Barth: the fellowship of sinners

Saturday, September 24, 2011
Meditation:
    This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
    —Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is no positive possession of men which is sufficient to provide a foundation for human solidarity; for every positive possession—religious temperament, moral consciousness, humanitarianism—already contains within itself the seed of the disruption of society. These positive factors are productive of difference, since they distinguish men from one another. Genuine fellowship is grounded upon a negative: it is grounded upon what men lack. Precisely when we recognize that we are sinners do we perceive that we are brothers.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 100-101 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to embrace my brothers and sisters. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: Christian globalization

Friday, September 23, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
    —Matthew 16:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The field of Christianity is the world. The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), The Princeton Theological Review, v. 11, 1911, p. 6 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to dedicate all my undertakings and studies to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: history

Thursday, September 22, 2011
Meditation:
    The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
    —Acts 5:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All the world’s history is ecclesiastical history, is the story of the success and failure, the advance and hindrance of the ideal humanity, the Church of the living God.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Light of the World, and Other Sermons, v. 5, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1890, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help us see the true progress of history in the growth of Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Crashaw: Two went to pray?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
    “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
    “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    —Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
Two went up into the Temple to pray.

Two went to pray? O rather say,
One went to brag, th’ other to pray.

One stands up close, and treads on high,
Where th’ other dares not lend his eye.

One nearer to God’s altar trod,
The other to the altar’s God.
    ... Richard Crashaw (1613-1649), from “Divine Epigrams”, The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, London: J. R. Smith, 1858, p. 20 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my sin is no better than anyone else’s.

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Phillips: this temporary world

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
    —Matthew 24:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A vast amount of Christian thought and action is spent upon the improvement and development of man in this temporary set-up... But if we swing too far [in that direction] we find ourselves party to a point of view which only tolerates Christianity because of its social implications; because it tends to stabilize the home, to improve health and living conditions, or to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency. Before we know where we are we have lost the authentic, other-worldly note; we find ourselves regarding death, like any pagan, as an utter disaster; and, like any disillusioned humanist, becoming bitterly disappointed that men do not always “love the highest when they see it.” The emphasis, you see, even among Christians has shifted to this world.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, maintain our focus on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cowper: Have you no words?

Monday, September 19, 2011
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
    —James 5:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
Have you no words? ah! think again,
Words flow apace when you complain;
And fill your fellow-creature’s ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To Heav’n in supplication sent;
Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,
“Hear what the Lord has done for me.”
    ... William Cowper (1731-1800), in The Works of the Rev. John Newton, v. III, John Newton, New York: Williams and Whiting, 1810, p. 525 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to embrace what You have given, easy and hard alike.

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MacDonald: faith is righteousness

Sunday, September 18, 2011
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
    —Romans 4:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The faith of Abraham is reckoned to him for righteousness... To call the faith of a man his righteousness is simply to speak the truth. Was it not righteous in Abraham to obey God? The Jews placed righteousness in keeping all the particulars of the law of Moses: Paul says faith in God was counted righteousness before Moses was born. You may answer, Abraham was unjust in many things, and by no means a righteous man. True; he was not a righteous man in any complete sense; his righteousness would never have satisfied Paul; neither, you may be sure, did it satisfy Abraham; but his faith was nevertheless righteousness, and if it had not been counted to him for righteousness, there would have been falsehood somewhere, for such faith as Abraham’s is righteousness. It was no mere intellectual recognition of the existence of a God, which is consistent with the deepest atheism; it was that faith which is one with action: ‘He went out, not knowing whither he went.’ The very act of believing in God after such fashion that, when the time of action comes, the man will obey God, is the highest act, the deepest, loftiest righteousness of which man is capable, is at the root of all other righteousness, and the spirit of it will work till the man is perfect.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Righteousness”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 213-214 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that believes You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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