CQOD: 10/27/07 -- Rutherford: understanding moods in prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 27, 2007Meditation:
    Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.
    -- Psalm 86:6-8 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Your heart is not the compass that God steers by.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to guide me in Your way.

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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: 10/26/07 -- Wesley: in debt to the rich

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 26, 2007

Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664

Meditation:
    Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
    -- 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Let all our chapels be built plain and decent; but not more expensively than is absolutely unavoidable: otherwise the necessity of raising money will make rich men necessary to us. But if so, we must be dependent upon them, yea, and governed by them. And then farewell to the Methodist-discipline, if not doctrine too.
    ... John Wesley, instructions to Methodists in the U.S. [1784]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, instruct my heart, so that my wealth does not become a curse.

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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: 10/25/07 -- Bennett: euphemisms for "sinner"

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 25, 2007

Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285

Meditation:
    You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
    -- Psalm 5:4,5 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The word “sinner” often proves a great obstacle to understanding, but let us use other words. Let us say that man is the kind of creature who naturally sees the world from a very limited perspective, that he tends to be self-centered and to prefer the interests that are closest to himself and to his own social group. Let us say that man is naturally unwilling to accept his limited or finite status, that he is always seeking to extend his control over others, that he seeks to maintain his own security by means of power over all who may threaten it, that he likes to be in a position to compare himself with others to their disadvantage, that he seeks to be self-sufficient and to deny in effect his dependence upon God and to set up his own group or system or ideal in the place of God.
    ... John C. Bennett (b.1902)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that honors 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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CQOD: 10/24/07 -- Hoskyns: the creeds

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 24, 2007Meditation:
    Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
    Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
    He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
    -- Mark 3:1-6 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The Creeds were formulated gradually, as a result of a series of desperate controversies—controversies which are now named sometimes after the supposed leaders and representatives of a particular interpretation of the Christian religion, and sometimes after the particular interpretation itself. I need not now attempt to make precise these heresies, as they came to be called. It is necessary only to point out that in various ways all these heresies were simplifications. By means of them the revelation of God to men was made, or appeared to be made, less scandalous. On the other hand, the various clauses of the Creed were not formulated as a new simplification, or as an alternative-ism. They were nothing more than emphatic statements of the Biblical scandal, statements which brought into sharp antagonism the new simplification and the old, Scriptural, many-sided and vigorous truth.
    ... E. C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We Are the Pharisees [1960]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Prevent me, Lord, from watering down the Gospel in my conversations and in my life.

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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: 10/23/07 -- Pascal: the hidden God

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 23, 2007Meditation:
    No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
    -- John 6:46,47 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    If the mercy of God is so great that He can instruct us, to our salvation, even when He hides Himself, what a brilliance of light we must expect when He reveals Himself!
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées [1660]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me eyes that can bear to look on 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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CQOD: 10/22/07 -- Maurice: the beam in my own eye

Christian Quotation of the Day

October 22, 2007Meditation:
    [Jesus:] "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
    -- Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Christians in general are far too eager to urge special exceptions when they hear these charges [of corruption in the church] preferred; far too ready to make out a case for themselves while they admit their application to others; far too ready to think that the cause of God is interested in the suppression of facts. The prophets should have taught us a different lesson. They should have led us to feel that it was a solemn duty, not to conceal, but to bring forward all the evidence which proves, not that one country is better than another, or one portion of the church better than another, but that there is a principle of decay, a tendency to apostasy in all, and that no comfort can come from merely balancing symptoms of good here against symptoms of evil there, no comfort from considering whether we are a little less contentious, a little less idolatrous than our neighbors.
    ... F. D. Maurice (1805-1872), Prophets and Kings [1853]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cleanse the church for Your name's sake.

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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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