Tozer: eyes on God

Saturday, May 12, 2012
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
    —Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We get our moral bearings by looking at God. We must begin with God. We are right when, and only when, we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 95 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the eyes of my heart continually gaze on you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: atomization

Friday, May 11, 2012
Meditation:
    Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
    —Colossians 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Western European civilization has witnessed a sort of atomizing process, in which the individual is more and more set free from his natural setting in family and neighborhood, and becomes a sort of replaceable unit in the social machine, His nearest neighbors may not even know his name. He is free to move from place to place, from job to job, from acquaintance to acquaintance, and—if he has attained a high degree of emancipation—from wife to wife. He is in every context a more and more anonymous and replaceable part, the perfect incarnation of the rationalist conception of man. Wherever western civilization has spread in the past one hundred years, it has carried this atomizing process with it. Its characteristic product in Calcutta, Shanghai, or Johannesburg, is the modern city into which myriads of human beings, loosened from their old ties in village or tribe or caste, like grains of sand fretted by water from an ancient block of sa! ndstone, are ceaselessly churned around in the whirlpool of the city—anonymous, identical, replaceable units.
    In such a situation, it is natural that men should long for some sort of real community, for men cannot be human without it. It is especially natural that Christians should reach out after that part of Christian doctrine which speaks of the true, God-given community, the Church of Jesus Christ. We have witnessed the appalling results of trying to go back to some sort of primitive collectivity based on the total control of the individual, down to the depths of his spirit, by an all-powerful group. Yet we know that we cannot condemn this solution to the problem of man’s loneliness if we have no other to offer. It is natural that men should ask with a greater eagerness than ever before, such questions as these: “Is there in truth a family of God on earth to which I can belong, a place where all men can be truly at home? If s! o, where is it to be found, what are its marks, and how is it ! related to, and distinguished from, the known communities of family, nation, and culture? What are its boundaries, its structure, its terms of membership? And how comes it that those who claim to be the spokesmen of that one holy fellowship are themselves at war with one another as to the fundamentals of its nature, and unable to agree to live together in unity and concord?” The breakdown of Christendom has forced such questions as these to the front. I think that there is no more urgent theological task than to try to give them plain and credible answers.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 13 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, relieve the Gospel of our divisions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: the fruits of indolence

Thursday, May 10, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
    —Matthew 7:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Modern culture is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the gospel or else it is the deadliest enemy of the gospel. For making it subservient, religious emotion is not enough, intellectual labor is also necessary. And that labor is being neglected. The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping the fruits of her indolence. Now she must battle for her life.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), The Princeton Theological Review, v. 11, 1911, p. 13 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Strengthen Your church, Lord, for the battle ahead. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Montague: the worst news of all

Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Meditation:
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
    or let the fish of the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
    that the hand of the LORD has done this?”
    —Job 12:7-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God is not, then the existence of all that is beautiful and in any sense good, is but the accidental and ineffective by-product of blindly swirling atoms, or of the equally unpurposeful, though more conceptually complicated, mechanisms of present-day physics. A man may well believe that this dreadful thing is true. But only the fool will say in his heart that he is glad that it is true. For to wish there should be no God is to wish that the things which we love and strive to realize and make permanent, should be only temporary and doomed to frustration and destruction. If life and its fulfilments are good, why should one rejoice at the news that God is dead and that there is nothing in the whole world except our frail and perishable selves that is concerned with anything that matters?
    ... William Pepperell Montague (1873-1953), Belief Unbound, Yale University Press, 1931, p. 66-67 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may ____ and ____ come to see the truth about You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Juliana of Norwich: Pray inwardly

Tuesday, May 8, 2012
    Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
Meditation:
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
    among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.
    —Psalm 42:3-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Our Lord] saith thus: Pray inwardly, though thou thinkest it savour thee not: for it is profitable, though thou feel not, though thou see nought; yea, though thou think thou canst not. For in dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in feebleness, then is thy prayer well-pleasant to me, though thou thinkest it savour thee nought but little. And so is all thy believing prayer in my sight.
    ... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love, Grace Harriet Warrack, ed., Methuen, 1901, p. 85-86 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent Your interceding Spirit to pray for Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clarkson: the titles of God

Monday, May 7, 2012
Meditation:
    When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
    —John 8:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The titles of God are virtually promises. When he is called a sun, a shield, a strong tower, a hiding-place, a portion. The titles of Christ, light of the world, bread of life, the way, truth, and life; the titles of the Spirit, the Spirit of truth, of holiness, of glory, of grace, and supplication, the sealing, witnessing Spirit; faith may conclude as much out of these as out of promises. Is the Lord a sun? Then he will influence me, &c. Is Christ life? Then he will enliven me.
    ... David Clarkson (1622-1686), The Practical Works of David Clarkson, v. 1, Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864, p. 187-188 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You we receive repeated renewal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Housman: O Christ, our joy, to whom is given

Sunday, May 6, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
    —Luke 21:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
O Christ, our joy, to Whom is giv’n
A throne o’er all the thrones of Heav’n,
In Thee, Whose hand all things obey,
The world’s vain pleasures pass away.

So, suppliants here, we seek to win
Thy pardon for Thy people’s sin,
That, by Thine all-prevailing grace,
Uplifted, we may seek Thy face.

And when, all Heav’n beneath Thee bowed,
Thou com’st to judgment throned in cloud,
Then from our guilt wash out the stain
And give us our lost crowns again.

Be Thou our joy and strong defense,
Who art our future recompense:
So shall the light that springs from Thee
Be ours through all eternity.

O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
All praise to Thee let earth accord,
Who art, while endless ages run,
With Father and with Spirit One.
    ... Laurence Housman (1865-1959), translated from 13th c. Latin verses (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, for Your prophecies.

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