Newton: carrying the burden for the day

Saturday, July 21, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus, praying:] “Give us today our daily bread.”
    —Matthew 6:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year, to a great bundle of faggots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once; he mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday’s stick over again today, and adding tomorrow’s burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.
    ... John Newton (1725-1807), The Life of John Newton, American Tract Society by Pudney, Hooker & Russell, 1854, p. 116 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You banish all anxieties. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Murray: our only joy

Friday, July 20, 2012
    Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566
Meditation:
    [Haggai:] “‘I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the LORD.”
    —Haggai 2:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is an unspeakable mercy that the Father comes with His chastisement, makes the world round us all dark and unattractive, leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a time lose our joy in what was becoming so dangerous. He does it in the hope that, when we have found our rest in Christ in time of trouble, we shall learn to choose abiding in Him as our only portion; and when the affliction is removed, have so grown more firmly into Him, that in prosperity He still shall be our only joy. So much has He set His heart on this, that though He has indeed no pleasure in afflicting us, He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Abide in Christ, Philadelphia: The Rodgers Co., 1895?, p. 133-134 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Correct me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Griffith Thomas: the silence

Thursday, July 19, 2012
    Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379
Meditation:
    You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.
    —Revelation 5:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The NT is entirely silent as to this special and, as it were, localized priesthood. Surely, if the ministry had been regarded as exercising a priesthood distinguishable from the priesthood of all believers, or regarded as the priesthood of the church in a specialized way, it would have been necessary to show that this ministerial priesthood existed in the early church. Yet there are no priestly functions associated with the Christian ministry as such in the NT. Instead, the priesthood of all believers is inherent in their relation to Christ. This is the divine warrant for it and there is no such warrant for any narrower or modified form of it.
    ... W. H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924), from “A Question for the Day” [ca. 1900] (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us to be true to Your example. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Brent: God's silences

Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Meditation:
O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent.
    Do not be far from me, O Lord.
    —Psalm 35:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God is silent now at times when we long for some sign from Him, it is because by means of silence He can best make known to us His mind. His silence may mean that our request is so foreign to His will, that it may not be heeded without hurt to the petitioner. Or, on the other hand, He may be luring on our faith and inciting it to a more ambitious flight. Or, again, it may be that His silence is His way of telling us that the answer to our query or petition lies in ourselves.
    ... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), With God in the World [1899], London: Longmans Green, 1914, p. 37 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my faith so that I may hear You more clearly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

MacDonald: strength

Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Meditation:
    Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
    —Ephesians 6:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [God desires] not that He may say to them, “Look how mighty I am, and go down upon your knees and worship,”—for power alone was never yet worthy of prayer; but that He may say thus: “Look, my children, you will never be strong but with my strength. I have no other to give you. And that you can get only by trusting in me. I can not give it you any other way. There is no other way.”
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, v. I [1867], London: Strahan & Co., 1873, p. 513 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in my own strength, I fail; grant me Your strength for Your glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Gossip: fire insurance

Monday, July 16, 2012
    Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099
Meditation:
    The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
    —Romans 8:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We think of the enormous sacrifices of those early Christians; but what struck them was the immensity of their inheritance in Christ. Take that one phrase (surely the most daring that the mind of man ever conceived), “We are the heirs of God.” That is what they felt about it, that not God Himself could have a fuller life than theirs, and that even He would share all that He had with them! Tremendous words that stagger through their sheer audacity! And yet, here we are, whispering about the steepness of the way, the soreness of the self-denial, the heaviness of the cross, whining and puling, giving to those outside the utterly grotesque impression that religion is a gloomy kind of thing, a dim, monastic twilight where we sit and shiver miserably, out of the sunshine that God made for us, and meant us to enjoy; [that it is] all a doing that nobody would naturally choose, and refraining from what everyone would naturally take; a species of insurance money grudgingly doled out lest some worse thing come upon us.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep my eyes on Christ and His kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Bloesch: true prayer

Sunday, July 15, 2012
    Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
    Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274
Meditation:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
    O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
    O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
    therefore you are feared.
    —Psalm 130:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As I see it, true prayer is neither mystical rapture nor ritual observance nor philosophical reflection: it is the outpouring of the soul before a living God, the crying to God “out of the depths.” Such prayer can only be uttered by one convicted of sin by the grace of God and moved to confession by the Spirit of God. True prayer is an encounter with the Holy in which we realize not only our creatureliness and guilt but also the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven through the atoning death of the divine savior, Jesus Christ. In such an encounter, we are impelled not only to bow before God and seek his mercy but also to offer thanksgiving for grace that goes out to undeserving sinners.
    ... Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010), The Struggle of Prayer, Harper & Row, 1980, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make my heart thankful for Your great mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt