The Christian Quotation of the Day: 2008-03-02

CQOD: 03/09/08 -- Cundy: spiritual unity

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 9, 2008Meditation:
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
-- Ephesians 4:1-6 (NIV)

Quotation:
[The] denominational divisions which accentuate the problem are perpetrating an image of a divided Christ to the community in which we live. Such an image is at variance with the unity of the body into which we were all baptized. The same arguments that Paul used to deal with the factions and personality cults of the Corinthian church are applicable [here and now]. We can not hide behind some concept of “spiritual unity” which has little or no embodiment in structure or institution; for, not only does it drive an unnatural and unbiblical wedge between the physical and the spiritual, it is also nonsense to the world to which we are called to be in mission, and thereby denies the very basis of the unity for which Christ prayed.
... Ian P. M. Cundy, “The Church as Community”

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, unite Your people according to Your will.

See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 03/08/08 -- Studdert Kennedy: Thou who art Lord

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 8, 2008

Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929

Meditation:
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
-- Matthew 5:7 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Thou who art Lord of all the tender pities,
        Mercy Incarnate, human and divine,
    How could we write Thy name upon these cities
        Wherein Thy children live like herded swine?

    Would not those eyes that saw their angels gazing
        Into the brightness of the Father’s face,
    Turn on this slum, with Love and fury blazing,
        Shriv'ling our souls with shame of such a place?

    “Where are My children, those the Father gave you?
        What have you done with babes that bore My name?
    Was it for this I suffered so to save you?
        Must I for ever burn for you in shame?”
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), from Collected Poetry, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1927, p. 126

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, pour out the Spirit of Your mercy on Your people.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, 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

CQOD: 03/07/08 -- Carey: baptism in the Spirit

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 7, 2008

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203

Meditation:
And this was [John's] message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
-- Mark 1:7,8 (NIV)

Quotation:
The term “baptism in (or of) the Spirit” conjures up the idea of a separate initiatory experience which every Christian ought to enjoy, whereas evangelicalism is noted for its stress upon a “conversion” experience which marks the beginning of the believer’s relationship to his Lord. Too often, alas, conversion has been the end as well as the beginning, with the result that some Christians have looked back, with mingled delight and wistfulness to a past event that now seems to have diminished relevance to daily living. We can fully understand, then, the appeal of a movement which promises a new dimension of Christian living, there in the New Testament, and now available in everyday experience.
... George Carey, “Christian Beginning”

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, let the fire of the Spirit burn within me.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
CQOD Home Page: http://www.cqod.com/
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CQOD: 03/06/08 -- Tozer: the Person behind the Bible

Christian Quotation of the Day

March 6, 2008Meditation:
Now it came about that while the people came pushing to be near him, and to have knowledge of the word of God, he was by a wide stretch of water named Gennesaret; And he saw two boats by the edge of the water, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, the property of Simon, and made a request to him to go a little way out from the land. And being seated he gave the people teaching from the boat.
-- Luke 5:1-3 (BBE)

Quotation:
A loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting himself whenever and wherever his people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

Quiet time reflection:
Lord, You came to me long before I came to You.

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

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, 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