Saturday, November 04, 2006

CQOD: 11/04/06 -- Owen: Speech in season and out

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 4, 2006
Meditation:
    When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
    -- Matthew 10:19 (ESV)

Quotation:
    Ability of speech in time and season is an especial gift of God, and that eminently with respect unto the spiritual things of the Gospel; but a profluency of speech, venting itself on all occasions and on no occasions, making men open their mouths wide when indeed they should shut them and open their ears, and to pour out all that they know and ... what they do not know, making them angry if they are not heard and impatient if they are contradicted, is an unconquerable fortification against all true spiritual wisdom.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a good listener.


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Friday, November 03, 2006

CQOD: 11/03/06 -- Dodd: knowing God personally

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 3, 2006
Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
    To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
    -- 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (ESV)

Quotation:
    The type of Judaism in which Paul had grown up had become largely traditional: the word of the Lord, the Rabbis held, came to the prophets of old, but we can only preserve and interpret the truth they handed down. Jesus Christ, with a confidence that to the timid traditionalism of His time appeared blasphemous, asserted that He knew the Father and was prepared to let others into that knowledge. He did so, not by handing down a new tradition about God, but by making others sharers in His own attitude to God. This is what Paul means by “having the mind of Christ.” It was this clear, unquestioning conviction that gave Paul his power as a missionary: but he expected it also in his converts. To them too “the world of knowledge” came “by the same Spirit.” He prayed that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Such knowledge is, as Paul freely grants, only partial, but, so far as it goes, it is real, personal knowledge. In friendship between men there is a mutual knowledge which is never complete or free from mystery: yet you can know with a certainty nothing could shake, that your friend is “not the man to do such a thing,” or that such-and-such a thing that you have heard is “just like him.” You have a real knowledge which gives you a criterion. Such is the knowledge the Christian has of his Father.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today [1920]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know me better than I know myself, for You have granted me exactly those gifts through that same Spirit that most benefit of Your church.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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Thursday, November 02, 2006

CQOD: 11/02/06 -- MacDonald: making easy work hard

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 2, 2006
Feast of All Souls
Meditation:
    Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
    -- Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)

Quotation:
    Do you think the work God gives us to do is never easy? Jesus says His yoke is easy, His burden is light. People sometimes refuse to do God’s work just because it is easy. This is sometimes because they cannot believe that easy work is His work; but there may be a very bad pride in it... Some, again, accept it with half a heart and do it with half a hand. But however easy any work may be, it can not be well done without taking thought about it. And such people, instead of taking thought about their work, generally take thought about the morrow, in which no work can be done any more than in yesterday.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), The Seaboard Parish [1868]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take away all anxiety about tomorrow, and grant me Your peace.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

CQOD: 11/01/06 -- Phillips: What changed the apostles?

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 1, 2006
Feast of All Saints
Meditation:
    And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
    -- Acts 4:31 (ESV)

Quotation:
    What changed these very ordinary men (who were such cowards that they did not dare stand too near the cross in case they got involved) into heroes who would stop at nothing? A swindle? Hallucination? Spooky nonsense in a darkened room? Or Somebody quietly doing what He said He’d do—walk right through death? What do YOU think?
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Is God at Home? [1957]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have changed the course of my life.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

CQOD: 10/31/06 -- Be Thou my vision

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 31, 2006
Meditation:
    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
    -- James 3:17 (ESV)

Quotation:

    Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
    Naught be all else to me, save what Thou art:
    Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
    Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

    Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word;
    I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
    Thou my great Father, I Thy true son,
    Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

    Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise;
    Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
    Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
    High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

    High King of Heaven, my victory won,
    May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
    Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
    Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all!
        ... Anonymous medieval Irish hymn


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Monday, October 30, 2006

CQOD: 10/30/06 -- Luther: the priesthood

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 30, 2006
Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546
Meditation:
    Grace and peace... from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever!
    -- Revelation 1:4-6 (ESV)

Quotation:
    Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Prelude to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 7.16 [1520]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a channel for Your grace to those in need.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 10/29/06 -- Gossip: camping on the border

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 29, 2006
Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
    -- Luke 17:12-19 (ESV)

Quotation:
    We come to Jesus Christ: and He does for us what He promised; and the thing works out. To our amazement, it works out. And then we settle down. We have had our own first-hand and irrefutable experience. But, instead of opening the windows to the glory of the sunshine so evidently there, instead of being incited to a hugeness of faith by what Christ has already done for us, we can’t believe that there can be anything more, or that even He can work, for us, anything better. That first foretaste satisfies us. And so we camp for life out on the confines of the Kingdom, and never press on to inherit what is there and meant for us.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, p. 119 [1944]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant a hunger in my heart for more of You.


See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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