CQOD: 11/18/06 -- Wilde: the broken gates

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 18, 2006Meditation:
    For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
    -- Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    And thus we rust Life’s iron chain
        Degraded and alone:
    And some men curse, and some men weep,
        And some men make no moan:
    But God’s eternal Laws are kind
        And break the heart of stone.

    And every human heart that breaks,
        In prison-cell or yard,
    Is as that broken box that gave
        Its treasure to the Lord,
    And filled the unclean leper’s house
        With the scent of costliest nard.

    Ah! happy they whose hearts can break
        And peace of pardon win!
    How else may man make straight his plan
        And cleanse his soul from sin?
    How else but through a broken heart
        May Lord Christ enter in?
        ... Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), The Ballad of Reading Gaol [1898]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted brokenness to Your servants.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/17/06 -- Backhouse and Jansen: the impregnable temple

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 17, 2006

Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200

Meditation:
    ... but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
    -- Isaiah 40:31 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    It is of great importance that you endeavor, at all times, to keep your hearts in peace; that you may keep pure that temple of God. The way to keep it in peace is to enter into it by means of inward silence. When you see yourself more sharply assaulted, retreat into that region of peace; and you will find a fortress that will enable you to triumph over all your enemies, visible and invisible, and over all their snares and temptations. Within your own soul resides divine aid, and sovereign succour. Retreat within it, and all will be quiet, secure, peaceable, and calm. Thus, by means of mental silence, which can only be attained with divine help, you may look for tranquility in tumult: for solitude in company; for light in darkness; for forgetfulness in pressures: for vigor in despondency; for courage in fear; for resistance in temptation; and for quiet in tribulation.
    ... William Backhouse (1779/80-1844) and James Jansen (1784-1821), A Guide to True Peace [1813]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rest my eyes on You.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/16/06 -- Weinel: without God and with

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 16, 2006

Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240

Meditation:
    Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
    -- Psalm 42:11 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    As a man increases in moral strength of character, so his conscience becomes more sensitive; he realizes more keenly the distance that separates him from the ideal, and hence the weight of the feeling of guiltiness oppresses him ever more heavily. Growth in goodness does not, therefore, necessarily imply increased happiness, on the contrary, it may mean greater unhappiness. And his unhappiness increasing in proportion to the elevation of his ethical standards, a man’s end is either Buddha or suicide if he knows no God; while if he knows God, it is despair or that conversion which, having sobbed away its tears on the Father’s breast, thence derives ever new strength to fight the battle of life, sure of the final victory.
    ... Heinrich Weinel (1874-1936), St. Paul, the Man and His Work [1906]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I lean on Your strength.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/15/06 -- Gossip: the soundbite world

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 15, 2006Meditation:
    Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
    -- 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    If people gathered to a political meeting, and the chief speaker spoke to them only for some quarter of an hour, they would be annoyed, would feel with some resentment that he had not taken them seriously, had dealt much too cavalierly with the question of the hour, an Ulster boundary, or such like. But the things of the soul are far more momentous, and to be asked to deal with huge, unfathomable facts like the Cross in a few minutes, means that people are not really interested in these things. This is, of course, a snippety age, with a snippety press, and snippety novels. But must we preachers follow and be snippety, too?
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), In Christ’s Stead [1925]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You for brevity when brevity is needed, and for fullness when that is needed.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/14/06 -- Kraemer: steps to renewal

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 14, 2006

Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796

Meditation:
    Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
    -- Matthew 10:16 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    If one thing is clear as soon as the Church becomes serious about its missionary and ministerial calling for the world, it is that two difficult roads in particular have to be trodden: first, the road towards overcoming the scantiness of its knowledge of the world of today, and its ignoring of what really goes on in the world under its surface; secondly, the road towards reforming its spirit, atmosphere, and inherited structure, in so far as they give no room for new vitality... What can and must be said and resaid, with all gratitude for what in many places is already happening, is that a fearless scrutiny and revision of structure is one of the most urgent aspects of a renewal of the Church.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965)

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You be glorified in all the activities of Your church.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/13/06 -- Attaining to life

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 13, 2006

Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836

Meditation:
    My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
    -- Ecclesiastes 12:12-13 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and perfect knowledge, or life of Christ, by much questioning, or by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by high skill and great learning. Yea, so long as a man taketh account of anything which is this or that, whether it be himself, or any other creature; or doeth anything, or frameth a purpose, for the sake of his own likings or desires or opinions or ends, he cometh not unto the life of Christ.
    ... Theologia Germanica [1518]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek Your Spirit to dwell within me.

---

---

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@cqod.com

CQOD: 11/12/06 -- Paton: the relevance of flesh

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 12, 2006Meditation:
    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    -- John 1:14 (ESV)

---

Quotation:
    A vocation to marriage is a vocation to glorify God in a particular state with its necessary rights and duties. It can only be combined with the vocation of a pioneer missionary of the classic type if matrimony is felt to be spiritually neutral, irrelevant to God’s calling. Marriage can be irrelevant only if we believe that the body—matter—is neutral, irrelevant, or evil. Man can not believe that and believe the Christian faith. God made matter, and was incarnate in it: the comparison of the relation of husband and wife to that between Christ and the Church naturally follows. But this conclusion is not always drawn, for orthodox Christians are often prone to speak and behave as if the Lord... became not flesh but spirit.
    ... David M. Paton (b.1913), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God [1953]

---

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me contentment in the condition You created me for.

---

---

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@cqod.com