CQOD: 12/31/05 -- Sundar Singh: how the center stays dry

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 31, 2005

Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384

Meditation:
    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

    "Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
        and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

    "He has blinded their eyes
        and hardened their heart,
    lest they see with their eyes,
        and understand with their heart, and turn,
        and I would heal them."

    -- John 12:37-40 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be instrumental in breaking the hard shell of indifference for those whom You choose.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/30/05 -- Meister Eckhart: the nearness of God

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 30, 2005Meditation:
    No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
    -- 1 John 4:12-13 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are nearer to me than my breath.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 12/29/05 -- C. S. Lewis: the uses of personality

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 29, 2005

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170

Meditation:
    But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever.
    -- 1 Samuel 1:22 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    A Christian and an unbelieving poet may both be equally original and draw on resources peculiar to themselves, but with this difference. The unbeliever may take his own temperament and experience, just as they happen to stand, and consider them worth communicating simply because they are his. To the Christian his own temperament and experience, as mere fact, and as merely his, are of no value or importance whatsoever: he will deal with them, if at all, only because they are the medium through which, or the position from which, something universally profitable appeared to him.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “Christianity and Literature”

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may use my gifts to Your glory.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 12/28/05 -- Tozer: the Voice in the written Word

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 28, 2005

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Meditation:
    The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
    -- John 6:63b (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The Bible is the written word of God, and because it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities of ink and paper and leather. The Voice of God, however, is alive and free as the sovereign God is free. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The life is in the speaking words. God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. It is the present Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear Your Voice.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/27/05 -- Tozer: the Living Word

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 27, 2005

Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist

Meditation:
    It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail.
    -- John 6:63a (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The why of natural law is the living Voice of God immanent in His creation. And this word of God which brought all worlds into being cannot be understood to mean the Bible, for it is not a written or printed word at all, but the expression of the will of God spoken into the structure of all things. This word of God is the breath of God filling the world with living potentiality. The Voice of God is the most powerful force in nature, indeed the only force in nature, for all energy is here only because the power-filled Word is being spoken. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the final cause of all that is and will be.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 12/26/05 -- Flandreau: the foreshadowing

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 26, 2005

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr

Meditation:
    But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart
    -- Luke 2:19 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The Mother sits by the rough-hewn byre
    where her Baby smiles, and the secret fire
    shines on her face. Her hand rests by
    an iron spike from the wood thrust high
        (“The nails in His hands!” )

    An open chink in the rude, cold shed
    lets in the sky, and the Star that led
    shepherds and kings pours down its light:
    a silver shaft through the frosty night
        (“The spear in His side!”)

    Her hands reach out, as to push away
    the cross-crowned hill and the bloody day;
    they touch a rough, unyielding wall:
    the stable side, of stone piled tall
        (“The stone—rolled away!”)
        ... Alesander Flandreau

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your beginning is my beginning, too.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/25/05 -- Watts: The King of Glory sends his Son

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 25, 2005

CHRISTMAS

DAY

Meditation:
    When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
    -- Luke 2:15-17 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The King of glory sends his Son,
    To make his entrance on this earth;
    Behold the midnight bright as noon,
    And heav’nly hosts declare his birth!

    About the young Redeemer’s head,
    What wonders, and what glories meet!
    An unknown star arose, and led
    The eastern sages to his feet.

    Simeon and Anna both conspire
    The infant Savior to proclaim;
    Inward they felt the sacred fire,
    And bless’d the babe, and own’d his name.

    Let pagan hordes blaspheme aloud,
    And treat the holy child with scorn;
    Our souls adore th’ eternal God
    Who condescended to be born.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book II, hymn 136 [1707]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Hallelujah! and may the Lord richly bless you as we all receive Him in our hearts today.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2005, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
Subscription info: http://www.cqod.com/cqodlist.htm
Comments and problems: email to curator@gospelcom.net