Newbigin: where mission impetus fails

April 18, 2009

Meditation:
    All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
    -- Hebrews 11:13,14 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The conception of the Church which we tend to reproduce as the fruit of our missionary work is so much a replica of our own, so much that of a fundamentally settled body existing for the sake of its own members rather than that of a body of strangers and pilgrims, the sign and instrument of a supernatural and universal salvation to be revealed, that our missionary advance tends to follow the lines of cultural and political expansion, and to falter when that advance stops.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 166 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may we never reject truth for culture.

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Francois de Sales: where patience is most needed

April 17, 2009

Meditation:
    Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near.
    -- James 5:7,8 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), The beauties of St. Francis de Sales, London: Cowing, 1829, p. 220 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me fresh courage each day to pursue Your will for me.

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Singh: motives for worship

April 16, 2009

Meditation:
    There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
    -- 1 John 4:18 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Should I worship Him from fear of hell, may I be cast into it. Should I serve Him from desire of gaining heaven, may He keep me out. But should I worship Him from love alone, may He reveal Himself to me, that my whole heart may be filled with His love and presence.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life [1926], Kessinger Publishing, 2003, pp. 9-10 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purify my love for You.

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Fuller: fear and humility

April 15, 2009

Meditation:
    Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
    -- James 4:10 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Great is the difference betwixt a man’s being frightened at, and humbled for, his sins. One may passively be cast down by God’s terrors, and yet not willingly throw himself down as he ought at God’s footstool.
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience, Dial. VI. [1655] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, calm my fearful heart.

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Tozer: pure thinking

April 14, 2009

Meditation:
    Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
    — Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

Quotation:
    I believe that pure thinking will do more to educate a man than any other activity he can engage in. To afford sympathetic entertainment to abstract ideas, to let one idea beget another, and that another, till the mind teems with them; to compare one idea with others, to weigh, to consider, evaluate, approve, respect, correct, refine; to join thought with thought like an architect till a whole edifice has been created within the mind; to travel back in imagination to the beginning of the creation and then to leap swiftly forward to the end of time; to bound upward through illimitable space and downward into the nucleus of an atom; and all this without so much as moving from our chair or opening the eyes—this is to soar above all the lower creation and come near to the angels of God.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God [1966] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek to know you.

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Brunner: as fire

April 12, 2009
    Easter

Meditation:
    They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
    -- Acts 2:3,4 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning. Without mission there is really no Church.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Word and the World, London: SCM Press, 1931, p. 11 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent Your people to the nations.

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