CQOD: 05/27/07 -- Calvin: resistance to tyrants

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 27, 2007

Pentecost
Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564

Meditation:
    Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
    -- Romans 13:1-7 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    However these deeds of men are judged in themselves, still the Lord accomplished his work through them alike when he broke the bloody scepters of arrogant kings and when he overturned intolerable governments. Let the princes hear and be afraid. But we must, in the meantime, be very careful not to despise or violate that authority of magistrates, full of venerable majesty, which God has established by the weightiest decrees, even though it may reside with the most unworthy men, who defile it as much as they can with their own wickedness. For, if the correction of unbridled despotism is the Lord’s to avenge, let us not at once think that it is entrusted to us, to whom no command has been given except to obey and suffer.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility to obey Your word.

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CQOD: 05/26/07 -- Tertullian: the church

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 26, 2007

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
    -- Matthew 18:19,20 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Wherever there are three persons, even though they are laymen, there is the church. Every man lives by his own faith, and God does not distinguish between classes. Since, in cases of necessity, you have the right to act as a priest, then you must also accept priestly discipline. It is God’s will that all of us should be in the right spiritual state, at any time or place, to administer His sacraments.
    ... Tertullian (160?-230?)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my eyes to the existence of Your church wherever two or three are gathered.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 05/25/07 -- Fray: the origin of ethics

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 25, 2007

Feast of the Venerable Bede, Priest, Monk of Jarrow, Historian, 735
Commemoration of Aldhelm, Abbot of Mamsbury, Bishop of Sherborne, 709

Meditation:
    Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
    -- 1 Peter 5:2,3 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    As we shared together our feelings about the study groups, we realised that we were not meeting together each week for an intellectual exercise: some thing very real and significant was taking place. We were coming to know that the Christian faith is not primarily an ethic; it is not the struggle to do good or be good, but an encounter with Christ, of which morality and ethical living are by-products.
    ... Harold R. Fray, Jr., “The Spirit Making New”

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take away the temptation to "earn" salvation; rather, lead me to see Your grace in all my relationships.

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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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CQOD: 05/24/07 -- Wesley: the infinite God

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 24, 2007

Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
    -- Matthew 11:27 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Matthew 11:27. JESUS, the infinite I AM, With God essentially the same, With him enthroned above all height, As God of God, and Light of Light, Thou art by thy great Father known, From all eternity his Son. Thou only dost the Father know, And wilt to all thy followers show, Who cannot doubt thy gracious will His glorious Godhead to reveal; Reveal him now, if thou art he, And live, eternal Life, in me.
    ... Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Live, eternal Life, in me.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 05/23/07 -- Bruce: impossible accommodations

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 23, 2007

Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century

Meditation:
    Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
    -- 2 Corinthians 4:13-14 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    However the gospel may be defended, it cannot be defended by concessions which deprive it of its essence or which detract from our Savior’s title to be called The Word of God.
    ... Frederick F. Bruce (1910-1991)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, focus my mind on the Word.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 05/22/07 -- Brunner: the assertion of autonomy

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 22, 2007Meditation:
    We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
    -- 1 John 5:19 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    This autonomy of man, this attempt of the Ego to understand itself out of itself, is the lie concerning man which we call sin. The truth about man is that his ground is not in himself but in God—that his essence is not in self sufficient reason but in the Word, in the challenge of God, in responsibility, not in self-sufficiency. The true being of man is realized when he bases himself upon God’s Word. Faith is then not an impossibility or a salto mortale [mortal leap], but that which is truly natural; and the real salto mortale (a mortal leap indeed!) is just the assertion of autonomy, self-sufficiency, God-likeness. [It is] through this usurped independence [that] man separates himself from God, and at the same time isolates himself from his fellows. Individualism is the necessary consequence of rational autonomy, just as love is the necessary consequence of faith.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Word and The World [1931]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must rely on You in all things.

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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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CQOD: 05/21/07 -- Short: serving the unknown god

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 21, 2007

Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330

Meditation:
    Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
    -- Galatians 4:8-11 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The heart’s slavish and dogged devotion to its idol is what fathers of the Church have called “the bondage of the will.” This bondage becomes most painfully apparent in our lives when we earnestly feel the need of changing but cannot; when we are attracted to another value that for one reason or another conflicts with the desires of our true god—that value nearest and dearest to us. But our true god lies so deeply inside us that often we are not even consciously aware of its presence or of what it actually is.
    ... Robert L. Short (b.1932), The Parables of Peanuts [1968]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Purge, Lord, the idols from my heart.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD: 05/20/07 -- Davidman: the reason for the second commandment

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 20, 2007Meditation:
    Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
    -- Colossians 3:5 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The idol-maker may know, more or less clearly, that he is only giving shape to the half-formed concept of God in his head; that his images are solid metaphors—what we call symbols. The skeptical Greek philosopher may remind us that, after all, the image of Athena is only a symbol, only a means of fixing one’s rambling thoughts upon the spirit that is Athena. Yet the idolater will persist in losing sight of the forest for the trees, and the god for the image. The gold and ivory statue of Athena becomes holy in itself, an answerer of prayer, a mysterious source of power, a material object somehow different from other objects. The crucifix, the plaster image, the saint’s relic or miraculous medal or cheaply and illegibly printed Bible may become themselves things considered holy and magical, able to stop a bullet. Worse yet, the god confined in an image is a shrunken and powerless god. Because you have limited your concept of God to a man shape on a carved crucifix, you may be in danger of inferring that you are free to outrage the man shapes walking and breathing around you. Because you worship the god in a specially baked wafer and a specially designed chalice, you may forget to worship the God of all bread and all wine.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain [1955]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I will have no God but 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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