Swinburne: suffering in the world

Wednesday, September 7, 2011
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
Though [the Lord] brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to the children of men.
    —Lamentations 3:32-33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God made a world without suffering, it would be a world in which humans had little responsibility for each other and for other creatures. Seeing that that alternative is not obviously better than the present world led me to see something about goodness—that there is more to it than tingles of pleasure—and about God—that his goodness is shown in the freedom and responsibility he gives to his creatures.
    ... Richard G. Swinburne (b. 1934), Philosophers Who Believe, Kelly James Clark, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993, p. 200 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, with affliction, You have brought healing and peace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Pink: the Godhood of God

Tuesday, September 6, 2011
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
“Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”
    —Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    From every pulpit in the land it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, that God still reigns. Faith is now in the crucible, it is being tested by fire, and there is no fixed and sufficient resting-place for the heart and mind but in the Throne of God. What is needed now, as never before, is a full, positive, constructive setting forth of the Godhood of God.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), The Sovereignty of God [1918], reprinted by Lulu.com, 2007, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You alone are Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Tertullian: the scandal

Monday, September 5, 2011
Meditation:
    So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
    —1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    With us Christ is received in the person of Christ, because even in this manner is He our God. Whatever attributes therefore you require as worthy of God, must be found in the Father, who is invisible and unapproachable, and placid, and (so to speak) the God of the philosophers; whereas those qualities which you censure as unworthy must be supposed to be in the Son, who has been seen, and heard, and encountered, the Witness and Servant of the Father, uniting in Himself man and God, God in mighty deeds, in weak ones man, in order that He may give to man as much as He takes from God. What in your esteem is the entire disgrace of my God, is in fact the sacrament of man’s salvation.
    ... Tertullian (Quintus S. Florens Tertullianus) (160?-230?), from Adversus Marcionem, ii.27, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. III, Alexander Roberts, ed., Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887, p. 319 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Jesus, You are fully God and fully man. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Spurgeon: the storm

Sunday, September 4, 2011
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
He stilled the storm to a whisper;
    the waves of the sea were hushed.
They were glad when it grew calm,
    and he guided them to their desired haven.
    —Psalm 107:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Fear not the storm, it brings healing in its wings, and when Jesus is with you in the vessel, the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons, v. XXVII, London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1882, p. 373 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust no guide but You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Gregory: an eternal reward

Saturday, September 3, 2011
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
    —James 1:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Don’t let any abusive word from your neighbor stir up hatred in you, and don't allow any loss of things that pass away to upset you. If you are steadfast in fearing the loss of those things that last forever, you will never take seriously the loss of those that pass away; if you keep your eyes fixed on the glory of our eternal recompense, you will not resent a temporal injury. You must bear with those who oppose you, but also love those you bear with. Seek an eternal reward in return for your temporal losses.
    ... St. Gregory the Great (540?-604), Be Friends of God: spiritual readings, Cowley Publications, 1990, p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all things of this life are temporary, apart from Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Chapman: what destroys, redeems

Friday, September 2, 2011
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
    —1 Corinthians 15:36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The antithesis between life and death is not so stark for the Christian as it is for the atheist. Life is a process of becoming, and the moment of death is the transition from one life to another. Thus it is possible for the Christian to succumb to his own kind of death-wish, to seek that extreme of other-worldliness to which the faith has always been liable, especially in periods of stress and uncertainty. There may appear a marked preoccupation with death and a rejection of all temporal things. To say that this world is in a fallen state and that not too much value must be set upon it, is very far from the Manichaean error of supposing it to be evil throughout. The Christian hope finds ambivalence in death: that which destroys, also redeems.
    ... Raymond Chapman (b. 1924), The Ruined Tower, London: G. Bles, 1961, p. 132 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my death is a gateway to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Brother Lawrence: continuing with God

Thursday, September 1, 2011
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.
    —Leviticus 24:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [He said] that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.
    That his prayer was nothing else but a sense of the Presence of God, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine Love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that God would give him somewhat to suffer when he should have grown stronger.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 16-17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is nothing richer than communion with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt