Elliot: fresh terms

Friday, May 7, 2010
Meditation:
    [Stephen:] “This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’ He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.”
    —Acts 7:37-38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For my generation I must have the oracles of God in fresh terms.
    ... Jim Elliot (1927-1956), The Journals of Jim Elliot, ed. Elisabeth Elliot, Revell, 1990, p. 166 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is truth; show me how to speak it to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Cowper: the weakest saint

Thursday, May 6, 2010
Meditation:
    Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
    —Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.
    ... William Cowper (1731-1800), The Works of William Cowper: his life, letters, and poems, New York: R. Carter & Brothers, 1851, p. 676 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You strengthen Your people through prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Tyndale: all service pleasing to God

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
    —Luke 13:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now if thou compare deed to deed, there is difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all: for neither that nor this pleaseth, but as far forth as God hath chosen a man, hath put his Spirit in him, and purified his heart by faith and trust in Christ.
    Let every man therefore wait on the office wherein Christ hath put him, and therein serve his brethren.
    ... William Tyndale (1492?-1536), “Parable of the Wicked Mammon” [1527], in Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions, Cambrodge: The University Press, 1848, p. 102 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a willing heart to do the service You have appointed me to. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Dod: the end of afflictions

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
    —1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.
    ... John Dod (c.1549-1645), quoted in The Lives of the Puritans, v. III, Benjamin Brook, London: J. Black, 1813, p. 3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Through Your chastening, Lord, I come to know that I am Your child. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Tauler: if you could do it yourself...

Monday, May 3, 2010
Meditation:
    And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
    —Hebrews 13:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Generous love makes [a good man] hold others innocent in his heart; even when he sees infirmity or fault in his neighbour, he reflects that very likely all is not as it seems on the outside, but the act may have been done with a good intention; or else he thinks that God may have permitted it to take place for an admonition and lesson to himself; or again, as an opportunity for him to exercise self-control, and to learn to die unto himself by the patient endurance of and forbearance towards the faults of his neighbours, even as God has often borne many wrongs from him and had patience with his sins. And this would often tend more to his neighbour’s improvement than all the efforts he could make for it in the way of reproofs or chastisements, even if they were done in love, (though indeed we often imagine that our reproofs are given in love, when it is in truth far otherwise). For I tell thee, if thou couldst conquer thyself by long-suffering and gentleness and the pureness of thy heart, thou wouldst have vanquished all thine enemies.
    ... Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler of Strasbourg, Charles Kingsley, pref. & Susanna Winkworth, tr., New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1858, “Sermon for St. Peter’s Day”, p. 463 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Teach me, Lord, to be holy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Schaeffer: the place for the chasm

Sunday, May 2, 2010
    Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373
Meditation:
     These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
    —Titus 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Those on both sides who continue to hold to the historic view concerning the Bible should say “I’m sorry” where it is needed. Both sides should let history be history and not reopen the old sores, except to learn not to repeat the same mistakes in an even more complicated and subtle age. The broader group should realize that a line must be drawn with love, yet drawn. The other side should realize that harshness is not to be confused with standing for holiness and that, in an age like our own, surrounded by a relativistic culture and by a relativistic church, which bends the Bible to the changing whims of this age, the chasm should be kept in the right place, with all our strongly believed-in distinctives on this side of the chasm, rather than making the distinctives the chasm.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), foreword to Foundation of Biblical Authority, ed. James Montgomery Boice, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978, p. 18-19 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Unveil our eyes, Lord, that we may see and know the unity that You have provided for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Willard: the ruined soul

Saturday, May 1, 2010
    Feast of Philip & James, Apostles
Meditation:
    When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
    —Matthew 8:10-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man. The ruined soul must be willing to hear of and recognize its own ruin before it can find how to enter a different path, the path of eternal life that naturally leads into spiritual formation in Christlikeness.
    ... Dallas Willard (b. 1935), The Renovation of the Heart, Colorado Springs, Colo.: Navpress, 2002, p. 59 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Break, O Lord, that rebellious spirit within me, and lead me to submission to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt