Keble: If on our daily course

Saturday, July 14, 2012
    Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866
Meditation:
    But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
    —2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
If on our daily course our mind
Be set, to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us, daily, nearer God.
    ... John Keble (1792-1866), The Christian Year [1827], G. W. Doane, ed., Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842, p. 18-19 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lead me, Lord, to You.

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Luther: the one point under attack

Friday, July 13, 2012
Meditation:
    Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
    —Ephesians 6:14-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), quoted in The God Who is There [1968], Francis A. Schaeffer, in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy, Francis A. Schaeffer, Good News Publishers, 1990, p. 11 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I be faithful to You in the moment of testing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cogdell: figurative for David, true for Jesus

Thursday, July 12, 2012
Meditation:
I will extol the LORD at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the LORD;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
    —Psalm 34:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Treating [Psalm 34] as from Jesus adds a beauty and a power to its teachings which would be otherwise missing. What was true for David in a shadowy or figurative sense was literally true for Jesus. For example, in verses 1 and 2, David declared “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” For David this expresses his intention, but this statement is literally and beautifully descriptive of Jesus’ way of life. So it is with the whole psalm.
    ... John R. Cogdell, “The humanity of Jesus Christ, as revealed in certain Psalms”, section II (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place the spirit of praise within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Saphir: creed vs. actuality

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
    Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550
Meditation:
    God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
    —Romans 3:25-26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is one thing to believe in justification by faith, it is another thing to be justified by faith.
    ... Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), Christ and Israel, London: Morgan and Scott, 1911, p. 73 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, transform the theoretical belief into a reality for all Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Babcock: the wrong proportion

Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No servant 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.”
    —Luke 16:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A right relation is in wrong proportions when God’s kingdom is obscured or forgotten. Christians have a right to make money; no one has a better right. But when money-making means such absorption of time and vitality, that Christian work and worship cannot be kept up, there the line is crossed between right and wrong.
    ... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all my substance is Yours to dispense according to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Berger: dialogue about faith?

Monday, July 9, 2012
Meditation:
    He said to another man, “Follow me.”
    But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
    Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
    —Luke 9:59-60 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ages of faith are not marked by “dialogue” but by proclamation.
    ... Peter L. Berger (b. 1929), Facing up to Modernity, Basic Books, 1977, p. 192 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, awaken all Your people to the proclamation of the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ramsay: in the common speech

Sunday, July 8, 2012
Meditation:
    A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
    —Acts 17:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It has been too much the custom to regard the earliest Christian books as written in a specially Christian form of speech, standing apart and distinguishable from the common language of the eastern Roman provinces. Had that been the case, it is not too bold to say that the new religion could not have conquered the Empire. It was because Christianity appealed direct to the people, addressed them in their own language, and made itself comprehensible to them on their own plane of thought, that it met the needs and filled the heart of the Roman world.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939), The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1904, p. 51 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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