Saturday, August 27, 2011

Beecher: none too small

Saturday, August 27, 2011
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
    —Matthew 10:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God, because they must seem small to Him who sitteth on the circle of the earth. But if they are large enough to vex and endanger our welfare, they are large enough to touch His heart of love. For love does not measure by a merchant’s scales, nor with a surveyor’s chain. It hath a delicacy... unknown in any handling of material substance.
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Summer in the Soul, Edinburgh: A. Strahan & Co., 1859, p. 28 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the One who cares.
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Friday, August 26, 2011

Manley: the path to unity

Friday, August 26, 2011
Meditation:
    Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.
    —Isaiah 62:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We dare not stand idle, with Christian forces disunited, and see the lead taken by communities which are not Christian. We may not shrink back with fear, nor sit complacently with folded hands. With such opportunities on every side, the call is imperious to examine ourselves, to set our minds to work, to gird up our loins, and to unite together to overcome the forces of evil and to bring in the Kingdom of Christ.
    What, then, is the nature of the unity we seek after, and the manner of our search?
    1. It is not a secular unity, and must be prompted by no secular motive. The unity we seek is deeper than anything that the world offers. Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, and even Shintoism have proved their ability to bind men together in a common enterprise with great devotion and self-sacrifice; but these are secular ideals, intermixed with self-interest, the love of mastery, and the use of force. Christian Unity can only be “in Christ.” It is based on the New Birth and New Life in Christ, and upon the oneness of all the members in the Christ who is the Head. Therefore, “the quest for the unity of the Church must in fact be identical with the quest for Jesus Christ as the concrete Head and Lord of the Church.” *
    What kind of unity, then, do we ask? It must be God’s kind, that for which Christ prayed, and which, therefore, must be in the line of God’s purpose. Will He not then take the initiative? It is for us to wait upon Him, and to go through the gates which He opens, to cast up the highway, to gather out the stones of stumbling, to lift up the standard, and to prepare the way of the Lord. (Isa. 62:10)
    2. The task is not, in essence, the securing of uniformity, or cooperation, or Church reunion, or any of the external forms, through which nevertheless the unity may be manifested. Within the wide bounds of the Christian Church there is abundant scope for the multiplicity of races, languages, and social conditions; room also for separate organizations with different traditions of faith and order, and much diversity of operation.
    But there is no room for strife or hostility, for pride or self-assertion, for exclusiveness or unkind judgments, nor for that kind of independence which leads men to ignore their fellowship with the great company of believers, the communion of saints. These things are contrary to the revealed will of God, and should be made at once to cease. As these disappear, the outward manifestation of unity will come in such ways as the Spirit of God shall guide.
    3. The task to which we are called is not the sacrifice of any principle in which we firmly believe. It is rather to return to Christ not a figure of the imagination, but the Christ of the Scriptures, and to listen to His voice in obedience, to discover afresh what is the Truth. All unpretentious Bible study, every effort to disseminate a true scriptural theology, and every earnest prayer is part of the task of promoting that unity which is truly Christian.
    We must not envisage Christian Unity as consisting of far-off and doubtful schemes, but as something very nigh which affects us all. If we are really to seek for Christian Unity, we must be prepared to pay the cost. For it must be based upon love, and love is always costly. It will never be attained until there is “far more humility, far more thought, far more self-sacrifice, and far more prayer, than there is at present.” **
    If we are right in the conclusion that such disunion as has been sinful in the history of the Church has been due to pride, self-assertion, and contempt for God’s Word and commandment, then it follows that the way to the unity which God wills is through humility, love of the brethren, and obedience to the Divine Revelation. When Christians pray to be shown where they have been wrong, proud, complaisant, or censorious, and to be put right; when they meet for common counsel and study of the Word, in the spirit of obedience and prepared to subject their individual opinions to the guidance of the Spirit; where the strong are willing to foster and strengthen the weak; and where all are seeking the common good rather than their own sectional interests; then the pathway to unity will become plain, and God will grant His blessing.
    “We need to be more like our blessed Master. What will contribute most to making the world believe that the Father sent the Son?” asks Bishop Moule. He gives the answer, “The manifestation of the presence of the Lord in all who bear His Name, so that they forget themselves in HIM, would do so to a degree now inconceivable. It would tend more than all ecclesiastical schemes to an external and operative cohesion. But it would do so, not by policy, but by grace; not by the universal acceptance of a hierarchical program, but by the life of Jesus manifested in mortal flesh.” ***
    This is our great need, to be more like Christ, that His likeness may be seen in our lives; and this is just what is promised to us as we yield ourselves in full surrender to the working of His Spirit. Then, as we draw nearer to Christ, we shall be drawn nearer to His people; and in our search for unity with the members we shall be drawn closer to the Head.
* Karl Barth, The Church and the Churches, p. 18
** Streeter, Restatement and Reunion, p. 56
*** Moule, Ephesian Studies, p. 185
    ... G. T. Manley, Christian Unity, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1945, p. 86-88 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Show us, Lord, Your way to unity.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Stearns: active love

Thursday, August 25, 2011
Meditation:
    Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
    —1 Peter 1:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In today’s world, wracked by terrorism, poverty, lawlessness, disease, and violence, the message of the gospel and the need for Christians who put their faith into action has never been more acute. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are an integral part of God’s plan for the world—the same world that God loved so much—“that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In this famous verse we see the depth of God’s love for our world. It was not a passive and sentimental love but rather a dynamic, active, and sacrificial love. For God so loved the world that he acted!
    ... Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, Inc., Introduction to Faith In Action Study Bible: Living God’s Word in a Changing World [2005]
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have called me to action.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Kingsley: thanksgiving

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.
    —Psalm 95:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ah! that we would offer to God more frankly the sacrifice of thanksgiving! So we should do God justice, by confessing all we owe to Him; and so, we must believe, we should please God; for if God be indeed our Father in heaven, as surely as a parent is pleased with the affection and gratitude of his child, so will our Father in heaven be pleased when He sees us love Him, who first loved us.
    ... Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), All Saints’ Day, and other sermons, ed. William Harrison, London: Kegan Paul, 1878, p. 385 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    To You, Lord, I owe all.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Ambrose: faith, not words

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
    —1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was not by dialectic that it pleased God to save His people; “for the kingdom of God consisteth in simplicity of faith, not in wordy contention.”
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), Exposition of the Christian Faith, tr. H. de Romestin, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. X, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1896, book 1, ch. 5, p. 207 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me simplicity of faith.
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Monday, August 22, 2011

Underhill: the worshipful attitude

Monday, August 22, 2011
Meditation:
    He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
    —Revelation 14:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. “I come to seek God because I need Him,” may be an adequate formula for prayer. “I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet,” is the only possible formula for worship.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), Worship, London: Nisbet & Co., Ltd., 1951, p. 9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by myself, I have nothing; with You, I have everything.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tozer: Trinity a mystery?

Sunday, August 21, 2011
Meditation:
    Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”
    He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.”
    —Judges 13:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper “mystery.”
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, 1975, p. 26 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are beyond our ability to understand, yet You have granted that we may know You.
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