Gossip: not praying

Saturday, September 10, 2011
Meditation:
    I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
    —Lamentations 3:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is this real difficulty that the very beauty of a [pastoral or written] prayer may keep one from praying. The mind is lost in admiring the perfection of the English, or the loveliness of the thought, is listening, agreeing, commending, but not praying.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), In Christ’s Stead, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925, p. 47 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep my thoughts on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the word stands

Friday, September 9, 2011
Meditation:
    For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
    —Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic... Do not defend God’s word, but testify to it... Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of her capacity.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Dietrich Bonhoeffer: a biography, Eberhard Bethge, Fortress Press, 2000, p. 442 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church is thankful for the riches of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kierkegaard: offence or belief

Thursday, September 8, 2011
    Commemoration of Søren Kierkegaard, Teacher and Philosopher, 1855
Meditation:
    Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this [teaching about eating flesh and drinking blood], Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
    —John 6:61-66 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The relation of personality to Christianity, is not to doubt or to believe, but to be offended or to believe. All modern philosophy, both ethically, and Christianly, is based upon frivolousness. Instead of deterring and calling people to order by speaking of being despairing and being offended, it has waved to them and invited them to become conceited by doubting and having doubted.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Practice in Christianity, tr. Hong, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991, p. 80 fn (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take away my insult to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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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
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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
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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
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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
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