M'Cheyne: answering prayer

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Meditation:
    Then [the other criminal crucified with him] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
    Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
    —Luke 23:42-43 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), The Life and Remains, Letters, Lectures, and Poems of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar, New York: R. Carter, 1866, p. 168 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your provision has exceeded my wants as the ocean exceeds a drop of water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. John: from the ashes

Friday, March 5, 2010
Meditation:
    By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 3:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
... stooping very low, He engraves with care
His Name, indelible, upon our dust,
And, from the ashes of our self-despair,
Kindles a flame of hope and humble trust.
He seeks no second site on which to build,
But on the old foundation, stone by stone,
Cementing sad experience with grace,
Fashions a stronger temple of His own.
    ... Patricia St. John (1919-1993), from “The Alchemist”, in Patricia St. John Tells Her Own Story, Kingsley Press, 2004, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have founded Your temple in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barna: the lack of zeal

Thursday, March 4, 2010
    Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Meditation:
    Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
    —Galatians 1:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It occurred to me that in our work with secular organizations, the leader shapes the heart and passion of the corporate entity. In our work with non-profit organizations, we have found the same principle to be operative. When it comes to the focus of the organization, the people who serve there tend to take on many of the core personality traits of the leader toward fulfilling the mandate of the organization. If this is true, and most churches seem to lack the fervor and focus for evangelism, is it reasonable to conclude that it may be because of the lack of zeal most pastors have for identifying, befriending, loving and evangelizing non-Christian people?
    ... George Barna (b. 1955), Evangelism that Works, Gospel Light Pubns., 1995, Regal Books, 1995 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your people that we may each take the Gospel to the world to which we are called. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eckhart: light in the darkness

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Meditation:
    Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
    —John 12:35-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Light shines in the darkness, there we are aware of it. What good is light or learning unless people can enjoy it? In darkness, in suffering, they shall see the light.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Works of Meister Eckhart, London: J. M. Watkins, 1924, p. 17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust You as the only source of light for my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: voluntary clergy

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
    Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Meditation:
    For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.
    —2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Clerics often say that if voluntary clergy were admitted, the laity would cease to support stipendiary clergy, and that they would say, “We can get clergy for nothing, why should we pay for them?” That argument suggests that the laity do not want stipendiary clergy and must be compelled to have them against their will. Whatever truth there may be in it, and it is a very serious indictment of the present stipendiary clergy as a body, one thing is certain: we cannot make people want what they do not want by compelling them to pay for it.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Case for Voluntary Clergy, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 149 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made your Gospel completely free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Demant: original sin

Monday, March 1, 2010
    Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
Meditation:
    For if you possess these qualities [faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness, love] in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
    —2 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Original sin ... is that which makes us paint in white and black the relative good we do and the evil we combat; it is that which sends us corporately from one false absolute to its dialectical opposite; it is that which moves us to fight for our prejudices as if we were fighting for God, or else to contract out of decision in the world unless we can envisage the choice as having unconditional divine warrant; it is that which bids us attribute others’ evil to their free will and our own to the pressure of circumstances.
    ... V. A. Demant (1893-1983), The Religious Prospect, London: F. Muller, 1941, p. 226 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Reach out, Lord, to your people who are caught in the moral ambiguity of this world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the purpose for decline

Sunday, February 28, 2010
Meditation:
    Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”
    —Zechariah 3:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
Well may this body poorer, feebler grow!
It is undressing for its last sweet bed;
But why should the soul, which death shall never know,
Authority, and power, and memory shed?
It is that love with absolute faith would wed;
God takes the inmost garments off his child,
To have him in his arms, naked and undefiled.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Diary of an Old Soul, London: by the author, 1880; Arthur C. Fifield, 1905, p. 59 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long for the day that sin shall depart from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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