CQOD: 01/20/07 -- Eckhart: more blessed than joy

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 20, 2007

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349

Meditation:
    But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.
    -- 2 Corinthians 10:17,18 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    Love ... is very noticeable as fervor and devotion and jubilation, and is yet not always the best thing; for sometimes it is not from love but is caused by nature that one has such taste and sweetness; or it may be a heavenly impression or it may be produced by the senses, and those who have most of this are not always the best. For even if it should be from God, our Lord gives this to such men in order to attract and charm them, and also to detach them from others. But if these same people later grow in love, they may not have so many feelings, and then it will become clear that they have love, if they remain wholly faithful to God without any such support.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Spiritual Instructions

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let me not celebrate too much, ignoring Your call to do and be more.

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CQOD: 01/19/07 -- Harper: the Potter's gentle touch

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 19, 2007

Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095

Meditation:
    But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
    -- Isaiah 64:8 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    There are a number of Hebrew words about salvation which also mean “to bring into a spacious environment,” “to be at one’s ease,” “to be free to develop.” “Salvation” can be seen then as the new life in Christ, in which we are to be “free to develop” into Christ-like people. For this maturing to take place, there needs to be a breaking down of barriers, a breaking up of the soil of our personalities, and a healing of inner wounds and hurts. The soil is softened, the clay becomes malleable through the experience of the tender love of God and the accepting, non-judgmental love of Christians. We cannot be beaten into shape.
    ... Michael Harper, “Christian Maturing”

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You give the growth.

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CQOD: 01/18/07 -- Carmichael: love and giving

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 18, 2007

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951

Meditation:
    Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
    -- Luke 12:33-34 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create a heart in me like Christ's.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 01/17/07 -- Drummond: Christ changes men

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 17, 2007

Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932

Meditation:
    Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
    -- Philippians 2:5 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    Souls are not made sweet by taking [ill tempers] out, but by putting something in—a great Love, a new Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This can only eradicate what is wrong, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does. Therefore “Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
    ... Henry Drummond (1851-1897), “The Greatest Thing in the World” [1892]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Christ, I seek Your mind.

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CQOD: 01/16/07 -- Fénelon: silence

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 16, 2007Meditation:
    Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
    -- Zechariah 2:13 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Silence promotes the presence of God, prevents many harsh and proud words, and suppresses many dangers in the way of ridiculing or harshly judging our neighbors... If you are faithful in keeping silence when it is not necessary to speak, God will preserve you from evil when it is right for you to talk.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the gift of silence, that I may listen for Your voice.

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CQOD: 01/15/07 -- Gossip: after Christ enters

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 15, 2007Meditation:
    Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
    -- Psalm 51:10-12 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    But, you object, a heart like mine can offer Christ so little—at best, so poor and pinched and stingey a hospitality and such meagre fare; for I have nothing worthy of Him to set before Him, only a kind of affection, real enough at times, but which, at others, can and does so easily forget; only a will, quite unreliable, deplorably unstable; only a faith that is the merest shadow of what His real friends mean when they speak about faith, I know. But, there was once a garret up under the roof, a poor, bare place enough. There was a table in it, and there were some benches, and a water-pot; a towel, and a basin in behind the door, but not much else—a bare, unhomelike room. But the Lord Christ entered into it. And, from that moment, it became the holiest of all, where souls innumerable ever since have met the Lord God, in High glory, face to face. And, if you give Him entrance to that very ordinary heart of yours, it too He will transform and sanctify and touch with a splendor of glory.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope [1944]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You wash my heart clean as snow.

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CQOD: 01/14/07 -- Allen: unity in the Holy Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 14, 2007

Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915

Meditation:
    Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.
    -- 1 Corinthians 12:3 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It will perhaps be said that in our present state of schism this assertion of spiritual principle [as in 1 Cor. 12:3] can give us no definite guidance for action, can provide us with no clear program, and must remain unfruitful. Surely that is not wholly true. It certainly must help us if we recognize that it is the presence of the Holy Spirit which creates a unity which we can never create. If men believe in the existence of this unity, they may begin to desire it, and desiring it to seek for it, and seeking it to find it. If, when they find it, they refuse to deny it, in due time, by ways now unsearchable, they will surely return to external communion.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Pentecost and the World [1917]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we acknowledge that our unity comes from Your Spirit alone.

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CQOD: 01/13/07 -- Augustine: dominion

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 13, 2007

Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603

Meditation:
    For this perhaps is why [Onesimus] was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother--especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
    -- Philemon 1:15-16 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Having made man in His own image, a rational being, He meant him to be lord only over irrational beings: not man set over man, but man set over beasts. The first cause of servitude is sin, by which man is subjected to man by the bonds of his condition... But by that nature in which God formerly created man, nobody is slave either to man or to sin.
    ... St. Augustine (354-430), The City of God [426]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Make plain to me, Lord, my mistreatment of those under me.

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CQOD: 01/12/07 -- Grigg: faith

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 12, 2007

Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689

Meditation:
    I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
    -- Philemon 1:4-6 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    “The clergy,” says Canon Rhymes, “are called to give to the laity the benefit of their theological understanding and so help them to account for and understand the faith which is in them.” But surely there is no point in trying to account for faith: the moment it is accounted for rationally, it is no longer faith. Those whose hearts are filled with the Christian spirit... are best left to proclaim the Gospel in their own words and, above all, through the example of their own lives.
    ... John Grigg (b.1924)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gift of faith has no equal.

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CQOD: 01/11/07 -- Law: the workings of the self

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 11, 2007

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915

Meditation:
    If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
    -- Galatians 5:25-26 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Covetousness, pride, and envy are not three different things, but only three different names for the restless workings of one and the same will or desire. Wrath, which is a fourth birth from these three, can have no existence till one or all of these three are contradicted, or have something done to them that is contrary to their will. These four properties generate their own torment. They have no outward cause, nor any inward power of altering themselves. And therefore all self or nature must be in this state until some supernatural good comes into it, or gets a birth in it. Whilst man indeed lives among the vanities of time, his covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath may be in a tolerable state, may hold him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have at times their gratifications as well as their torments. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not born again of the Supernatural Word and Spirit of God, must find itself unavoidably devoured and shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me my pride, that I may know how I offend You.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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