Augustine: the profundity of the Scriptures

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Meditation:
    Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
    —Romans 11:33 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Wonderful is the depth of thy words, whose surface is before us, gently leading on the little ones: and yet a wonderful deepness, O my God, a wonderful deepness. It is awe to look into it; even an awfulness of honour, and a trembling of love.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, XII.xiv, p. 328 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word pierces my heart.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Allen: the meaning of Baptism

Friday, July 17, 2009

Meditation:
    For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
    —1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)

Quotation:
    This total and entire conversion of the inner man, this absolute doing away of the old and acceptance of the new life, being in its nature a real breach and not a formal one, necessarily involved a corresponding outward breach with the old form of life. Of this breach baptism was the sacrament. In baptism the change was effected and realized in fact. baptism was not a mere formal external act, a symbol of a spiritual fact which was already complete without it. A Spiritual conversion which was not also a conversion of life was no conversion at all, but a delusion... With the heart man believes, with the mouth he confesses; but a mouth which does not confess disproves the existence of a heart that believes. The soul cannot be God’s and the life not God’s at the same time. The soul can not be recreated and the life remain unchanged. The spiritual breach is proved and realized and completed in the outward breach. Where there is no outward change, it is safe to deny an inward change. Faith without baptism and all that baptism involved was consequently no part of St. Paul’s teaching.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 71-72 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have baptized my heart.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Smith: resting in grace

Thursday, July 16, 2009
    Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
    —John 14:18 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Once I knew what it was to rest upon the rock of God’s promises, and it was indeed a precious resting place, but now I rest in His grace. He is teaching me that the bosom of His love is a far sweeter resting-place than even the rock of His promises.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life, M. E. Dieter, ed., Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan 1994, p. 27 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your constant presence feeds Your people.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Eckhart: outward and visible signs

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
    Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
    Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
    —Luke 6:43-45 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Outward as well as inward morality helps to form the idea of a true Christian freedom. We are right to lay stress on inwardness, but in this world there is no inwardness without an outward expression.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Meister Eckhart's Sermons, Cosimo, Inc., 2007, p. 56 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge me of evil, that my life may bear fruit pleasing to You.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Phillips: giving oneself up in love

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
    Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
    —John 12:25 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The “good” man, the man whose god is righteousness, has as his life’s ambition the keeping of rules and commandments and the keeping of himself uncontaminated by the world. This sounds admirable; but, as the truth of Christ showed, the whole of such living, the whole drive and ambition, the whole edifice, is self-centered. That entire process of effort must be abandoned if a man is to give himself in love to God and his fellows. He must lose his life if he is ever going to find it.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), When God was Man, London: Lutterworth Press:, 1954 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I abandon my life to Your purposes.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Johnson: withholding the Bible is a crime

Monday, July 13, 2009

Meditation:
    [Paul:] “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
    —Acts 17:29,30 (NIV)

Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, so no man can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity [i.e., the Bible], in compliance with any purposes that terminate this side of the grave, is a crime [the like] of which I know not that the world has yet had an example.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., v. I, James Boswell, New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858, letter, 1766, p. 419 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word be published to the nations.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub

Johnson: the duty of Bible circulation

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Meditation:
    Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”
    —Acts 10:34,35 (NIV)

Quotation:
    I did not expect to hear that it could be, in an assembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation uninstructed in religion should receive instruction; or whether that, instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the holy-books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself. He, that voluntarily continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a light-house, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., v. I, James Boswell, New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858, p. 419 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, use me in the cause of Your Gospel.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script
mobile    sub