CQOD: 12/30/06 -- Allen: the successful missionary

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 30, 2006Meditation:
    For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
    -- 2 Thess. 3:7-9 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The missionary work of the non-professional missionary is essentially to live his daily life in Christ, and therefore with a difference, and to be able to explain, or at least to state, the reason and cause of the difference to men who see it... His preaching is essentially private conversation, and has at the back of it facts, facts of a life which explain and illustrate and enforce his words... It is such missionary work, done consciously and deliberately as missionary, that the world needs today. Everybody, Christian and pagan alike, respects such work; and, when it is so done, men wonder, and inquire into the secret of a life which they instinctively admire and covet for themselves... The spirit which inspires love of others and efforts after their well-being, both in body and soul, they cannot but admire and covet—unless, indeed, seeing that it would reform their own lives, they dread and hate it, because they do not desire to be reformed. In either case, it works.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Non-Professional Missionaries [1929]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me to show forth Your grace to one who needs it today.

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CQOD: 12/29/06 -- Hoskyns: ignoring Biblical discipline

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 29, 2006

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170

Meditation:
    Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
    -- 1 Timothy 4:13-16 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Owing to the pressure of an ever-increasing number of subjects introduced into the curriculum of a school, it is only too possible for men to be held to be educated and intelligent without ever having seriously tested their intelligence upon, say, the Book of Job, or upon the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. No doubt there are very good excuses for this lack of discipline. Many forward-thinking men will tell you that the Bible is not worth serious attention, that it is simple, trivial, and out-of-date; and so, even though you may hear the Bible read, read it yourselves, or even study it, the tension of your energy may be relaxed—subtly relaxed. But it is quite certain that a widespread relaxation of the tension of Biblical interpretation has disastrous effects. For there is no corruption that threatens a country so surely as the corruption or sentimentalizing of its religion; and there is no corruption of the Christian religion so swift as that which sets in when the Church loses its strict Biblical discipline.
    ... E. C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We Are the Pharisees [1960]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open Scripture to me that I may understand Your word.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/28/06 -- M’Cheyne: Christ in the desert

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 28, 2006

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Meditation:
    The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
        the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
    it shall blossom abundantly
        and rejoice with joy and singing.
    The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
        the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
    They shall see the glory of the LORD,
        the majesty of our God.
    -- Isaiah 35:1-2 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my years in the desert have ended with finding You.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/27/06 -- Nicholas of Cusa: What is eternal life?

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 27, 2006

Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist

Meditation:
    But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    -- 6:22-23 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    [Eternal life is] naught else than that blessed regard wherewith Thou never ceasest to behold me, yea, even the secret places of my soul. With Thee, to behold is to give life: It is unceasingly to impart sweetest love of Thee; ‘tis to inflame me to love of Thee by love’s imparting, and to feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my yearning, and by kindling to make me drink of the dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse in me a fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase and endure.
    ... Nicolas of Cusa (1401-1464), The Vision of God [1554]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given me life that cannot end.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/26/06 -- Watts: Psalm 98

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 26, 2006

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr

Meditation:
    Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
        for he has done marvelous things!
    His right hand and his holy arm
        have worked salvation for him.
    The LORD has made known his salvation;
        he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
    -- Psalm 98:1-2 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
        Let earth receive her King;
    Let every heart prepare him room,
        And heav’n and nature sing.

    Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!
        Let men their songs employ,
    While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
        Repeat the sounding joy.

    No more let sins and sorrows grow,
        Nor thorns infest the ground;
    He comes to make his blessings flow
        Far as the curse is found.

    He rules the world with truth and grace,
        And makes the nations prove
    The glories of his righteousness,
        And wonders of his love.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Psalm 98 from Psalms of David Imitated [1719]

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Quiet time reflection:
    I rejoice in God my Savior!

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 12/25/06 -- Bonar: a Bethlehem hymn

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 25, 2006

CHRISTMAS DAY

Meditation:
    For to us a child is born,
        to us a son is given;
    and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
        and his name shall be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
        Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
    Of the increase of his government and of peace
        there will be no end,
    on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
        to establish it and to uphold it
    with justice and with righteousness
        from this time forth and forevermore.
    The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
        -- Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    He has come! the Christ of God;
    Left for us His glad abode,
    Stooping from His throne of bliss,
    To this darksome wilderness.

    He has come! the Prince of Peace;
    Come to bid our sorrows cease;
    Come to scatter with His light
    All the darkness of our night.

    He, the Mighty King, has come!
    Making this poor world His home;
    to bear our sin’s sad load,—
    Son of David, Son of God!

    He has come whose name of grace
    Speaks deliverance to our race;
    Left for us His glad abode,—
    Son of Mary, Son of God!

    Unto us a Child is born!
    Ne’er has earth beheld a morn,
    Among all the morns of time,
    Half so glorious in its prime!

    Unto us a Son is given!
    He has come from God’s own heaven,
    Bringing with Him, from above,
    Holy peace and holy love.
        ... Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

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Dear friends of CQOD,
    Another year has passed, and grace has never paused. The boundless love of our Lord shames us once again with the humility of His birth and the submissive character of His holy life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection. Christmas overwhelms us again.
    It is right that I am shamed--a whole year full of missed opportunities, moments that found me too busy with something or other to listen to God calling me to better work or pleasure. For, the labor we do in His Name is satisfying beyond anything we can do for ourselves, and when I would rather be distracted into my own desires, I forget that. The Post-It below my computer monitor, on which I have written "Live by faith," is almost covered over with reminders of so many other, seemingly more pressing, obligations or tasks. So, I never believed enough, hoped enough, or loved enough, in this tumultuous year. It is a busy age we live in.
    "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," Jesus cried. The right time to listen is now, He declared. Some had ears and heard. Some never had ears that heard. And some only had ears that heard much later--like me. But the Spirit of God is the grantor of ears that hear. So when we contemplate Mary this Christmas, we recognize that she heard. So did Joseph. So did the shepherds. So did the Magi, who undertook a lengthy journey because of it. They were busy, doing whatever such people did in those days, but when they heard, they dropped it all and came. Our most urgent prayer must be that the Spirit grant ears that hear to those who need Him and have not yet heard Him.
    Anniversaries are important for a moment, but they seldom count for much in forming our lives--we celebrate and move on. But on this anniversary of Jesus' human birth, perhaps we will hear better, hear more, hear more completely, and in hearing, receive the grace of more faith, bigger faith, better faith. Perhaps one who has not heard Him before, one you may have thought deaf, will hear Him for the first time and be transformed.
    Hearing can do that, because it is the Lord Who is speaking.
    My family and I extend our wishes to you and yours for a happy, holy Christmas and beyond.
    RMA

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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: 12/24/06 -- Struther: daybreak

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 24, 2006

Christmas Eve

Meditation:
    Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
    -- John 8:12 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    High o’er the lonely hills black turns to gray, Bird-song the valley fills, mists fold away Gray wakes to green again, Beauty is seen again, Gold and serene again dawneth the day. So, o’er the hills of life, stormy, forlorn, Out of the cloud and strife sunrise is born; Swift grows the light for us, Ended is night for us, Soundless and bright for us breaketh God’s morn. Hear we no beat of drums, fanfare, nor cry, When Christ the herald comes quietly nigh; Splendor He makes on earth; Color awakes on earth; Suddenly breaks on earth light from the sky. Bid then farewell to sleep: rise up and run! What though the hill be steep? Strength’s in the sun. Now you shall find at last Night’s left behind at last, And for mankind at last, Day has begun!
    ... Jan Struther (1901-1953)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I great the great Dawn You have sent.

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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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