The Christian Quotation of the Day: 2007-01-07

CQOD: 01/10/07 -- Atkinson: church focus

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 10, 2007Meditation:
[Jesus:] For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
-- Mark 8:36-38 (ESV)

Quotation:
The Gospel commission is the key to all problems of church history, large or small. It is the key to the success or failure of the many organizations built up to form the channels of witness to the world. Churches, societies, individuals, ... have concerned themselves with this or that theological problem. They have made worship central instead of the Gospel commission. They have concerned themselves with their relations with the State. They have concentrated on philanthropy and social service. Wherever they have done this and have forgotten the purpose for which the Master has placed them in the world, wherever they have lost the Master’s vision of a perishing humanity, wherever they have become inattentive to the cry of spiritual anguish, the Spirit has passed them by, and when they have persisted He has extinguished the light of their witness. And the pages of church history are strewn with their wreckage. They may have shouted their loyalty to Christ, they may even have suffered for Him. But if once they have forgotten that our Lord combined in a single phrase “for My sake and the Gospel’s,” devotion to Himself and loyalty to His commission, they have lost their influence and sunk into spiritual death.
... B. F. C. Atkinson (b.1895), Valiant in Fight [1937]

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, grant an opening to share the Gospel with _____ and _____.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 01/09/07 -- Barclay: the Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 9, 2007Meditation:
And when he had said this, [Jesus] breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
-- John 20:22 (ESV)

Quotation:
We may not understand how the spirit works; but the effect of the Spirit on the lives of men is there for all to see; and the only unanswerable argument for Christianity is a Christian life. No man can disregard a religion and a faith and a power which is able to make bad men good.
... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John [1975] (Vol.1), p. 122

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, Your Holy Spirit has made my life worth living.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
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Comments and problems: email to curator@cqod.com

CQOD: 01/08/07 -- Calvin: loving an adversary

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 8, 2007

Commemoration of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, martyrs, Ecuador, 1956

Meditation:
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
-- 1 Corinthians 6:1-3 (ESV)

Quotation:
A lawsuit, however just, can never be rightly prosecuted by any man, unless he treat his adversary with the same love and good will as if the business under controversy were already amicably settled and composed. Perhaps someone will interpose here that such moderation is so uniformly absent from any lawsuit that it would be a miracle if any such were found. Indeed, I admit that, as the customs of these times go, an example of an upright litigant is rare; but the thing itself, when not corrupted by the addition of anything evil, does not cease to be good and pure.
... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

Quiet time reflection:
Show me, Lord, how I must love my enemies.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 01/07/07 -- Church: the House of Prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 7, 2007Meditation:
And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant--these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
-- Isaiah 56:6-7 (ESV)

Quotation:
God has set in the midst of you, as the ever present witness and figure of heaven, His holy House of Prayer. There it stands, built for no earthly purpose, different in shape, and in all things belonging to it, from earthly habitations; speaking only of heaven, and heavenly uses, and heavenly gifts, and heavenly blessings; the gate of heaven when we are brought into it as little children to Christ; the gate of heaven, if so God grant us, when we are brought to it, and pass through it the last time on our way to our grave beside it. And here we meet our God.
... R. W. Church (1815-1890), Village Sermons [1897]

Quiet time reflection:
Bring me, Lord, to Your house with my brother.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, 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