CQOD: 11/13/07 -- Gossip: evaluating the church

Christian Quotation of the Day

November 13, 2007

Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836

Meditation:
    "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."
    -- Revelation 2:1-5 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The Church seems to have lost heart somewhat, has allowed the old assurance and enthusiasm to cool below the temperature at which big things get done, is always whimpering and complaining about something, has developed a foolish trick of gathering into corners in discouraged groups and bleating disconsolately that God seems to be strangely little in our day, the very mood that so maddened the Hebrew prophets that they itched to lay violent hands upon their countrymen, and literally shake it out of them. We Church people have become so prone to loud and abusive self-depreciation that the thing amounts to a disease... and though these doleful spirits are not altogether serious, the world is listening, and takes us, not unnaturally, at our own dismal and unflattering valuation.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent [1926]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, encourage Your church with Your presence.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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