CQOD: 03/28/07 -- Baillie: seeking God for what?

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 28, 2007Meditation:
    Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
    -- Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    To the spiritual perplexity which exercised so many of the rarest souls of the nineteenth century, God appeared as a Being whom men desired to find but could not. But such a formula, though it truly represented one side of their situation, can never represent the whole of any human situation. For God is also a Being whom it ill suits any of us to find but from whom we cannot escape. Part of the reason why men cannot find God is that there is that in Him which they do not desire to find, so that the God whom they are seeking and cannot find is not the God who truly is. Perhaps we could not fail to find God, if it were really God whom we were seeking. And indeed the deepest reality of the situation is that contained in the discovery, which alone is likely at last to resolve our perplexity, that when we were so distressfully seeking that which was not really God, the true God had already found us, though at first we did not know that it was He by whom we had been found. There is a saying, “Be careful what you seek; you might find it.” And some who have sought God only as a complacent ally of their own ambitions have found Him a consuming fire.
    ... John Baillie (1886-1960), Invitation to Pilgrimage [1942]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, banish all idols from my heart.

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CQOD: 03/27/07 -- Manley on Christian unity

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 27, 2007Meditation:
    For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
    -- Romans 8:19-21 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Christian Unity is not a secular unity, and must be prompted by no secular motive. The unity we seek is deeper than anything that the world offers. Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, and even Shintoism have proved their ability to bind men together in a common enterprise with great devotion and self-sacrifice; but these are secular ideals, intermixed with self-interest, the love of master, and the use of force. Christian Unity can only be “in Christ.” It is based on the New Birth and New Life in Christ, and upon the oneness of all the members in the Christ who is the Head. Therefore, “the quest for the unity of the Church must in fact be identical with the quest for Jesus Christ as the concrete Head and Lord of the Church.” (Barth) What kind of unity, then, do we ask? It must be God’s kind, that for which Christ prayed, and which, therefore, must be in the line of God’s purpose. Will He not then take the initiative? It is for us to wait upon Him, and to go through the gates which He opens, to cast up the highway, to gather out the stones of stumbling, to lift up the standard, and to prepare the way of the Lord. (Isa. 62:10)
    ... G. T. Manley, Christian Unity [1945]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, unite us in Your Son.

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CQOD: 03/26/07 -- Dale: happiness from God

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 26, 2007

Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883

Meditation:
    Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned--for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
    -- Romans 5:12-15 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It was not the pleasant things in the world that came from the devil, and the dreary things from God! It was sin “brought death into the world and all our woe;” * as the sin vanishes the woe will vanish too. God Himself is the ever-blessed God. He dwells in the light of joy as well as of purity, and instead of becoming more like Him as we become more miserable, and as all the brightness and glory of life are extinguished, we become more like God as our blessedness becomes more complete. The great Christian graces are radiant with happiness. Faith, hope, charity, there is no sadness in them; and if penitence makes the heart sad, penitence belongs to the sinner, not to the saint.
    ... Robert W. Dale (1829-1895)

* from Paradise Lost, book 1, line 3, by John Milton

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, drive sin from my life!

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CQOD: 03/25/07 -- Barclay: offering ourselves in prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 25, 2007

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary

Meditation:
    And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him...
    -- 1 Kings 19:11-13 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God’s voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Plain Man’s Book of Prayers [1959], Introduction

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me ears to hear.

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CQOD: 03/24/07 -- Kates: lifting a hand in prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 24, 2007

Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953

Meditation:
    I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling...
    -- 1 Timothy 2:8 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    In our praying, we should speak to God about Himself—that is praise; or about His gifts—that is thanksgiving; or about other people—that is intercession; or about our sins—that is confession and penitence; or about our needs—that is petition. Prayer has five fingers, like a hand, and each in turn must be pointed to God, that our prayer may be full and complete.
    ... F. W. Kates (b.1920)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I lift my hands to you in prayer.

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CQOD: 03/23/07 -- Juliana: the elements of prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 23, 2007Meditation:
    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
    -- Romans 8:26 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Its ground: God, by whose goodness it springeth in us. Its use: to turn our will to His will. Its end: to be made one with Him and like to Him in all things.
    ... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your will known in prayer.

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CQOD: 03/22/07 -- Dorotheus: God's help in prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 22, 2007Meditation:
    O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
    -- Psalm 51:15 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    A man who prays without ceasing, if he achieves something, knows why he achieved it, and can take no pride in it... for he cannot attribute it to his own powers, but attributes all his achievements to God, always renders thanks to him and constantly calls upon him, trembling lest he be deprived of help.
    ... Dorotheus of Gaza (7th century)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in prayer, You increase and I decrease.

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CQOD: 03/21/07 -- Calvin: instant recourse to God

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 21, 2007Meditation:
    I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
    -- Psalm 116:1-2 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    (Continued from yesterday) It must be our anxious care, whenever we are ourselves pressed, or see others pressed by any trial, instantly to have recourse to God. And again, in any prosperity of ourselves or others, we must not omit to testify our recognition of God’s hand by praise and thanksgiving. Lastly, we must in all our prayers carefully avoid wishing to confine God to certain circumstances, or prescribe to him the time, place, or mode of action. In like manner, we are taught by [the Lord’s] prayer not to fix any law or impose any condition upon him, but leave it entirely to him to adopt whatever course of procedure seems to him best, in respect of method, time, and place. For, before we offer up any petition for ourselves, we ask that his will may be done, and by so doing place our will in subordination to his, just as if we had laid a curb upon it, that, instead of presuming to give law to God, it may regard him as the ruler and disposer of all its wishes.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559], III.20.50

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are always within reach of my prayers.

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CQOD: 03/20/07 -- Calvin: countering our weakness in prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 20, 2007

Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687

Meditation:
    Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
    -- Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Although we ought always to raise our minds upwards towards God, and pray without ceasing, yet such is our weakness, which requires to be supported, such our torpor, which requires to be stimulated, that it is requisite for us to appoint special hours for this exercise, hours which are not to pass away without prayer, and during which the whole affections of our minds are to be completely occupied; namely, when we rise in the morning, before we commence our daily work, when we sit down to food, when by the blessing of God we have taken it, and when we retire to rest. This, however, must not be a superstitious observance of hours, by which, as it were, performing a task to God, we think we are discharged as to other hours. It should rather be considered a discipline by which our weakness is exercised and stimulated. (Continued tomorrow)
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559], III.20.50

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, how easily I am distracted from prayer!

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CQOD: 03/19/07 -- Gossip: being honest with God

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 19, 2007

Feast of Joseph of Nazareth

Meditation:
    Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
    -- Luke 12:2 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Jeremy Taylor (q.v.) gives us some fundamental rules for prayer. And the chief of them is this: “Do not lie to God.” And that curt piece of advice, so bluntly thrown down for us, is indeed all-important. Do not burn false fire upon God’s altar; do not pose and pretend, either to Him or to yourself, in your religious exercises; do not say more than you mean, or use exaggerated language that goes beyond the facts, when speaking to Him whose word is truth.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), In the Secret Place of the Most High [1947]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, silence my poses, my excuses, my posturing, and my rationalizations.

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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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