:00

Sunday, October 18, 2009
    Feast of Luke the Evangelist
Meditation:
    You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
    —1 Thessalonians 1:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now if all these things were to come to pass, the determined expectation of which caused the Jews to reject Christ,—if he should actually appear, with miraculous splendor, as the restorer of the Jewish nation, and city, and Temple, reigning over the whole world as a great earthly sovereign, and reserving peculiar privileges for his own nation,—if, I say, all these expectations should be fulfilled, to which the Jews have so long and so obstinately clung, surely this would not be so much a conversion of the Jews to Christianity as a conversion of Christians to Judaism; it would not be bringing the Jews to the Gospel by overcoming their national prejudices, but rather carrying back the Gospel to meet the Jewish prejudices; it would be destroying the spiritual character of our religion, and establishing those erroneous views which have hitherto caused the Jews to reject it.
    We may conclude, then, that all the promises and predictions in Scripture relative to the future glories of the Jews and of Jerusalem, are to be understood of the Christian church, of which the Jewish church was a figure; and all that is said of feasting and splendor, and wealth, and worldly greatness and enjoyment, is to be interpreted spiritually of the inward comfort and peace of mind, and “joy of the Holy Ghost,” which is promised to sincere Christians in this life, and of the unspeakable happiness prepared for them after death.
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 158 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit comforts me and strengthens me always.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: heralds of the Sovereign

2009-10-17T02:00:00.002-05:00

Saturday, October 17, 2009
    Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
    —John 10:27-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is abroad today a widespread suspicion that a robust faith in the absolute sovereignty of God is bound to undermine any adequate sense of human responsibility. Such a faith is thought to be dangerous to spiritual health because it breeds a habit of complacent inertia. In particular, it is thought to paralyse evangelism by robbing one both of the motive to evangelize and of the message to evangelize with. The supposition seems to be that you cannot evangelize effectively unless you are prepared to pretend while you are doing it, that the doctrine of divine sovereignty is not true. I shall try to make it evident that this is nonsense. I shall try to show further that, so far from inhibiting evangelism, faith in the sovereignty of God’s government and grace is the only thing that can sustain it, for it is the only thing that can give us the resilience that we need if we are to evangelize boldly and persistently, and not be daunted by temporary setbacks. So far from being weakened by this faith, therefore, evangelism will inevitably be weak and lack staying power without it.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God [1961], Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1991, p. 10 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are Your people's eternal shepherd.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newton: immediacy in the parables

2009-10-16T02:00:00.002-05:00

Friday, October 16, 2009
Meditation:
    After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
    —Luke 10:1,2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I observe that Christ and His forerunner John in their parabolic discourses were wont to allude to things present. The old prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, ... from the vessels of a potter, ... but also, when such objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, ... by shooting, ... etc. By such types the prophets loved to speak. And Christ, being endued with a nobler prophet spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by His own actions, [which would have been] less grave and decent, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. On occasion of the harvest approaching, He admonishes His disciples once and again of the spiritual harvest. Seeing the lilies of the field, He admonishes His disciples about clothing. In allusion to the present season of fruits, He admonishes His disciples about knowing men by their fruits. In the time of the Passover, when trees put forth their leaves, He bids His disciples, “learn a parable from the fig-tree.”
    ... Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Commentary on Daniel, Echo Library, 2007, p. 60, fn. (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know our world perfectly. Send us where we may best be used.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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