Elliot: action

Saturday, December 26, 2009
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
    —1 Corinthians 9:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The man who will not act till he knows all will never act at all.
    ... Jim Elliot (1927-1956), citing a popular saying of ancient Greece, The Journals of Jim Elliot, ed. Elisabeth Elliot, Revell, 1990, p. 131 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, arouse your people to action (me, too). CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonar: Good will towards men

Friday, December 25, 2009
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
    —Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN

    Lo, God, our God has come!
        To us a Child is born,
    To us a Son is given;
        Bless, bless the blessed morn!
O happy, lowly lofty birth,
Now God, our God, has come to earth!

    Rejoice, our God has come!
        In love and lowliness;
    The Son of God has come
        The sons of men to bless.
God with us now descend to dwell,
God in our flesh, Immanuel.

    Praise ye the word made flesh!
        True God, true man is He.
    Praise ye the Christ of God!
        To Him all glory be.
Praise ye the Lamb that once was slain,
Praise ye the king that comes to reign.
    ... Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), Hymns of Faith and Hope, third series, New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1877, p. 59-60 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your eternal reign in my heart has begun.

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Cox: The soft light from a stable door

Thursday, December 24, 2009
    Christmas Eve
Meditation:
    In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
    —John 1:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
The soft light from a stable door
    Lies on the midnight lands;
The wise men’s star burns evermore,
    Over all the desert sands.

Unto all peoples of the earth
    A little Child brought light,
And never in the darkest place
    Can it be utter night.

No flickering torch, no wavering fire,
    But Light—the Life of men.
Whatever clouds may veil the sky,
    Never is night again.
    ... Lilian Cox, included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 229-230 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have banished the darkness forever.

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Lindskoog: the persistent vision

Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Meditation:
    So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
    —Genesis 3:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is much that is bad and meaningless in the universe, and the universe contains men who know that much is bad and meaningless. The Christian answer to the problem is that this is a good world gone wrong, but with a memory of what it should have been.
    ... Kathryn Lindskoog (1934-2003), C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian, Glendale, Cal.: G/L Publications, 1973, reprint, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1981, p. 46-47 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, through Your grace, may we mirror Your perfection. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: Jesus came in the fullness of time

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Meditation:
    But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
    —Galatians 4:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This was the fulness of time, when Christ Jesus did come, that the Messiah should come.
    It was so to the Jews, and it was so to the Gentiles too...
    Christ hath excommunicated no nation, no shire, no house, no man; He gives none of His ministers leave to say to any man, thou art not redeemed; He gives no wounded or afflicted conscience leave to say to itself, I am not redeemed.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. I, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon III, p. 42,53 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    No one stands outside Your offer of grace, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: on Christmas

Monday, December 21, 2009
Meditation:
    So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
    —Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have this running quandary about Christmas. I get upset about it, because I feel that we American Christians make too much of it, and too little. Too little of it, because we pile all sorts of other things onto it, including some that have only the feeblest connection with the Event it is supposed to commemorate. If God did become a man, in any real sense, it is the most important thing that ever happened. Surely we, who believe it, could well devote one day a year to uninterrupted contemplation of the fact, and let Saturnalia fall on the winter solstice, where it belongs.
    On the other hand, we make so much of the actual birth, and forget the things that make it more than just the birth of a baby (though even that is, in Walt Whitman’s phrase, “miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels”*)—more, even, than the birth of the greatest man who ever lived. We forget the promise to Eve of a descendant who will solve the problem of Evil; the promise to Abraham of one by whom all mankind will be blessed; the promise to Moses of a greater prophet than he, to arise from his people; and the promise to David of a Son who would be his Master. We forget about the eternal Purpose behind it all: it’s like telling a story and leaving out the point. Yes, it is true that God gave us His Son, and so maybe we ought also to give gifts—but what, and to whom? It is also true that God gave us Himself, and the only sensible response to that is to give ourselves to Him. There is nothing else that He wants from us, or, if there is something, He can take it. Only I, my ego, my heart, is truly mine to give or to withhold—and is therefore the appropriate gift to Him.
    * Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Song of Myself, in Leaves of Grass
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), letter, 1982
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I give You my life for what You have given me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Murray: the Christian and his sins

Sunday, December 20, 2009
Meditation:
    What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
    —Romans 6:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery. There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin, the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent to sin. It is one thing for sin to live in us: it is another for us to live in sin... It is of paramount concern for the Christian and for the interests of his sanctification that he should know that sin does not have the dominion over him, that the forces of redeeming, regenerative, and sanctifying grace have been brought to bear upon him in that which is central in his moral and spiritual being, that he is the habitation of God through the Spirit, and that Christ has been formed in him the hope of glory.
    ... John Murray (1898-1975), Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1955, p. 145-146 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have driven sin from its seat of authority. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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