The Christian Quotation of the Day

Law: Love one another

2012-06-04T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, June 4, 2012
Meditation:
    [God] has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
    —2 Corinthians 1:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching Him to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with His providence, enlighten them with His Spirit, and bring them to everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in.
    Be daily therefore on your knees, in a solemn, deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and earnestness, as you use for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others, as you used only to delight in your own...
    It was this holy intercession that raised Christians to such a state of mutual love, as far exceeded all that had been praised and admired in human friendship. And when the same spirit of intercession is again in the world, when Christianity has the same power over the hearts of people, that it then had, this holy friendship will be again in fashion, and Christians will be again the wonder of the world, for that exceeding love which they bear to one another.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 413 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I invest my heart in those You would have me pray for. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the burden of sin

2012-06-03T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, June 3, 2012
    Trinity Sunday
    Feast of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, Teacher, 1910
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Uganda, 1886 & 1978
Meditation:
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
    and wickedness as with cart ropes...
    —Isaiah 5:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I do not understand how a man can be a sincere believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden and sorrow.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), I.4 in The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded [1681], in Works of John Owen, v. VII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 333 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cast my burden upon You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: the evangelical principle

2012-06-02T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, June 2, 2012
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
    —1 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christianity is not the sacrifice we make, but the sacrifice we trust; not the victory we win, but the victory we inherit. That is the evangelical principle.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), The Justification of God, Duckworth, 1916, London: Independent Press, 1957, p. 220 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are Your heirs in salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kirk: the decline of the deacons

2012-06-01T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, June 1, 2012
    Feast of Justin, Martyr at Rome, c.165
    Commemoration of Angela de Merici, Founder of the Institute of St. Ursula, 1540
Meditation:
    In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
    This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
    —Acts 6:1-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This service—helping at the tables for the poor—has been clericalized into service at the liturgical altar.
    ... David Kirk (1935-2007), Quotations from Chairman Jesus, Springfield, Ill.: Templegate Publishers, 1969, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, restore a heart of charity in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: what He is doing

2012-05-31T02:00:00.001-05:00

Thursday, May 31, 2012
Meditation:
    Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
    —Luke 9:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The more earnestly you are at work for Jesus, the more you need times when what you are doing for Him passes totally out of your mind, and the only thing worth thinking of seems to be what He is doing for you.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Twenty Sermons, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1887, p. 234 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I abandon myself to You in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: the center of prayer

2012-05-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
    Feast of Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906
    Commemoration of Joan of Arc, Visionary, 1431
    Commemoration of Apolo Kivebulaya, Priest, Evangelist, 1933
Meditation:
    One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
    —Luke 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the beginning we are indeed the subject and the center of our prayers. But in God’s time and in God’s way a Copernican revolution takes place in our heart. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, there is a shift in our center of gravity. We pass from thinking of God as part of our life to the realization that we are part of his life. Wondrously and mysteriously God moves from the periphery of our prayer experience to the center.
    ... Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 15 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me of Yourself in my prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the fellowship needs the weak

2012-05-29T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Meditation:
    On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
    —1 Corinthians 12:22-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 95-96 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable each to cherish all who are in the Body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: popularity

2012-05-28T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, May 28, 2012
    Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Meditation:
    If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
    —Galatians 6:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Popularity is the most dangerous spiritual state imaginable, since it leads one so easily to the spiritual pride which drowns men in perdition. It is a symptom to be watched with anxiety since so often it has been purchased at the too heavy price of compromise with the world.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), in The Record, 28 March, 1947, p. 161 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the Spirit of humility ever rule me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Auden: the miracle of Pentecost

2012-05-27T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, May 27, 2012
    Pentecost
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
    —Acts 2:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is extraordinary that sects of religious enthusiasts, from the Montanists down to the Catholic Apostolics, should have imagined that to make verbal noises which nobody else could understand was evidence of Divine Inspiration, a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost was exactly the opposite, the miracle of instantaneous translation—everybody could understand when everybody else was saying.
    ... W. H. Auden (1907-1973), A Certain World, London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 170 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, with You there are no barriers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the Gospel is free

2012-05-26T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, May 26, 2012
    Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605
    Commemoration of Arthur John Gossip, spiritual writer, 1954
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
    —Matthew 24:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No doubt the gospel is quite free, as free as the Victoria Cross, which anyone can have who is prepared to face the risks; but it means time, and pains, and concentrating all one’s energies upon a mighty project. You will not stroll into Christlikeness with your hands in your pockets, shoving the door open with a careless shoulder. This is no hobby for one’s leisure moments, taken up at intervals when we have nothing much to do, and put down and forgotten when our life grows full and interesting... It takes all one’s strength, and all one’s heart, and all one’s mind, and all one’s soul, given freely and recklessly and without restraint. This is a business for adventurous spirits; others would shrink out of it. And so Christ had a way of pulling up would-be recruits with sobering and disconcerting questions, of meeting applicants, breathless and panting in their eagerness, by asking them if they really thought they had the grit, the stamina, the gallantry, required. For many, He explained, begin, but quickly become cowed, and slink away, leaving a thing unfinished as a pathetic monument of their own lack of courage and of staying power.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 230-231 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people strength to persevere. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: reservations from God

2012-05-25T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, May 25, 2012
    Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
    Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709
Meditation:
    Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
    —1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we look carefully within ourselves, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we refuse to go in offering ourselves to [God]. We hover around these reservations, making believe not to see them, for fear of self-reproach... The more we shrink from giving up any such reserved point, the more certain it is that it needs to be given up. If we were not fast bound by it, we should not make so many efforts to persuade ourselves that we are free.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Selections from Fénelon, ed. Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston: Roberts Bros., 1879, p. 61-62 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me what I must yield to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: preaching in the field

2012-05-24T02:00:00.001-05:00

Thursday, May 24, 2012
    Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788
Meditation:
    To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
    —1 Corinthians 9:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which [Whitfield] set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church.
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), entry for March 29, 1739, Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, v. I, London: J. Kershaw, 1827, p. 177 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are calling Your people to spread the gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dodd: the pedagogue

2012-05-23T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, May 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
    —Galatians 3:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “The Law,” he says, “was our ‘pedagogue’, until Christ should come.” Those words have been interpreted as though they described the Law as a preparatory education, continued at a higher stage by Christ. That, however, is not quite what Paul meant. The “pedagogue” in Greek society was not a schoolmaster, he did not give lessons... He was a slave who accompanied a boy to school, and both waited upon him and exercised a supervision which interfered with the boy’s freedom of action. He is, in fact, a figure in the little allegory which Paul gives us to illustrate the position of the People of God before Christ came. There was a boy left heir to a great estate. He was a minor, and so must have guardians and trustees. He was as helpless in their hands as if he had been a slave. He must live on the allowance they gave him, and follow their wishes from day to day. They gave him a “pedagogue” to keep him out of mischief. He could not please himself, or realize his own purposes and ambitions. Yet all the time he was the heir; the estate was his, and no one else’s. Just so the People of God, the Divine Commonwealth, was cramped and fettered by ignorance and evil times. It remained in uneasy expectation of one day coming into active existence. At last the heir came of age: guardians and trustees abdicated their powers, and the grown man possessed in full realization all that was his. So now the fettered life of the Divine Commonwealth bursts its bonds and comes into active existence... The intervention of law was not a reversal of God’s original and eternal purpose of pure love and grace towards men, it only subserved that purpose, while it seemed to contradict it, just as the presence of the “pedagogus” might seem to the high-spirited young heir quite contrary to the rights secured to him by his father’s will.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 79-80 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your will is now revealed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: bearing failings with patience

2012-05-22T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Meditation:
    No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
    —1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you have failings, ask God often whether it be His honour and pleasure to take them away from you; for without Him you can do nothing. If he takes them away, thank Him; but if He does not do that, you will bear it no more, however, as the defect of a sin, but as a great trial with which you are to gain merit and practice patience. You should be content, whether or not He accords you His gift.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Works of Meister Eckhart, London: J. M. Watkins, 1924, p. 39 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the patience to bear my trials. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: the object of our desires

2012-05-21T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, May 21, 2012
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
    —Leviticus 26:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God Himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall there [in the city of God] be its reward; for, as there is nothing greater or better, He has promised Himself. What else was meant by His word through the prophet, “I will be your God, and ye shall be my people,” than, I shall be their satisfaction, I shall be all that men honorably desire,—life, and health, and nourishment, and plenty, and glory, and honor, and peace, and all good things? This, too, is the right interpretation of the saying of the apostle, “That God may be all in all.” He shall be the end of our desires who shall be seen without end, loved without cloy, praised without weariness.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), The City of God, v. II, Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. 2 of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1871, XXII.30, p. 541 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the sole object of our hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: idolatry

2012-05-20T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, May 20, 2012
Meditation:
    When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
    —Colossians 3:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Idolatry is... all manner of devotion in those that would serve God without Christ the Mediator, his Word and command. In [the Roman Catholic world] it was held a work of the greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of God, and of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their knees, praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial objects, with such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their conceits, they banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is temporal and evanescent. They seemed to meditate only on God, and his wonderful works. Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the wit and wisdom of man holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table-Talk [1566], CLXXI (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must depend on You alone. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: Consecration of the House

2012-05-19T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, May 19, 2012
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
    —Hebrews 3:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
Consecrated brethren, we who keep our confidence,
We who learn from Jesus the obedience of our Lord,
We are house and household for the coming Prince of Glory,
Holding fast our hope in full reliance on His Word.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985) (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your faithfulness is my example. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Saphir: the house left desolate

2012-05-18T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, May 18, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
    —Matthew 23:37-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Israel had another house besides Jerusalem [which was destroyed and the nation dispersed]. It was not merely their national existence, but there was another habitation which God had given unto them—the habitation of the word of God. Their house is left unto them desolate. They are still reading Moses and the prophets; they are still familiar with the outward form of the Word; but the house is desolate. They read the Bible, but the Master of the house is not seen by them. They read Moses, but He of whom Moses testifies is not known by them. They read the prophets, but the Messiah and His great work—behold, this is hidden from their eyes!
    ... Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), Christ and Israel, London: Morgan and Scott, 1911, p. 124-125 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send forth the Spirit of belief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Blake: the glory of Christianity

2012-05-17T02:00:00.001-05:00

Thursday, May 17, 2012
    Ascension
Meditation:
    A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.
    —Proverbs 19:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
    ... William Blake (1757-1827), The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, University of California Press, 2008, p. 201 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant a forgiving heart in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bloesch: the whole Gospel, but only the Gospel

2012-05-16T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, May 16, 2012
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
    —Acts 20:26-27
Quotation:
    I speak as a socially concerned evangelical, one who sees that the Gospel is a stick of dynamite in the social structure. We need to proclaim the whole Gospel to the whole man, and this includes relating Christian faith to the whole man, and this includes relating Christian faith to the economic and political areas of life as well as the so-called religious area. At the same time we must beware of combining the Gospel with any social ideology.
    ... Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010), Essentials of Evangelical Theology, Harper & Row, 1978, p. xi (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, awaken Your people to Your whole counsel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: the serious business of sin

2012-05-15T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, May 15, 2012
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
    —Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sin is sin, and we must not call it less than sin. It is not an act of love to explain sin away as a psychological determinism or sociological conditioning, for it is real and must be dealt with. Men need a Savior. Therefore, Christians in our generation must resist relativistic and deterministic thinking. If men are going to find a real solution to the problem of who they are, they must come to terms with the fact that they need a Savior because they are sinners in the presence of a holy God. Sin is serious business.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), No Little People, Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974, reprint, Crossway, 2003, p. 45 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I confess that I do not hate my sins as much as I ought to. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the burden of today

2012-05-14T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, May 14, 2012
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
    —Matthew 6:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him and mind the present.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, v. I [1867], London: Strahan & Co., 1873, p. 203 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to cast my anxieties on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Flavel: from God, to us

2012-05-13T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, May 13, 2012
Meditation:
    For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
    —Romans 5:6 (KJV)
Quotation:
    O what a melting consideration is this! That out of His agony comes our victory; out of His condemnation, our justification; out of His pain, our ease; out of His stripes, our healing; out of His gall and vinegar, our honey; out of His curse, our blessing; out of His crown of thorns, our crown of glory; out of His death, our life: if He could not be released, it was that you might. If Pilate gave sentence against Him, it was that the great God might never give sentence against you. If he yielded that it should be with Christ as they required, it was that it might be with our souls as well as we can desire. And therefore, thanks be to God for His unspeakable gifts.
    ... John Flavel (1628-1691), Serm. XXIV from The Fountain of Life [1671], in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. I, Paisley: A. Weir and A. McLean, 1770, p. 331 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have saved me from my sins. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: eyes on God

2012-05-12T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, May 12, 2012
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
    —Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We get our moral bearings by looking at God. We must begin with God. We are right when, and only when, we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 95 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the eyes of my heart continually gaze on you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: atomization

2012-05-11T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, May 11, 2012
Meditation:
    Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
    —Colossians 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Western European civilization has witnessed a sort of atomizing process, in which the individual is more and more set free from his natural setting in family and neighborhood, and becomes a sort of replaceable unit in the social machine, His nearest neighbors may not even know his name. He is free to move from place to place, from job to job, from acquaintance to acquaintance, and—if he has attained a high degree of emancipation—from wife to wife. He is in every context a more and more anonymous and replaceable part, the perfect incarnation of the rationalist conception of man. Wherever western civilization has spread in the past one hundred years, it has carried this atomizing process with it. Its characteristic product in Calcutta, Shanghai, or Johannesburg, is the modern city into which myriads of human beings, loosened from their old ties in village or tribe or caste, like grains of sand fretted by water from an ancient block of sa! ndstone, are ceaselessly churned around in the whirlpool of the city—anonymous, identical, replaceable units.
    In such a situation, it is natural that men should long for some sort of real community, for men cannot be human without it. It is especially natural that Christians should reach out after that part of Christian doctrine which speaks of the true, God-given community, the Church of Jesus Christ. We have witnessed the appalling results of trying to go back to some sort of primitive collectivity based on the total control of the individual, down to the depths of his spirit, by an all-powerful group. Yet we know that we cannot condemn this solution to the problem of man’s loneliness if we have no other to offer. It is natural that men should ask with a greater eagerness than ever before, such questions as these: “Is there in truth a family of God on earth to which I can belong, a place where all men can be truly at home? If s! o, where is it to be found, what are its marks, and how is it ! related to, and distinguished from, the known communities of family, nation, and culture? What are its boundaries, its structure, its terms of membership? And how comes it that those who claim to be the spokesmen of that one holy fellowship are themselves at war with one another as to the fundamentals of its nature, and unable to agree to live together in unity and concord?” The breakdown of Christendom has forced such questions as these to the front. I think that there is no more urgent theological task than to try to give them plain and credible answers.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 13 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, relieve the Gospel of our divisions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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