CQOD: 12/19/06 -- Brooks: the Word made flesh

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 19, 2006Meditation:
    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
    -- John 1:1-5 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Christ is the Word of God. It is not in certain texts written in the New Testament, valuable as they are; it is not in certain words which Jesus spoke, vast as is their preciousness; it is in the Word, which Jesus is, that the great manifestation of God is made.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have spoken Your Word.

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CQOD: 12/18/06 -- Kraemer: worldly ecclesiology

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 18, 2006Meditation:
    So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
    -- Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    One of the heritages from history which prevents us so often from seeing the Church, with all its greatness and misery, in its true light, is the distinction between the “empirical” and the “ideal” Church. It is to such a degree an element of our thinking that we hardly notice it. It has been since the first centuries a standard view, a means to give account of the, indeed, often disappointing state and quality of Christian faith and practice in the Church as it appeared. As such it is understandable; but nevertheless it proceeds more from the counsels of worldly wisdom than from the faith-as-response by which the Church should live, and the call to incessant renewal under which the Church stands as “God’s own household,” “growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” However stubborn and refractory the stuff of ordinary reality may be—and it is—the Church, though with clear realism seeing this reality, can never permit itself to put the divine indicatives and imperatives, which are her peculiar directives and points of orientation, behind considerations which are properly speaking worldly in character.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity [1958]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You bless Your church.

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CQOD: 12/17/06 -- Eckhart: the sufficiency of faith

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 17, 2006

Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ’Save the Children’, 1928

Meditation:
    ... yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
    -- Galatians 2:16 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The less you feel and the more firmly you believe, the more praiseworthy is your faith and the more it will be esteemed and appreciated; for real faith is much more than a mere opinion of man. In it we have true knowledge: in truth, we lack nothing save true faith.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to cast aside the counterfeits, that I may cling to Your gift of faith.

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CQOD: 12/16/06 -- Dodd: the means of justification

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 16, 2006Meditation:
    But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    -- 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man’s part, which wins salvation, or even, in a more modern way of speech, a creative moral principle in itself. Paul does not, in fact, speak (when he is using the language strictly) of “justification by faith,” but of “justification by grace through faith,” or “on the grounds of faith.” This is not mere verbal subtlety. It means that the “righteousness of God” becomes ours, not by the assertion of the individual will as such, but by the willingness to let God work.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today [1920]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I can do nothing to save myself, and I owe to You all the glory and honor for my salvations..

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CQOD: 12/15/06 -- Barclay: the acceptable evidence

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 15, 2006Meditation:
    These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
    -- John 15:17 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    If we are to accept the teaching of Jesus at all, then the only test of the reality of a man’s religion is his attitude to his fellow men. The only possible proof that a man loves God is the demonstrated fact that he loves his fellow men.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I show forth Your mercy and love before the world.

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CQOD: 12/14/06 -- John of the Cross: the incomparability of God

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 14, 2006

Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591

Meditation:
    As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
    -- John 15:9 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    No knowledge, therefore, and no conceptions in this mortal life, can serve as proximate means of this high union of the love of God. All that the understanding can comprehend; all that the will may be satisfied with; and all that the imagination may conceive; is most unlike unto God, and most disproportionate to Him.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), The Ascent of Mount Carmel

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You loved me when I was Your enemy.

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CQOD: 12/13/06 -- Johnson: the purpose of affliction

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 13, 2006

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304
Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784

Meditation:
    Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
    -- 2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It is by affliction chiefly that the heart of man is purified, and that the thoughts are fixed on a better state. Prosperity has power to intoxicate the imagination, to fix the mind upon the present scene, to produce confidence and elation, and to make him who enjoys affluence and honors forget the hand by which they were bestowed. It is seldom that we are otherwise than by affliction awakened to a sense of our imbecility, or taught to know how little all our acquisitions can conduce to safety or quiet, and how justly we may inscribe to the superintendence of a higher power those blessings which in the wantonness of success we considered as the attainments of our policy and courage.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me patience in trouble and a quiet heart, anxious only to please You.

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CQOD: 12/12/06 -- Loukes: the divine intent

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 12, 2006Meditation:
    Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
    -- Ephesians 5:25-27 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The Church is not a tribe for the improvement in holiness of people who think it would be pleasant to be holy, a means to the integration of character for those who cannot bear their conflicts. It is a statement of the divine intention for humanity.
    ... Harold Loukes

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit inhabits Your church.

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CQOD: 12/11/06 -- Underhill: achieving Christian temperament

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 11, 2006Meditation:
    ... give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
    -- 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    This power of being outwardly genial and inwardly austere, which is the real Christian temper, depends entirely upon the time set apart for personal religion. It is always achieved if courageously and faithfully sought; and there are no heights of love and holiness to which it cannot lead.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that seeks You.

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CQOD: 12/10/06 -- Law: truly renouncing the world

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 10, 2006

Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968

Meditation:
    For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
    -- 1 Peter 2:19-20 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    They only renounce the world as they ought, who live in the midst of it without worldly tempers, who comply with their share in the offices of human life without complying with the spirit that reigneth in the world.
    ... William Law (1686-1761)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, belay the worldly spirit in me that wants my own way.

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CQOD: 12/09/06 -- Fénelon: the only liberty

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 9, 2006Meditation:
    For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
    -- Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    There is no condition wherein a man does not depend on many others, wherein he is not more obliged to follow their fancies than his own. All the commerce of life is a perpetual constraint to the laws of good breeding, and the necessity of humoring others; and besides, our own passions are the worst tyrants: if you obey them but by halves, a perpetual strife and contest exists within; and if you entirely give up yourself to them, it is horrid to think to what extremities they will lead. May God preserve us from that fatal slavery, which the mad presumption of man calls liberty! Liberty is to be found only in Him.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Christ, You have set me free.

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CQOD: 12/08/06 -- Patmore on goodwill

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 8, 2006Meditation:
    Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
    -- Galatians 2:10 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Nothing is so easy to men of goodwill as goodwill itself, and this is all that God requires. Every act of goodwill permanently and sensibly increases goodwill. Trifling acts of goodwill are often more efficacious in this way than great ones. A flower given in kindness and at the right time profits more, both to giver and receiver, than some vast material benefit in which the goodwill is hidden by the magnitude of the act. Some little, sensible, individual touch from the hand of our Lord may convert the heart more than the contemplation of His death for us.
    ... Coventry Patmore (1823-1896), The Rod, the Root, and the Flower [1895]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, for one who is considering You, may I forget nothing that might help.

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CQOD: 12/07/06 -- Ambrose: obedience unto death

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 7, 2006

Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397

Meditation:
    For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
    -- John 10:17-18 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It is a great mystery of divine love, that not even in Christ was exception made of the death of the body; and although He was the Lord of nature, He refused not the law of the flesh which He had taken upon Him. It is necessary for me to die; for Him it was not necessary.
    ... St. Ambrose (339-397)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You have become one of us, that we may become like You.

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CQOD: 12/06/06 -- Owen: proof of regeneration

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 6, 2006

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326

Meditation:
    But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
    -- 2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    He that is alive may know that he was born, though he know neither the place where nor the time when he was so; and so may he that is spiritually alive, and hath ground of evidence that he is so, that he was born again, though he know neither when, nor where, nor how. And this case is usual in persons of quiet natural tempers, who have had the advantage of education under means of light and grace. God ofttimes, in such persons, begins and carries on the work of his grace insensibly, so that they come to good growth and maturity before they know that they are alive.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have provided for the salvation of each.

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CQOD: 12/05/06 -- Chesterton: a single sword

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 5, 2006Meditation:
    This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
    -- Psalm 34:6-7 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    O God of earth and altar,
        Bow down and hear our cry;
    Our earthly rulers falter,
        Our people drift and die;
    The walls of gold entomb us,
        The swords of scorn divide;
    Take not Thy thunder from us,
        But take away our pride.

    From all that terror teaches,
        From lies of tongue and pen;
    From all the easy speeches
        That comfort cruel men;
    From sale and profanation
        Of honor and the sword;
    From sleep and from damnation,
        Deliver us, good Lord!

    Tie in a living tether
        The prince and priest and thrall;
    Bind all our lives together,
        Smite us and save us all;
    In ire and exultation
        Aflame with faith, and free,
    Lift up a living nation,
        A single sword to Thee.
        ... Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) [1906]

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