Outerbridge: expendable

Saturday, May 14, 2011
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!”
    —Acts 5:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone forth in the darkness, held aloft by hands that perished in the destruction of the institution that failed. Christians tend to defend the institution of their own creation with tenacity. It is institutional Christianity that repeatedly shackled the Church. The Church again and again has to lose itself in order to find itself. It falls to rise; it fails in order to fight better. Many of the missionary institutions of the Church are expendable. They should always be treated as expendable.
    ... Leonard M. Outerbridge, The Lost Churches of China, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1952, p. 10-11 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word cannot be defeated. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pierce: reckless giving

Friday, May 13, 2011
Meditation:
    He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
    —Romans 8:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    May the Spirit of God help you to give of yourself as recklessly for the cause of Christ throughout the whole world as God “recklessly” gave His Son, Jesus Christ.
    ... Robert Pierce (1914-1978), founder and president, World Vision, in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have cast my life upon Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the presence of God

Thursday, May 12, 2011
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
    Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
    —1 Samuel 3:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence. That type of Christianity which happens now to be the vogue knows this Presence only in theory. It fails to stress the Christian’s privilege of present realization. According to its teachings we are in the presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that Presence actually. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and, for the most part, we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 35 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know Your presence in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: nearer than we know

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Meditation:
    The LORD is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
    —Psalm 145:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lift up your heart to Him, sometimes even at your meals, and when you are in company; the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him. You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we are aware of.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, 7th letter, p. 34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You remain close to those who love You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: call it as it is

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Meditation:
With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbor,
    but through knowledge the righteous escape.
    —Proverbs 11:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice. If you have to do with one who is unquestionably a slanderer, do not excuse him by calling him frank and free-spoken; do not call one who is notoriously vain, liberal and elegant; do not call dangerous levities mere simplicity; do not screen disobedience under the name of zeal; or arrogance of frankness; or evil intimacy of friendship. No, my friends, we must never, in our wish to shun slander, foster or flatter vice in others: but we must call evil evil, and sin sin, and so doing we shall serve God’s glory.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, III.xxix, p. 246 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my habit of excusing evil. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: judgment

Monday, May 9, 2011
Meditation:
    Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
    —2 John 1:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The church is to judge whether a man is a Christian on the basis of his doctrine, the propositional content of his faith, and then his credible profession of faith. When a man comes before a local church that is doing its job, he will be quizzed on the content of what he believes. If, for example, a church is conducting a heresy trial (the New Testament indicates there are to be heresy trials in the church of Christ), the question of heresy will turn on the content of the man’s doctrine. The church has a right to judge, in fact it is commanded to judge, a man on the content of what he believes and teaches.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), The Mark of the Christian, Inter-Varsity Press, 1976, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have led Your people into truth with Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Juliana of Norwich: how God loves us

Sunday, May 8, 2011
    Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
Meditation:
    How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
    —1 John 3:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth the knowing of all creatures: that is to say, there is no creature that is made that may [fully] know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loveth us.
    ... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love, Grace Harriet Warrack, ed., Methuen, 1901, I.vi, p. 14 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot conceive Your love for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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