CQOD: 09/09/06 -- A. J. Gossip: why Christianity seems to fail

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 9, 2006Meditation:
    I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
    -- Psalm 101:3 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    Is it unfair to suggest that, in some of us at least, [Christianity] hasn’t fully worked so far simply because, at the pinch, at the decisive moment, we don’t want it to work or ourselves to be lifted up above the failings and disloyalties we find so alluring, but rather to be enabled to continue them without the ugly consequences of so doing, to have the inexorable laws of life bent aside in our favor, so that we can squeeze through and escape, without reaping what we have sown; because, as we misunderstand it, the whole point of the good news our Lord brings is the (to us) gladsome announcement that God is happily much more morally indifferent than our consciences had thought, and is not going to make a fuss about our sins and such-like trivial peccadilloes, but will surely let us off—because, in fact, we have not grasped that the core and essence of the Gospel... is its tremendous and glorious revelation of how deadly is God’s hatred of sin, so that He cannot stand having it in the same universe as Himself, and will go any length, and will pay any price, and will make any sacrifice, to master and abolish it, is set upon so doing in our hearts, thank God, as elsewhere.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope [1944]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know no sin pleases You. In Your grace, grant me a repentant heart.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/08/06 -- Law: the school of prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 8, 2006Meditation:
    Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
    -- Luke 11:1 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    They, therefore, who are hasty in their devotions and think a little will do, are strangers both to the nature of devotion and the nature of man; they do not know that they are to learn to pray, and that prayer is to be learnt as they learn other things, by frequency, constancy, and perseverance.
    ... William Law (1686-1761)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to pray.

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

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/07/06 -- Van Dyke: the surest road

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 7, 2006

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957

Meditation:
    The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
    -- 1 Timothy 1:5 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul May keep the path, but will not reach the goal; While he who walks in love may wander far, Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.
    ... Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be guided by the love You have implanted in me through Your grace.

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

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/06/06 -- Ramsay: Christianity & servitude

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 6, 2006

Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965

Meditation:
    I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel...
    -- Philemon 1:10-13 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Undoubtedly, messengers had often to be sent with letters round the congregations of the province. In the earlier stages of Church development, probably, these messengers were volunteers, discharging a duty which among the pagans was almost entirely performed by slaves: just as Luke and Aristarchus, when they travelled with St. Paul to Rome, must have voluntarily passed as his servants—i.e., as slaves—in order to be admitted to the convoy. In such cases, it is apparent how much this sense of duty ennobled labor and raised the social standing of the laborer, who was now a volunteer, taking himself like a slave in the service of the Church. In this there is already involved the germ of a general emancipation of slaves and the substitution of free for slave labor.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, accept me into the service of Your church.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/05/06 -- Lewis: the badness of sadness

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 5, 2006Meditation:
    Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
    -- Ecclesiastes 11:10 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not now either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening towards active assistance, is simply bad.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, guard me from temptations to melancholy.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/04/06 -- Owen: the necessary forerunner

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 4, 2006

Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650

Meditation:
    More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
    -- Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    I have seen and read somewhat of the writings of learned men concerning the state of future glory; some of them are filled with excellent notions of truth, and elegancy of speech, whereby they cannot but much affect the minds of those who duly consider what they say. But—I know not well whence it comes to pass—the things spoken do not abide nor incorporate in our minds. They please and refresh for a little while, like a shower of rain in a dry season, that soaketh not unto the roots of things; the power of them doth not enter into us. Is it not from hence, that their notions of future things are not educed out of the experience which we have of the beginnings of them in this world? Yea, the soul is disturbed, not edified, in all contemplations of future glory, where things are proposed to it whereof in this life it hath neither foretaste, sense, experience, nor evidence. No man ought to look for anything in heaven, but what one way or other he hath some experience of in this life.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Glory of Christ [1684]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I praise You for that daily taste of Heaven You send to me.

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

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/03/06 -- Gregory: Christ, our forerunner

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 3, 2006

Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604

Meditation:
    For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
    -- 1 Peter 2:21 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    All that which our blessed Savior wrought in his mortal body, he did it for our example and instruction, to the end that, following his steps, according to our poor ability, we might without offense pass over this present life.
    ... Gregory the Great (540?-604)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to follow You.

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

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
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