Wednesday, January 09, 2008

CQOD: 01/19/08 -- Rutherford: the pearl

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 19, 2008
Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
    -- Matthew 13:45 (NIV)

Quotation:
    See that you buy the field where the Pearl is; sell all, and make a purchase of salvation. Think it not easy: for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory: many are lying dead by the way, slain with security.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), letter, Feb. 20, 1637

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Kingdom is more precious than the whole world.


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CQOD: 01/18/08 -- Carmichael: lavish love

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 18, 2008
Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
    -- Romans 8:32 (KJV)

Quotation:
    St. Paul had a lovely way of letting his letters break out into song every now and then. ([Dr. Arthur] Way’s translation shows this.) One line in a song that comes in Romans 8 has been a great help to me. Way calls the song a “Hymn of Triumph to Jesus.” This is the line: “How can He [the Father] but, in giving Him [Jesus], lavish on us all things—all?” “Freely give” means to give lavishly. What do I need today? Strength? Peace? Patience? Heavenly joy? Industry? Good temper? Power to help others? Inward contentment? Courage? Whatever it be, my God will lavish it upon me.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Edges of His Ways, SPCK, London: 1955, p. 15

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have showered me with Your abundant life.


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CQOD: 01/17/08 -- Newbigin: the mark of the Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 17, 2008
Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
    -- Romans 8:23 (KJV)

Quotation:
    The counterpart of this withdrawal of Christ [the ascension] from the reach of the senses was the gift to the apostles of the Holy Spirit by whom Christ was made present to them in a new way. They now knew him no more by sight and after the flesh; they had His Spirit. And this “having” is both a real possession and a foretaste, an earnest of what is in store... The Spirit assures us that we are heirs of a kingdom yet to be revealed (Rom. 8:17). The Spirit wars in us against the flesh (Gal. 5:17) and gives us assurance that even our mortal bodies shall be quickened (Rom. 8:11). Meanwhile the very mark of the Spirit’s presence is that we groan waiting for our adoption (Rom. 8:23) and hoping for that which we do not yet see (Rom. 8:24,25).
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, SCM Press, London: 1953, p. 128

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent Your hope to live within me.


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CQOD: 01/16/08 -- Hodge: made like Christ

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 16, 2008
Meditation:
    For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
    -- Romans 8:29 (KJV)

Quotation:
    The call intended is the effectual call of the Holy Spirit, by which the soul is renewed and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The only evidence of election is therefore vocation, and the only evidence of vocation, is holiness of heart and life, for we are called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Compare again Romans 8:29, where believers are said to be “predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son.” To this they are effectually called. They are made like Christ. Fellowship includes union and communion. We are called to be partakers of Christ; partakers of his life, as members of his body; and therefore, partakers of his character, of his sufferings here and of his glory hereafter.
    ... Charles Hodge (1797-1878), An Exposition of I Corinthians, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York, 1860, p. 10

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You loved me before I knew You.


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CQOD: 01/15/08 -- Dodd: prayer of the Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 15, 2008
Meditation:
    And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
    -- Romans 8:27 (KJV)

Quotation:
    For the Spirit we have received is the Spirit of the Son of God, and we possessing it are God’s sons too, and “that of God in us” leaps out towards the God who is the source of it. The Spirit of Jesus within us moves us to prayer: indeed, prayer is just the moving of God’s Son in us towards the Father. Though we are burdened with the greatness of our need, so that our prayers are not even articulate, yet in such “inarticulate sighs” the Spirit “intercedes for us.”
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today [1920]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your will known to Your servants.


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CQOD: 01/14/08 -- Sanday & Headlam: we are not left helpless

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 14, 2008
Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
    -- Romans 8:26 (KJV)

Quotation:
    Nor are we alone in our struggles. The Holy Spirit supports our helplessness. Left to ourselves we do not know what prayers to offer or how to offer them. But in those inarticulate groans which rise from the depth of our being, we recognize the voice of none other than the Holy Spirit. He makes intercession; and His intercession is sure to be answered. For God Who searches the inmost recesses of the heart can interpret His own Spirit’s meaning. He knows that His own Will regulates Its petitions, and that they are offered for men dedicated to His service.
    ... William Sanday (1843-1920) & Arthur C. Headlam (1862-1947), A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 212 [1896]

Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, sanctify my prayer.


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CQOD: 01/13/08 -- Bruce: the present affliction

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 13, 2008
Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
    -- Romans 8:18 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The glory to come far outweighs the affliction of the present. The affliction is light and temporary when compared with the all-surpassing and everlasting glory. So Paul, writing against a background of recent and (even for him) unparalleled tribulation, had assured his friends in Corinth a year or two before this that ‘this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ (2 Cor. 4:17). It is not merely that the glory is a compensation for the suffering; it actually grows out of the suffering. There is an organic relation between the two for the believer as surely as there was for the Lord.
    ... F. F. Bruce (1910-1991), The Letter of Paul to the Romans, An Introduction and Commentary, p. 159 [1997]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me so that I might see the glory to come.


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CQOD: 01/12/08 -- Watts: The Witnessing and Sealing Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 12, 2008
Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
    For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
    -- Romans 8:13,14 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The Witnessing and Sealing Spirit
    Why should the children of a king
        Go mourning all their days?
    Great Comforter, descend and bring
        Some tokens of thy grace.

    Dost though not dwell in all thy saints,
        And seal the heirs of heaven?
    When wilt thou banish my complaints,
        And show my sins forgiven?

    Assure my conscience of her part
        In the Redeemer’s blood;
    And bear thy witness with my heart,
        That I am born of God.

    Thou are the earnest of his love,
        The pledge of joys to come;
    And thy soft wings, celestial Dove,
        Will safe convey me home.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], Book I, Hymn 144

Quiet time reflection:
    Abba, Father! send Your joy.


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CQOD: 01/11/08 -- Stott: the Spirit in discipleship

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 11, 2008
Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
Meditation:
    For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
    -- Romans 8:3 (KJV)

Quotation:
    The essential contrast which Paul paints is between the weakness of the law and the power of the Spirit. For over against indwelling sin, which is the reason the law is unable to help us in our moral struggle (Rom. 7:17, 20), Paul now sets the indwelling Spirit, who is both our liberator now from ‘the law of sin and death’ (Rom. 8:2) and the guarantee of resurrection and eternal glory in the end (Rom. 8:11, 17, 23). Thus the Christian life is essentially life in the Spirit, that is to say, a life which is animated, sustained, directed and enriched by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit true Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, indeed impossible.
    ... John R. W. Stott (b.1921), Romans: Encountering the Gospel's Power [1998]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit alone directs me to the good that You have planned.


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CQOD: 01/10/08 -- Luther: the flesh in Romans

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 10, 2008
Meditation:
    That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
    -- Romans 8:4,5 (KJV)

Quotation:
    You must not understand flesh here as denoting only unchastity or spirit as denoting only the inner heart. Here St. Paul calls flesh (as does Christ in John 3) everything born of flesh, i.e. the whole human being with body and soul, reason and senses, since everything in him tends toward the flesh. That is why you should know enough to call that person “fleshly” who, without grace, fabricates, teaches and chatters about high spiritual matters. You can learn the same thing from Galatians, chapter 5, where St. Paul calls heresy and hatred works of the flesh. And in Romans, chapter 8, he says that, through the flesh, the law is weakened. He says this, not of unchastity, but of all sins, most of all of unbelief, which is the most spiritual of vices.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), “Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans”

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that follows the way of the Spirit.


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CQOD: 01/09/08 -- Griffith Thomas: different, yet the same

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 9, 2008
Meditation:
    There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
    -- Romans 8:1,2 (KJV)

Quotation:
    It is essential to preserve with care both sides of this truth. Christ and the Spirit are different yet the same, the same yet different. Perhaps the best expression we can give is that while their Personalities are never identical, their presence always is.
    ... W. H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924), The Holy Spirit of God , p. 144 [1913].

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are present to me always!


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Sunday, January 06, 2008

CQOD: 01/08/08 -- Laubach: Romans 8

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 8, 2008
Commemoration of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, martyrs, Ecuador, 1956
Meditation:

Dear friends of CQOD,
    Today is the twelfth anniversary of the Christian Quotation of the Day service. I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for the continued interest you have shown in this little ministry. It is my prayer that CQOD will continue to stimulate the readers towards a deeper knowledge of God and His Word. As always, gratitude is due to GospelCom.net for their impeccable and irreplaceable service.
    As a special observance, I have chosen an excerpt from The Inspired Letters in Clearest English, a translation into simple English of the letters of the New Testament, prepared by Frank C. Laubach, a twentieth-century champion of literacy and Bible translation in many countries, and a man God used mightily to spread His Word. This little volume is written in a very limited vocabulary (about 200 words, apart from proper names), intended to maximize comprehension. It is the product of a lifetime of making the Gospel known to people of limited literacy.
    In his introduction, Laubach states a demanding principle: “A book is not translated into our language until we know what it means.” Conveying the meaning was the whole point of his efforts. I do not know what role this work played in the emergence of the many paraphrases of the Bible that have appeared since 1956, when this book was published, but surely it contributed to the consciousness that contemporary language needs to be harnessed as a tool for conveying the Gospel. Laubach cites The American Bible Society and Dr. Eugene Nida as significant contributors to the book.
    Moreover, considering how poorly the world understands Christ and His message, it seemed helpful to make available a compact expression of the Gospel in straightforward language as a resource for personal evangelism. To me, that describes Romans 8, of which Sanday and Headlam [1896] wrote, “It describes the innermost circle of the Christian life from its beginning to its end—that life of which the Apostle speaks [in Col. 3:10] as ‘hid with Christ in God.’” I hope that it will be useful to each of you in your work for the Great Commission. Following is a short series of quotations and excerpts on subjects closely related to this text.
    RMA


Quotation:

Epistle to the Romans, chapter 8

    There is now no sentence of death for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Spirit has its own law, and this law gives me life in Christ Jesus. It sets me free from sin and death. What the law of Moses could not do because our flesh was too weak, God has done. He sent His son in flesh like our sinning flesh. Christ died as a sin-offering for us. In this way, God passed a death sentence upon sin in the flesh. Now we are able to live as the just law requires if we obey the Spirit and do not obey the call of the flesh.
    Those who live for the Spirit keep their minds on the things of the Spirit. Those who live for the flesh keep their minds on the things of the flesh. To keep the mind on the flesh means death. But to keep the mind on the Spirit means life and peace. The mind that is set on the flesh is the enemy of God. It does not and cannot obey the law of God. Those who live for the flesh cannot please God.
    But you do not live for the flesh. You live for the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really lives in you. Any man who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. If Christ lives in you, your bodies are dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive and you love what is right. The Spirit of God Who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And God is going to put life into your bodies just as He raised Christ Jesus from the dead. It is His Spirit which lives in you which will be your life.
    So then, brothers, we do not owe a duty to the flesh. We are not to obey the call of the flesh. If you live for the flesh you will die. But if you are led by the Spirit, and put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. You did not receive the spirit of a slave, to make you fear. But we have received the spirit of a Son of God. That is why we cry, “Father, dear Father.” The Spirit of God is bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of God. If we are God’s children we are also to be God’s heirs. We are fellow-heirs with Christ. If we share His sufferings, we shall also share His glory. I do not consider the sufferings of this present time worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
    Even the created world is waiting with eager desire for the sons of God to appear. Every created thing has been put under the power of death and decay. Nothing wants to die or decay, but God has willed it so. Yet He gave us hope that the created world itself will be set free from decay and death. Then everything in the world will obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole created world has been groaning in the pains of childbirth until now. Not only the world around us, but we ourselves have been groaning within. We are waiting for God to deliver our bodies from the power of death. We are waiting for Him to adopt us as His sons. This is the hope that saves us. If it had already happened we would not need to hope for it. Who hopes for a thing after he has it? But if we still hope for what we do not yet see, we must be patient while we wait for it.
    The Holy Spirit is a glorious first fruit of what God plans to give us. The Holy Spirit helps us, because we are weak. We do not know how we ought to pray. But the Holy Spirit Himself keeps praying for us with sighs too deep for words. God Who can see into men’s hearts, knows what the Spirit desires. And the Spirit keeps praying for God’s people in the way God wishes. We know that God works with those who love Him to bring good out of everything.
    Those who love Him have been called according to His purpose. He knew them before they were born and He had chosen them to become like His son. Jesus was the first born and those whom God has chosen are His brothers. Those whom God chose He called. He cleared all charges against those whom He called. He gave His own glory to those whose charges He cleared.
    What then can we say if this is true? God is for us, so who can be against us. God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. And God will gladly give us all things along with Christ. Who then shall bring any charges against those whom God has chosen? It was God Who cleared their charges, so who dares to condemn them? Christ Jesus died; He was raised from the dead; He is at the right hand of God. And it is He who pleads for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or pain or ill treatment or hunger or need of clothes or danger or death? As it is written:

    “For Thy sake we face death the whole day;
    we are regarded as sheep to be killed.”

Yet in all these things that happen we shall have victory and more than victory by the help of Him Who loved us. I am sure that nothing shall be able to separate us from Christ, in life or in death. Neither angels nor even the princes of the dark spirit world can separate us from Christ. Nothing now and nothing that shall ever come can separate us. No power, no height, no depth, nor anything God has created will be able to separate us from His love which He gave us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    ... prepared by Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970), The Inspired Letters in Clearest English [1954]

Quiet time reflection:
    Thank you, Lord, for Your gift of the Holy Spirit.


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CQOD: 01/07/08 -- Calvin: foreknowledge

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 7, 2008
Meditation:
    Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
    -- 1 Peter 1:1,2 (NIV)

Quotation:
    When we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things always were, and perpetually remain, under his eyes, so that to his knowledge there is nothing future or past, but all things are present. And they are present in such a way that he not only conceives them through ideas, as we have before us those things which our minds remember, but he truly looks upon them and discerns them as things placed before him. And this foreknowledge is extended throughout the universe to every creature. We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he determined with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or death.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we stand or fall according to Your word.


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CQOD: 01/06/08 -- MacDonald: faith in God's promises

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 6, 2008
EPIPHANY
Meditation:
    Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
    -- 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV)

Quotation:
    What should I think of my child, if I found that he limited his faith in me and hope from me to the few promises he had heard me utter! The faith that limits itself to the promises of God seems to me to partake of the paltry character of such a faith in my child—good enough for a Pagan, but for a Christian a miserable and wretched faith. Those who rest in such a faith would feel yet more comfortable if they had God’s bond instead of His word, which they regard not as the outcome of His character but as a pledge of His honor. They try to believe in the truth of His word, but the truth of His Being they understand not. In His oath they persuade themselves that they put confidence: in himself they do not believe, for they know Him not.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Higher Faith,” Unspoken Sermons, Series One [1867]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the Truth eternal.


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CQOD: 01/05/08 -- Pinnock: a wheel within a wheel

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 5, 2008
Meditation:
    Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
    -- John 18:36 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Though sympathizing with the revolutionaries’ analysis of what was wrong with society and in fact being mistaken for a revolutionary himself by the political authorities of his day, nevertheless Jesus did not advocate a new political regime to be established by force through revolutionary action. He called for the love of our enemies, not their destruction; ... for readiness to suffer instead of using force; for forgiveness instead of hate and revenge. One might even say [that] Jesus was more revolutionary than the revolutionaries, or revolutionary in a very different way. The revolution he had in mind was a radical change of heart on the part of mankind, involving conversion away from selfishness and toward the willing service of God and of people in general.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (b.1937), Reason Enough [1980]

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have changed Your people.


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