Beach: always a cross

Saturday, July 7, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
    —Mark 8:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The symbol of the New Testament and the Christian Church is a cross, which stands for a love faithful despite physical agony and rejection by the world. No amount of air-conditioning and pew-cushioning in the suburban church can cover over the hard truth that the Christian life... is a narrow way of suffering; that discipleship is costly: that, for the faithful, there is always a cross to be carried. No one can understand Christianity to its depths who comes to it to enjoy it as a pleasant weekend diversion.
    ... W. Waldo Beach (1916-2000), The Christian Life, Richmond, Va.: CLC Press, 1966 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me to endure the test. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yaconelli: the coming dullness

Friday, July 6, 2012
    Feast of John Huss, Reformer, Martyr, 1413
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
    At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
    —Acts 16:33-34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore. He changes them into “nice people”.
    ... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Dangerous Wonder: the Adventure of Childlike Faith, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1998, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have changed me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hallesby: the time is gone

Thursday, July 5, 2012
Meditation:
    Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
    —Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Instinctively and automatically [the carnal mind] will mobilize all the reasons it can conceive of for not praying now: You are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer; later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able to pray in a more devotional frame of mind... Before you know it, the entire day is gone, and you have not had a single quiet hour with God.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 88-89 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, ever prompt my heart to prayer and communion with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: the devotional habit

Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Meditation:
    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
    —1 John 5:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Devotion is not a passing emotion—it is a fixed, enduring habit of mind, permeating the whole life, and shaping every action. It rests upon a conviction that God is the Sole Source of Holiness, and that our part is to lean upon Him and be absolutely guided and governed by Him; and it necessitates an abiding hold on Him, a perpetual habit of listening for His Voice within the heart, as of readiness to obey the dictates of that Voice.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are speaking to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: to heal the separation

Tuesday, July 3, 2012
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
    —Colossians 3:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    And let us be grateful beyond words for this: that God will not let us alone until we have learnt it and stand by His side. He troubles us, He brings His disturbing light back and back to us, showing us how coarse and heavy the dying self, seeking her own, is. How horrible it is that any feeling of unforgiveness, accepted and held on to, towards our brother, drives God from our side; how quickly we must do all we can to heal the separation, because we are out in the cold and the dark indeed, if divorced from that Love.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 67 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You bind the fellowship together with Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: forgiveness

Monday, July 2, 2012
Meditation:
    Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
    —Romans 12:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To realize that you are safe and happy standing at God’s side, with His love encompassing you because you are forgiven; too happy to take offense any more; too much in love with life to want to be made miserable with an unforgiving heart, and that now every conflict is a chance to learn more of the exceeding beauty of Love: that is worth living for, and surely worth dying to this misery-making self for. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 67 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can fulfil my heart’s need. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the veil

Sunday, July 1, 2012
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
    —Romans 6:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 43 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, heal my heart of sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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