Thursday, January 03, 2008

CQOD: 01/04/08 -- Butterfield: the hand of God in history

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 4, 2008
Meditation:
    And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
    -- Ezekiel 36:27,28 (NIV)

Quotation:
    I am unable to see how a man can find the hand of God in secular history unless he has first found an assurance of it in his personal experience.
    ... Herbert Butterfield (1900-1979), Christianity and History, Scribner's, New York, 1950, p. 107

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your hand has guided all the circumstances of my life.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 01/03/08 -- Law: solid bases for hope

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 3, 2008
Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    Jesus said to [Martha], "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
    -- John 11:25,26 (NIV)

Quotation:
    If Religion has raised us into a new world, if it has filled us with new ends of life, if it has taken possession of our hearts, and altered the whole turn of our minds, if it has changed all our ideas of things, given us a new set of hopes and fears, and taught us to live by the realities of an invisible world—then we may humbly hope that we are true followers of the Holy Jesus, and such as may rejoice in the Day of Christ.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You alone I have life abundant.


See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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Monday, December 31, 2007

CQOD: 01/02/08 -- Donne: where your treasure is

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 2, 2008
Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
    For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
    -- Matthew 6:21 (NIV)

Quotation:
    I have seen minute-glasses: glasses so short liv’d! If I were to preach upon this text (Matt. 6:21), to such a glass, it would be enough for half the sermon, enough to show the worldly man his treasure, and the object of his Heart, to call his eye to that minute-glass, and to tell him, “There flows, there flies, your treasure, and your heart with it.”
    But if I had a secular glass, a glass that would run an age; if the two hemispheres of the world were composed in the form of such a glass, and all the world burnt to ashes, and all the ashes, and the sands, and atoms of the world put into that glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man what his treasure, and the object of his heart is. A parrot will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a council table, than any Ambrose, or any Chrysostom, men that have gold and honey in their names, shall tell us what the treasure of heaven is, and that man’s peace, that hath set his Heart upon that treasure.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), XXVI Sermons [1660/1]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my hands were empty, but You have placed in them treasure beyond measure.


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CQOD: 01/01/08 -- Trench: one short hour

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 1, 2008
Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.
    -- Psalm 28:6-9 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Lord, what a change within us one short hour
    Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!
    What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
    What parched ground refresh as with a shower!
    We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
    We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
    Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear;
    We kneel, how weak! we rise, how full of power!
    Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
    Or other, that we are not always strong,
    That we are ever overborne with care,
    That we should ever weak or heartless be,
    Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
    And joy and strength and courage are with Thee!
    ... Richard Chevenix Trench (1807-1886)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the source from which I drink and thirst no more.


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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 12/31/07 -- Sergeant: the principles of the Lollards

Christian Quotation of the Day

December 31, 2007
Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
    -- 2 Timothy 1:13,14 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The gist of what Wycliffe* has to say on every point is practically this, that where the Church and the Bible do not agree, we must prefer the Bible; that where authority and conscience appear to be rival guides, we shall be much safer in following conscience; and that where the letter and the spirit seem to be in conflict, the spirit is above the letter.
    ... Lewis Sergeant

* John Wycliffe, "morningstar of the Reformation" (1320?-1384)

Quiet time reflection:
    Praise to You, Lord, for Your precious Word.


See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page:    http://www.cqod.com/
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