Friday, February 23, 2007

CQOD: 02/23/07 -- Polycarp: who will be raised?

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 23, 2007
Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
    -- 1 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV)

Quotation:
    He who was raised from the dead will raise us also, if we do His will and live by His commands and love what He loved, refraining from all injustice, covetousness, love of money, evil-speaking, false witness, not returning evil for evil or abuse for abuse, or blow for blow, or curse for curse, but remembering what the Lord said when He taught: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged; forgive and you will be forgiven; have mercy so that you may be shown mercy; with the measure you use men will measure back to you; and blessed are the poor and those who are persecuted for their uprightness, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.
    ... St. Polycarp (69?-155?), Letter to the Philippians

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we rise in You.


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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

CQOD: 02/22/07 -- Moffatt: writings about the new covenant

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 22, 2007
Meditation:
    Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
    -- Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV)

Quotation:
    In the communities of the faithful, men had to impress upon themselves and upon others what Jesus said and did, for the more convinced they were that he was neither a Jewish pretender nor an unsubstantial deity like one of the deities of the cults, the more urgent it was for them to recall that his words were the rule of their life, and that his actions in history had created their position in the world; they had to think out their faith, to state it against outside criticism, and to teach it within their own circle, instead of being content with it as a mere emotion; they had also to refresh their courage by anticipating the future, which they believed was in the hands of their Lord. The common basis of their life was the conviction that they enjoyed a new relationship with God, for which they were indebted to Jesus. The technical term for this relationship was “covenant,” and “covenant” became eventually in their vocabulary “testament.” Hence the later name for these writings of the church, when gathered into a sacred collection, was “The New Testament”—New because the older relationship of God to his people, which had obtained under Judaism, with its Old Testament, was superseded by the faith and fellowship which Jesus Christ his Son had inaugurated. It was the consciousness of this that inspired the early Christians to live, and to write about the origin and applications of this new life. They wrote for their own age, without a thought of posterity, and they did not write in unison but in harmony.
    ... James Moffatt (1870-1944)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank You for sending Your word to Your people.


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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

CQOD: 02/21/07 -- Lake: faith despite the price

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 21, 2007
Ash Wednesday
Meditation:
    ... nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
    -- 2 Timothy 1:12b (KJV)

Quotation:
    Faith is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequences—a courageous trust in the great purpose of all things, and pressing forward to finish the work which is in sight, whatever the price may be.
    ... Kirsopp Lake (1872-1946), Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity [1920]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are sovereign in all consequences.


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CQOD: 02/20/07 -- Kraemer: the primary loyalty of Christians

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 20, 2007
Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906
Meditation:
    But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
    -- 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

Quotation:
    Most Christians live in confusion in regard to their scales of values and priorities. Many honest Christian people experience the shock of a revelation when they are brought to realize that their membership of the Church constitutes a loyalty prior to their loyalty to the nation to which they belong. Patriotism is one of the powerful underground pseudo-religions of to-day, not merely nationalism. The fundamental notion that the Christians are a “peculiar people” that never is identical, or even can be, with a people in the biological, national sense of the word, is largely asleep. It can only become awake by a new grasp of the biblical truth that the Church is the “people of God,” an elect race composed of people out of all nations, transcending all nations and races.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity [1958]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the blessing of Your presence spreads into all of life.


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CQOD: 02/19/07 -- Lichtenberger: what is man?

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 19, 2007
Meditation:
    Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD.
    -- Ezekiel 45:9 (ESV)

Quotation:
    As Christians we believe that man is not a thing; he is not a commodity to be bought and sold, and he is not to be used in an impersonal way. Man, a child of God, is a person with a personal destiny and with eternal value. This Christian belief underlies the democratic principle that the State, first of all, exists for the sake of its citizens; the individual is important... As Christians we also believe that we are made for one another because we are made for God. “Solidarity” is a good word for our essential condition. Beneath all our differences is a unity... This Christian belief underlies a second basic democratic principle, which is, in governing themselves, people of a community—in a town, a city, a state, a nation—can, despite inevitable conflicts, press effectively toward the goal of justice and liberty for all.
    ... Arthur Lichtenberger, The Day is at Hand [1964]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your kingdom come on this earth.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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