The Christian Quotation of the Day: 2008-01-20

CQOD: 01/31/08 -- Guinness: the believer's encounter

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 31, 2008

Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888

Meditation:
    In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
    At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
    "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
    Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
    -- Isaiah 6:1-7 (NIV)

Quotation:
In his experience of God, a Christian has a strong sense of his individuality, never of his unity with God. Expressed more sharply, he has a strong sense of the Creator-creature distinction, never of merging or absorption. Or, to put it more sharply still, a Christian has a sense of his moral sin and not just of his metaphysical smallness in the face of the beyond. The dilemma for man is not who he is but what he has done. His predicament is not that he is small, but that he is sinful.
... Os Guinness (b.1941), The Dust of Death [1973]

Quiet time reflection:
Purge my sin, Lord, that I may be in Your presence.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 01/30/08 -- Bounds: devotion and prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 30, 2008Meditation:
There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
-- Luke 2:36-38 (NIV)

Quotation:
Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of devotion is the spirit of prayer. Prayer and devotion are united as soul and body are united, as life and the heart are united. There is no real prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer.
... E. M. Bounds (1835-1913), Preacher and Prayer, Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, Dallas, Tex., 1907, p. 61

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, drive empty devotion away and fill my heart with desire for prayer.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
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Comments and problems: email to curator@cqod.com

CQOD: 01/29/08 -- Eckhart: God is near

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 29, 2008Meditation:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...
-- Colossians 1:9,10 (NIV)

Quotation:
No man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready, but we are very unready. God is near us, but we are far from Him. God is within, and we are without. God is friendly; we are estranged.
... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), from Meister Eckhart's Sermons, trans. Claud Field, H. R. Allenson, London, 1909, p.24

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, stay with me always. Never let me forget Your presence.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 01/28/08 -- Anonymous: My God, I love Thee

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 28, 2008

Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274

Meditation:
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
-- 1 Timothy 1:17 (NIV)

Quotation:
    My God, I love Thee—not because I hope for heaven thereby,
    Nor yet because who love Thee not must die eternally.
    Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me upon the Cross embrace;
    For me didst nails and spear endure, and manifold disgrace.
    Why, then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, should I not love Thee well?
    Not for the hope of winning heaven, or of escaping hell—
    Not with the hope of gaining aught, nor seeking a reward,
    But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever-loving Lord!
    E’en then I love Thee and will love, and in Thy praise will sing
    Solely because Thou art my God and my eternal King.
    ... Anonymous Latin Hymn, attrib. Francis Xavier (Edward Caswall, translator in Lyra Catholica, 1849)

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, Your love and might drive away all fear about myself.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 01/27/08 -- Law: haste

Christian Quotation of the Day

January 27, 2008Meditation:
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
-- Romans 8:6-9 (NIV)

Quotation:
Others again, perhaps truly awakened by the Spirit of God to devote themselves wholly to piety and the service of God, yet making too much haste to have the glory of saints, the elements of fallen nature—selfishness, envy, pride, and wrath—could secretly go along with them. For to seek for eminence and significancy in grace is but like seeking for eminence and significancy in nature. And the old man can relish glory and distinction in religion as well as in common life, and will be content to undergo as many labors, pains, and self-denials for the sake of religious, as for the sake of secular glory.
... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739]

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, my proud heart knows no humility unless You teach me.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
Subscription info: http://www.cqod.com/cqodlist.htm
Comments and problems: email to curator@cqod.com