CQOD: 12/19/05 -- Newman: pray for a perfect heart

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 19, 2005Meditation:
    I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
    I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
    -- Psalms 101:1,2 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    Pray Him to give you what the Scriptures call “an honest and good heart,” or “a perfect heart;” and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeing Him. All your duties are obediences. To do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach—an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things hiding Him from us.
    ... John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Incline my heart to obey Your commands, I pray.

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CQOD: 12/18/05 -- Oman: pursuit of the truth

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 18, 2005Meditation:
    In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
    -- Luke 10:21 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    Only on recognising the true, may we lay down our task of searching further for truth; and only on being satisfied that we have found the holy, are we justified in submitting to its guidance. The duty of following truth at all hazards is not altered, and it is only a false wisdom and prudence which shuns the search. The one chief reason why so much more may be revealed to babes than to the wise and prudent is still simply that, with less calculation and prejudice, they entirely abandon themselves to the leading of truth.
    ... John Oman (1860-1939), Vision and Authority [1928]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Grant me a newness of mind and heart, that I might see Your truth.

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CQOD: 12/17/05 -- Mascall: the virgin birth

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 17, 2005

Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of 'Save the Children', 1928

Meditation:
    Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.
    But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
    Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
    -- Matthew 1:18-25 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    I do not wish to imply that God the Son could not, absolutely speaking, have become incarnate by a non-virginal conception, any more than I should wish to deny that God might, absolutely speaking, have redeemed mankind without becoming incarnate at all; it is always unwise to place limits to the power of God. What we can see is that both an incarnation and a virginal conception were thoroughly appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the case and were more “natural,” in the sense of more appropriate, than the alternatives... In practice, denial of the virginal conception or inability to see its relevance almost always goes with an inadequate understanding of the Incarnation and of the Christian religion in general.
    ... E. L. Mascall (b.1905), The Secularization of Christianity [1965]

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Quiet time reflection:
    I praise You, Lord, for this sign of Your coming.

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CQOD: 12/16/05 -- Clifford: the vindication of prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 16, 2005Meditation:
    O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
    -- John 17:25,26 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    I cannot answer all the curious questions of the brain concerning prayer and law, not half of them, indeed, and I will not attempt to; but I will cast my anchor here in this revealing fact, that He, the Holiest of the Holy and the Wisest of the Wise, He prays. Therefore I am assured that this anchorage of Divine example will hold the vessel in the tossings of the wildest sea of doubt, and I shall be as safe as He was, if the vessel itself is engulfed in the waves of suffering and sorrow. His act is an argument. His prayer is an inspiration. His achievements are the everlasting and all-sufficient vindication of prayer.
    ... John Clifford (1836-1923), Social Worship [1899]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant in me a Spirit that knows how to please You in prayer.

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CQOD: 12/15/05 -- Calvin: putting them to the test

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 15, 2005Meditation:
    For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    -- Romans 8:38,39 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father’s will thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he follows this plan with all his children.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Keep me close to Your will throughout all trials.

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CQOD: 12/14/05 -- John of the Cross: God touching us

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 14, 2005

Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591

Meditation:
    Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.
    -- Matthew 26:74-75 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Sometimes, when the soul least thinks of it, and when it least desires it, God touches it divinely causing certain recollections of Himself.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Your word is like a sword in my heart.

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CQOD: 12/13/05 -- Eliot: the Church's unpleasant truths

CQOD: 12/13/05 -- Eliot: the Church's unpleasant truths

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 13, 2005

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784

Meditation:
    But he looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written:
        'The stone that the builders rejected
        has become the cornerstone'?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."
    -- Luke 20:17-18 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws? She tells them of Life and Death, and of all they would forget. She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft. She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts. They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
    ... T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Chorus VI from The Rock [1934]

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Quiet time reflection:
    We are broken, Lord, on the stone of Your truth.

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CQOD: 12/12/05 -- Ellul: that the Gospel might be proclaimed

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 12, 2005Meditation:
    For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
    -- 1 Peter 1:24,25 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    The Christian should participate in social and political efforts in order to have an influence in the work, not with the hope of making a paradise (of the earth), but simply to make it more tolerable—not to diminish the opposition between this world and the Kingdom of God, but simply to modify the opposition between the disorder of this world and the order of preservation that God wants it to have—not to bring in the Kingdom of God, but so that the Gospel might be proclaimed in order that all men might truly hear the good news.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Prompt me, Lord, to proclaim the Gospel in new places.

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CQOD: 12/11/05 -- Nathan: God of pity and love

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 11, 2005Meditation:
    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    -- John 1:14 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    God of pity and love, return to this earth.
    Go not so far away, leaving us to evil.
    Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil
    Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth.
    Death like a dog runs howling from his lair;
    His bite has made men mad, they follow after
    All howling too, and their demoniac laughter
    Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer.
    Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day,
    Come with the light, that men may see once more
    Across this earth’s uncomfortable floor
    The kindly paths, the old and loving way.
    Let us not die of evil in the night.
    Let there be God again. Let there be light.
    ... Robert Nathan (b.1894) [1935]

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Quiet time reflection:
    You took me out of darkness, Lord, and into Your light.

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CQOD: 12/10/05 -- Merton: the great thing

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 10, 2005

Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968

Meditation:
    Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
        let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
    Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
        let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
    For the LORD is a great God,
        and a great King above all gods.
    In his hand are the depths of the earth;
        the heights of the mountains are his also.
    The sea is his, for he made it,
        and his hands formed the dry land.
    Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
        let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
    -- Psalm 95:1-6 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and praise God.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

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Quiet time reflection:
    My highest act is the praise of my Savior.

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CQOD: 12/09/05 -- Campbell: Christianity is Christ

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 9, 2005Meditation:
    Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
    -- John 14:5,6 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    How can we know that what Jesus has shown us of God is the truth; or how do we know when we look into the face of Jesus that we are looking into the face of God? The answer is so plain and simple that it is a marvel how intelligent men can manage to miss it as they do. Look at what Christ has done for the soul of man: that is your answer. Christianity is just Christ—nothing more and nothing less. It is a way of life, and He is that way. It is the truth about human destiny, and He is that truth.
    ... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), The Call of Christ [1932]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Focus my life on Christ-likeness., I pray.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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