CQOD: 09/22/06 -- Shoemaker: consciousness of the chasm

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 22, 2006Meditation:
    As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."
    -- John 9:1-3 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The situation in which we find ourselves in this world seems to be a condition of estrangement from God, with little feeling of contact with Him, yet a curious nostalgic feeling that somewhere He exists and that our life would be much more complete if we were in relationship with Him. The deep, seemingly indestructible awareness of something like homesickness for God is the natural basis for believing in some kind of “fall”—we seem to remember something better and to be possessed to recapture it. There appears to be a gap, a chasm, between God and us which must be crossed if we are to be in relationship with him. We know that our own wrongdoing can widen the chasm: we are not so sure what will close it. Yet our first great need is not for a set of rules about how to be good: it is for something to bridge that yawning canyon between us and the God we dimly seem to remember, but cannot entirely forget.
    ... Samuel M. Shoemaker (1893-1963), The Experiment of Faith [1957]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot bridge the gap. I cross the chasm by Your grace alone.

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 09/21/06 -- Browne on alms: charity or self-interest

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 21, 2006

Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist

Meditation:
    For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.
    -- 2 Corinthians 9:12-14 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    If we are directed only by our particular natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but moralists; divinity will still call us heathens. Therefore this great work of charity must have other motives, ends, and impulsions. I give no alms to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfill and accomplish the will and command of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoined it; I relieve no man upon the rhetoric of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition, for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than reason.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Religio Medici [1643]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear Your word and obey with my alms.

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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: 09/20/06 -- Bullock: the mystery in suffering

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 20, 2006

Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871

Meditation:
    Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
    -- Job 38:1-7 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Suffering is sometimes a mystery. We must affirm both the mystery and God. The paradox remained, but now, at least, Job knew that it belonged there—that it is built into the moral and physical orders, and into the very nature of God as He has permitted us humans to perceive Him. In a world where the universal principle is cause/effect, the book of Job reminds us that the principle is a reflection of the mysterious, self-revealing God. It is subsumed under Him, however, and He cannot be subsumed under it. The God-speeches remind us that a Person, not a principle, is Lord.
    ... C. H. Bullock (b.1939), Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books [1982]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You made all there is. Grant that I shall be content with Your creation.

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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: 09/19/06 -- Drummond: the most destructive sin

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 19, 2006

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690

Meditation:
    Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
    -- Ephesians 4:31-32 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or “touchy” disposition. This compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics... No form of vice—not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself—does more to unChristianize society than evil temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off of childhood—in short, for sheer, gratuitous misery-producing power—this influence stands alone.
    ... Henry Drummond (1851-1897), “The Greatest Thing in the World” [1892]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cool my temper, particularly with ____ and ____.

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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: 09/18/06 -- Fox: proper offerings

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 18, 2006Meditation:
    Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
    -- Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Take care that all your offerings be free, and of your own, that has cost you something; so that ye may not offer of that which is another man’s, or that which ye are entrusted withal, and not your own.
    ... George Fox (1624-1691)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Father, grant me a generous spirit.

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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: 09/17/06 -- Donne: simplicity and truth

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 17, 2006

Feast of Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179

Meditation:
    Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
    -- Genesis 2:1,2 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    That earth and that heaven, which spent God himself, Almighty God, six days in finishing, Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line: In the beginning God created heaven and earth. If a Livie or a Guicciardine, or such extensive and voluminous authors had had this story in hand, God must have made another world, to have made them a library to hold their books, of the making of this world. Into what wire would they have drawn out this earth! Into what leaf-gold would they have beat out these heavens! It may assist our conjecture herein, to consider, that amongst those men, who proceed with a sober modesty and limitation in their writing, & make a conscience not to clog the world with unnecessary books, yet the volumes which are written by them, upon the beginning of Genesis, are scarce less than infinite. God did no more but say, Let this & this be done; and Moses doth no more but say, that upon God’s saying it was done. God required not Nature to help him to do it; Moses required not Reason to help him believe.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), XXVIII in Fifty Sermons

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word prevails.

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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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