The Christian Quotation of the Day: 2006-02-19

CQOD: 02/23/06 -- Donne: faith's reasons and choices

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 23, 2006

Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155

Meditation:
After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, "Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you." At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.
-- Acts 24:24-26 (ESV)

Quotation:
We may search so far, and reason so long of faith and grace, as that we may lose not only them, but even our reason too, and sooner become mad than good. Not that we are bound to believe any thing against reason, that is, to believe, we know not why. It is but a slack opinion, it is not Belief, that is not grounded upon Reason. It is true, we have not a Demonstration; not such an Evidence as that one and two are three, to prove these to be Scriptures of God; God hath not proceeded in that manner, to drive our reason into a pound, and to force it by a peremptory necessity to accept these for Scriptures, for then, here had been no exercise of our Will, and our assent, if we could not have resisted.
... John Donne (1573-1631), Fifty Sermons

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, I believe. I am nourished by Your Word.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, 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

CQOD: 02/22/06 -- Short: the testimony of witnesses

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 22, 2006Meditation:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
-- Romans 15:13 (ESV)

Quotation:
The New Testament is an intensely personal document. It is not the effort of a group of men who are out to prove something to us by the force of their rational arguments. But it is the testimony, or testament, of a group of witnesses... who are bent on simply reporting to us the experience of a love that overtook them and overwhelmed them, a peace that passed all their understanding, and a peace that they in turn would pass on to us.
... Robert L. Short (b.1932)

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, I receive Your Testament.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, 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

CQOD: 02/21/06 -- Fénelon: resisting God

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 21, 2006Meditation:
    "I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
        I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
        creating the fruit of the lips.
    Peace, peace, to the far and to the near," says the LORD,
        "and I will heal him.
    But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
        for it cannot be quiet,
        and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
    There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
    -- Isaiah 57:18-21 (ESV)

Quotation:
There is never any peace for those who resist God.
... François Fénelon (1651-1715)

Quiet time reflection:
Break down, O Lord, the last barriers my hard heart and bent will have thrown up in resistance to Your love.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, 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

CQOD: 02/20/06 -- Driver: faithfully preaching the Gospel

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 20, 2006

Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906

Meditation:
But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."
-- Acts 4:19-20 (ESV)

Quotation:
Local churches which are respected and even attended by “the public”—interpreted as people who under different circumstances would not feel obliged to attend church at all—are often found to be those where, on a Christian judgment, the gospel seems to be most faithfully preached. Such churches may invite and suffer temporary periods of unpopularity—by standing up for West Indian immigrants, say, or refusing indiscriminate baptism. But on the whole, the storms are weathered by churches, and ministers, whose interest in the community and presentation of the faith [are] alert and genuine. Even so, the Church has every excuse for getting itself disliked: none at all for escaping notice.
... Christopher Driver (1932-1997), A Future for the Free Churches? [1962]

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, grant boldness to me and my church fellowship to proclaim the Gospel despite social pressure against it.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, 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