Soper: meekness

Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Meditation:
    But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
    —Psalm 37:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What we call the meekness of Our Lord is more than an aspect of His character: it is its fundamental principle. There is nothing in it of the “inert door-mat”; it was, and is, the practice of uncompromising and unyielding love, the exposition of a new technique in dealing with evil. I believe it to be the business of Christians, especially to-day, first to realize, and then to proclaim, this revolutionary technique as the only way to peace and justice. It won’t be easy, for meekness has little “face value” compared with armaments; but, if the Cross means anything at all, it is the vindication of meekness as the most dynamic and explosive force that humanity has ever known.
    ... Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 76 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my mind, for I resist meekness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Kraemer: informal Church?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
    Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness...
    —Colossians 1:24-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The way of the Church as a body that has the mandate to express the ministry of the great Diakonos [Servanthood] is not spectacular. The “first fruits” of fraternities, house-churches, para-parochial congregations, retreats (not for retreat’s sake, but for the sake of going out into the world) etc. should not continue to exist alongside the Church. They should be acknowledged as really doing the business of the Church.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958, p. 179 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are calling me to the true work of the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Tozer: the conquest of self

Monday, July 5, 2010
Meditation:
Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD,
    the man you teach from your law;
you grant him relief from days of trouble,
    till a pit is dug for the wicked.
    —Psalm 94:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration... The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees... So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Divine Conquest, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1950, Revell, 1950, p. 57 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to surrender to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Lucado: a timely reminder

Sunday, July 4, 2010
Meditation:
    From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
    —John 1:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Remind us, O Lord, that you do not exist to bless America. We exist to bless you.
    ... Max Lucado (b. 1955), from a prayer at the RNC, 2004 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are blessed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

MacDonald: to advance the cause

Saturday, July 3, 2010
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
    But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
    —Mark 8:31-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is a serious thought that the disobedience of the men he had set free from blindness and leprosy should be able to hamper him in his work for his father. But his best friends, his lovers did the same. That he should be crucified was a horror to them; they would have made him a king, and ruined his father’s work. He preferred the cruelty of his enemies to the kindness of his friends. The former with evil intent wrought his father’s will; the latter with good intent would have frustrated it.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Displeasure of Jesus”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 190 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, not my will, but Yours be done. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Clement: goods

Friday, July 2, 2010
Meditation:
    Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.
    Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—when you now have it with you.
    —Proverbs 3:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.
    ... St. Clement of Alexandria (150?-220?), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. II, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, trs., Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885, p. 595 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Spirit, Lord, has opened torrents of charity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Summers: the Lollard fundamentals

Thursday, July 1, 2010
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees;
    then I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding,
    and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of your commands,
    for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes
    and not toward selfish gain.
    —Psalm 119:33-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Reynold Pecock, Bishop of St. Asaph, [in The Repressor of Overmuch Blamings of the Clergy] tells us that the Lollards objected to image-worship, pilgrimages, the landed endowments of the Church, degrees of rank among the clergy, the authority of tradition, the monastic orders, the invocation of the saints (and every practice based on the doctrine of the transference of merit), the use of ornaments in Divine service, the mass (and the doctrine of sacramental grace generally), oaths, war, and capital punishment. We have here the outlines of a system approximating in some respects to modern Quakerism, and the likeness is enhanced by something like the doctrine of the “inward light.” Pecock ascribes to the “Bible-men” three fundamental principles, or “trowings,” as he calls them:
    1. That nothing is to be esteemed a law of God, unless it is founded on Scripture;
    2. That every Christian “meke in spirit” shall without fail understand the true sense of the Bible;
    3. That he should then heed no arguments of “clerks” to the contrary... Further on in the book he adds a fourth “trowing” of theirs—that the clergy were so blinded by self-interest that it was impossible for them to arrive at the true sense of Scripture.
    ... W. H. Summers, Our Lollard Ancestors, London: National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, 1904, p. 81-83 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have moved mightily among Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt