Allen: maintaining doctrine

Saturday, June 19, 2010
    Commemoration of Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu, Evangelist, Teacher, 1929
Meditation:
    This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
    —1 John 3:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The [early] Church maintained her doctrine by thinking it so clear that any one could understand it: we maintain our doctrine by treating it as so complicated that only theologians can understand it. Consequently, the Church then was quite prepared that any man who believed in Christ should teach others what he knew of Him: we are only prepared to allow men whom we have specially trained to teach it.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It, London: World Dominion Press, 1949, reprint, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1997, p. 65 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let simplicity in Christ be my guide. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: heresy from the learned

Friday, June 18, 2010
Meditation:
    But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
    —2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The great heresies in the early Church arose not from the rapid expansion result of these unknown [and untrained] teachers; but in those churches which were longest established, and where the Christians were not so busily engaged in converting the heathen around them. The Church of that day was apparently quite fearless of any dangers that the influx of large numbers of what we should call illiterate converts might lower the standard of church doctrine. She held the tradition handed down by the apostles, and expected the new converts to grow up into it, to maintain it and to propagate it. And so in fact they did. The danger to doctrine lay not in these illiterate converts on the outskirts; but at home, in places like Ephesus and Alexandria, amongst the more highly educated and philosophically minded Christians. It was against them that she had to maintain the doctrine.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It, London: World Dominion Press, 1949, reprint, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1997, p. 64 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, focus Your church on converting the lost. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Houston: the two wings

Thursday, June 17, 2010
    Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
    —Matthew 10:42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Evangelism and social concern are like the two wings of a bird. Without an intimate association of the two, the church cannot hope to grow over the long term.
    ... Thomas Houston, former president, World Vision International, in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gospel fills hearts with compassion. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Joad: getting started

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
    Feast of Richard of Chichester, Bishop, 1253
    Commemoration of Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Moral Philosopher, 1752
Meditation:
    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
    Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
    —Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whatever be our conception of the universe we must, it is obvious, start somehow; we must begin with something; and the something with which we begin, from the very fact that we do begin with it, must itself be without explanation, since, if something else were invoked to explain it, then the “something else” must needs be logically prior to that which it is invoked to explain. Thus the “something” being explained by a logically prior “something else” could not have been ultimate.
    ... C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), God and Evil, New York: Harper, 1943, p. 87 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all things begin with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: Christ in beauty and love

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
    Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941
Meditation:
And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
    Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
    —Joel 2:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christianity is not an argument, and Christianity is not given us in the form of logic but in the form of beauty and love.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Light of Christ, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 30 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I can never understand, but I believe. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Baxter: the bare deed

Monday, June 14, 2010
    Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691
Meditation:
    Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
    He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
    —Matthew 15:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God takes men’s hearty desires and will, instead of the deed, where they have not power to fulfill them; but He never took the bare deed instead of the will.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. VIII, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 174 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You want men’s hearts, not merely their labors. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Huessey: founder and trustee

Sunday, June 13, 2010
Meditation:
    Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
    —1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “The Future and Christianity” are no casual combination of words like the “future of motoring”, or the “future of Europe”. Christianity is the founder and trustee of the future.
    ... Eugen R. Huessey (1888-1973), Christian Future, or the Modern Mind Outrun, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1966, p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You hold the nations in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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