Sadgrove & Wright: faith in what?

Saturday, August 25, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.”
    One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
    Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
    —Luke 11:44-46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Faith” in biblical terms is never a bare decision, or a general “spiritual” approach to life. It is always defined by its content, and the content of saving faith must be Jesus Christ. It is therefore certainly not enough to assume that anyone with however vague a “religious” approach to life must be a Christian in disguise; some of Jesus’ harshest words were reserved precisely for the “religious” people of his day.
    ... Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, in The Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 78 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone are the way to true life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Singh: which cross?

Friday, August 24, 2012
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    ... and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
    —Matthew 10:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world—with all its earthly goods. Those who bear the Master’s cross know from experience that this cross bears them and takes them safely to their destiny. But the cross of this world actually drags us down and leads to destruction. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), Wisdom of the Sadhu, with Kim Comer, Farmington, PA: Plough Publishing House, 2007, p. 150 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I ever choose You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: made for eternity

Thursday, August 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
    —Romans 2:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We who live in this nervous age would be wise to meditate on our lives and our days long and often before the face of God and on the edge of eternity. For we are made for eternity as surely as we are made for time, and as responsible moral beings we must deal with both.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, 196, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me fit for eternity with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browne: Search while thou wilt

Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Meditation:
For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.
    —Proverbs 2:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
Search while thou wilt, and let thy reason go
To ransome truth even to th’ Abyss below;
Rally the scattered Causes; and that line
Which Nature twists, be able to untwine:
It is thy Makers will, for unto none,
But unto reason can he e’er be known...

Give thou my reason that instructive flight,
Whose weary wings may on thy hands still light.
Teach me so to soar aloft, yet ever so,
When near the Sun, to stoop again below.
Thus shall my humble Feathers safely hover,
And, though near Earth, more than the Heavens discover.
And then at last, when homeward I shall drive
Rich with the Spoils of nature to my Hive,
There will I sit like that industrious Flie,
Buzzing thy praises, which shall never die,
Till death abrupts them, and succeeding Glory
Bid me go on in a more lasting story.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Religio Medici [1643], W. Murison, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1922, p. 17-28 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I read Your great glory in nature and the heavens.

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Kilmer: The Kings of the earth

Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Meditation:
    The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
    —Psalm 2:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
The Kings of the earth are men of might,
And cities are burned for their delight,
And the skies rain death in the silent night,
    And the hills belch death all day!

But the King of Heaven, Who made them all,
Is fair and gentle, and very small;
He lies in the straw, by the oxen’s stall—
    Let them think of Him to-day!
    ... Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), Joyce Kilmer: Memoir and Poems, v. I, New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918, p. 169 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your have conquered Your enemies with meekness.

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Booth: declaring salvation

Monday, August 20, 2012
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
    —Luke 9:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Scheme of Social Salvation is not worth discussion which is not as wide as the Scheme of Eternal Salvation set forth in the Gospel. The Glad Tidings must be to every creature, not merely to an elect few who are to be saved while the mass of their fellows are predestined to a temporal damnation. We have had this doctrine of an inhuman cast-iron pseudo-political economy too long enthroned amongst us. It is now time to fling down the false idol, and proclaim a Temporal Salvation as full, free, and universal, and with no other limitations than the “Whosoever will,” of the Gospel.
    ... William Booth (1829-1912), In Darkest England, London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1890, p. 36 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your salvation is open to all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stewart: the greatest menace

Sunday, August 19, 2012
Meditation:
    For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
    —Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest drag on Christianity to-day, the most serious menace to the Church’s mission, is not the secularism without, it is the reduced Christianity within: the religious generalities and innocuous platitudes of a pallid, anaemic Christianity which is simply (in the language of arithmeticians) the “highest common factor” of half a dozen different religions.
    ... James S. Stewart (1896-1990), A Faith to Proclaim, New York: Scribner, 1953, p. 31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are awakening Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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