Forsyth: the evangelical principle

Saturday, June 2, 2012
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
    —1 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christianity is not the sacrifice we make, but the sacrifice we trust; not the victory we win, but the victory we inherit. That is the evangelical principle.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), The Justification of God, Duckworth, 1916, London: Independent Press, 1957, p. 220 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are Your heirs in salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kirk: the decline of the deacons

Friday, June 1, 2012
    Feast of Justin, Martyr at Rome, c.165
    Commemoration of Angela de Merici, Founder of the Institute of St. Ursula, 1540
Meditation:
    In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
    This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
    —Acts 6:1-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This service—helping at the tables for the poor—has been clericalized into service at the liturgical altar.
    ... David Kirk (1935-2007), Quotations from Chairman Jesus, Springfield, Ill.: Templegate Publishers, 1969, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, restore a heart of charity in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: what He is doing

Thursday, May 31, 2012
Meditation:
    Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
    —Luke 9:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The more earnestly you are at work for Jesus, the more you need times when what you are doing for Him passes totally out of your mind, and the only thing worth thinking of seems to be what He is doing for you.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Twenty Sermons, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1887, p. 234 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I abandon myself to You in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: the center of prayer

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
    Feast of Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906
    Commemoration of Joan of Arc, Visionary, 1431
    Commemoration of Apolo Kivebulaya, Priest, Evangelist, 1933
Meditation:
    One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
    —Luke 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the beginning we are indeed the subject and the center of our prayers. But in God’s time and in God’s way a Copernican revolution takes place in our heart. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, there is a shift in our center of gravity. We pass from thinking of God as part of our life to the realization that we are part of his life. Wondrously and mysteriously God moves from the periphery of our prayer experience to the center.
    ... Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 15 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me of Yourself in my prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the fellowship needs the weak

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Meditation:
    On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
    —1 Corinthians 12:22-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 95-96 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable each to cherish all who are in the Body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: popularity

Monday, May 28, 2012
    Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089
Meditation:
    If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
    —Galatians 6:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Popularity is the most dangerous spiritual state imaginable, since it leads one so easily to the spiritual pride which drowns men in perdition. It is a symptom to be watched with anxiety since so often it has been purchased at the too heavy price of compromise with the world.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), in The Record, 28 March, 1947, p. 161 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the Spirit of humility ever rule me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Auden: the miracle of Pentecost

Sunday, May 27, 2012
    Pentecost
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
    —Acts 2:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is extraordinary that sects of religious enthusiasts, from the Montanists down to the Catholic Apostolics, should have imagined that to make verbal noises which nobody else could understand was evidence of Divine Inspiration, a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost was exactly the opposite, the miracle of instantaneous translation—everybody could understand when everybody else was saying.
    ... W. H. Auden (1907-1973), A Certain World, London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 170 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, with You there are no barriers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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