Barth: repentance

Saturday, August 21, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
    —Luke 15:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. But what is Repentance? Not the last and noblest and most refined achievement of the righteousness of men in the service of God, but the first elemental act of the righteousness of God in the service of men; the work that God has written in their hearts and which, because it is from God and not from men, occasions joy in heaven; that looking forward to God, and to Him only, which is recognized only by God and by God Himself.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know how partial my repentance is. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Ignatius of Loyola: as Thou deservest

Friday, August 20, 2010
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
    —Philippians 1:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest:
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not ask for any reward,
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
    ... St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491/5-1556), included in A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed., Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, [1548] p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the heart to serve You now. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Pascal: the opinions of men

Thursday, August 19, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”
    —Matthew 11:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Jesus before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
    And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
    What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown; never had man more ignominy. All that renown was only of use to us, to help us to recognize Him; it was of no use to Him.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, n. 792, p. 279 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we give You honor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Bayne: what's important

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
    —Luke 11:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is absolutely unimportant in the eyes of God how many people follow the “Anglican tradition” of belief and practice. It is of the greatest importance how many people there are who have come to know and love our Lord because of what we Anglicans have said and done.
    ... Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. (1908-1974), “The Challenge of the Frontiers: Organizing for Action (Theme Address),” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 187 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill the churches! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Allen: ordained of Christ

Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Meditation:
    [Peter:] God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
    —Acts 15:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I do not want bishops to practice the ordination of voluntary clergy [merely] as a plausible policy, for which something can be said. If by persuasive speech I could induce all the bishops in the world to adopt that practice, I think that I should refuse. I do not believe that Christian men should base their action upon such a foundation: I believe that the first blast of difficulty would overthrow them if they did. I try to set forth a truth of Christ which demands obedience. I call upon the church not to adopt a plausible policy, but to repent of a sin; for to make void the word of Christ is sin.
    ... 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. 137-138 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit ordains all Your people to ministry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Thomas a Kempis: remain virtuous?

Monday, August 16, 2010
Meditation:
    The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
    Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
    —Genesis 3:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, p. 227 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must rely on Your promise to forgive sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Workman: a root antagonism

Sunday, August 15, 2010
Meditation:
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
    and his kingdom rules over all.
    —Psalm 103:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The student should beware lest he overlook the momentous issues involved in the refusal of the State to allow any society or club to exist which had not first obtained official recognition, and the equally momentous refusal of the Church to obtain such recognition. The question is not one of legal technicalities or procedure, or the “sheer obstinacy,” as Marcus Aurelius would have phrased it, of Christian fanatics, but points rather to one of those root antagonisms of principle the influence of which, in different forms, may be felt in the twentieth as much as in the second century. By Roman theory, the State was the one society which must engross every interest of its subjects, religious, social, political, humanitarian, with the one possible exception of the family. There was no room in Roman law for the existence, much less the development on its own lines of organic growth, of any corporation or society which did not recognize itself from the first as a mere department or auxiliary of the State. The State was all and in all, the one organism with a life of its own. Such a theory the Church, as the living kingdom of Jesus, could not possibly accept either in the first century or the twentieth.
    ... H. B. Workman (1862-1951), Persecution in the early church: a chapter in the history of renunciation, 2nd ed., London: Charles H. Kelly, 1906, p. 71-72 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your rule will conquer all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt