Tozer: the practical atheist

Saturday, July 2, 2011
Meditation:
The fool says in his heart,
    “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
    there is no one who does good.
The LORD looks down from heaven
    on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
All have turned aside,
    they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.
    —Psalm 14:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sin... is always an act of wrong judgment. To commit a sin a man must for the moment believe that things are different from what they really are; he must confound values; he must see the moral universe out of focus; he must accept a lie as truth and see truth as a lie; he must ignore the signs on the highway and drive with his eyes shut; he must act as if he had no soul, and was not accountable for his moral choices.
    Sin is never a thing to be proud of. No act is wise that ignores remote consequences, and sin always does. Sin sees only today, or at most tomorrow; never the day after tomorrow, next month or next year. Death and judgment are pushed aside as if they did not exist, and the sinner becomes for the time a practical atheist who by his act denies not only the existence of God but the concept of life after death.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1966, p. 47 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have turned aside to my own ways too many times. Renew my heart once more. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Bruce: Christ, the complete revelation

Friday, July 1, 2011
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
    —Mark 1:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ is God’s complete word to men; He has nothing to say which has not been said in Christ. Therefore all claims to convey an additional revelation to that which has been given in Christ (as distinct from bringing out the fuller implications of the revelation in Christ) are false claims. That is so whether these claims are embodied in books which aim at superseding or supplanting the Bible, or take the form of extra-biblical traditions which are promulgated as dogmas by ecclesiastical authority. It is true, as John Robinson said, that “the Lord hath much more truth yet to break forth out if His holy Word“—but that truth will break forth from the Word already spoken, the Word which became incarnate in Jesus Christ and has been recorded for us in Holy Writ. The Spirit of God, who spoke by the prophets and apostles, still speaks to us through their words and thus bears witness to Christ, the perfect revelation of God.
    ... F. F. Bruce (1910-1990/1), The Apostolic Defense of the Gospel, London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1959, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959, p. 81 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given us Your Word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Edwards: the beauty of holiness

Thursday, June 30, 2011
Meditation:
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.
    —Psalm 96:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He that sees the beauty of holiness, or true moral good, sees the greatest and most important thing in the world, which is the fulness of all things, without which all the world is empty, no better than nothing, yea, worse than nothing. Unless this is seen, nothing is seen that is worth the seeing; for there is no other true excellency or beauty.
    ... Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), The Works of President Edwards, v. IV, Worcester: Isaiah Thomas, Jun., 1808, p. 210-211 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Open my eyes, Lord, that I might gaze upon the beauty of Your holiness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Phillips: a battle

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
    Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles
Meditation:
    We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
    —2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christianity is a battle—not a dream.
    ... Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), speech, April, 1869, Wendell Phillips: the agitator, William Carlos Martyn, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1890, p. 368 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have called Your people to engage the spiritual enemy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Irenaeus: God glorified

Tuesday, June 28, 2011
    Feast of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200
Meditation:
    For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
    —2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now this God is glorified by His Word who is His Son continually, and by the Holy Spirit who is the Wisdom of the Father of all: and the power(s) of these, (namely) of the Word and Wisdom, which are called Cherubim and Seraphim, with unceasing voices glorify God; and every created thing that is in the heavens offers glory to God the Father of all.
    ... Irenaeus (c.130-c.200), The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching [2nd c.], par. 10 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your glory is without limit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Hilton: seek the grace

Monday, June 27, 2011
Meditation:
    If you know that [the Lord] is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
    —1 John 2:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Seek, then, that which thou hast lost, that thou mayest find it; for well I wot, whosoever once hath an inward sight, but a little of that dignity and that spiritual fairness which a soul hath by creation, and shall have again by grace, he will loathe in his heart all the bliss, the liking and the fairness of this world, as the stink of carrion; and he will never have any will or mind to do other deed, night or day (save what mere need of nature requireth) but desire, mourn, seek, and pray how he may come again hereto.
    Nevertheless inasmuch as thou hast not as yet seen what it is fully, for thy spiritual eye is not yet opened, I shall tell thee one word for all, in the which thou shalt seek, desire and find it; for in that one word is all that thou hast lost. This word is Jesus: I mean not this word Jesus painted upon the wall, as written in letters on the book, or formed by lips in sound of the mouth, or framed in thy mind by imagination, for in this wise may a man that is void of charity find Him; but I mean Jesus Christ, that blessed Person, God and Man, Son of the Virgin Mary, whom this name betokeneth; that is all goodness, endless wisdom, love and sweetness, thy joy, thy glory, and thy everlasting bliss, thy God, thy Lord, and thy salvation.
    ... Walter Hilton (1330?-1396), The Scale of Perfection [early 15th century], ed. Serenus Cressy, I.iii.iii.ii (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your hold my treasure. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

MacDonald: love before understanding

Sunday, June 26, 2011
Meditation:
    We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
    —Hebrews 6:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Gospels contain what the Apostles preached—the Epistles, what they wrote after the preaching. And until we understand the Gospel, the good news about our brother-king—until we understand Him, until we have His Spirit, promised so freely to them that ask it—all the Epistles, the words of men who were full of Him, and wrote out of that fullness, who loved Him so utterly that by that very love they were lifted into the air of pure reason and right, and would die for Him, and did die for Him, without two thoughts about it, in the very simplicity of no choice—the Letters, I say, of such men are to us a sealed book. Until we love the Lord so as to do what He tells us, we have no right to an opinion about what one of those men meant; for all they wrote is about things beyond us. The simplest woman who tries not to judge her neighbour, or not to be anxious for the morrow, will better know what is best to know, than the best-read bishop without that one simple outgoing of his highest nature in the effort to do the will of Him who thus spoke.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, v. I [1867], London: Strahan & Co., 1873, p. 128 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to learn and know Your very words. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt