Kierkegaard: the Fatherhood of God

Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Commemoration of Søren Kierkegaard, Teacher and Philosopher, 1855
Meditation:
    You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
    —Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Who hates his neighbor has not the rights of a child.” And not only has he no rights as a child, he has no “father.” God is not my father in particular, or any man’s father (horrible presumption and madness!); no, He is only father in the sense of father of all, and consequently only my father in so far as He is the father of all. When I hate someone or deny that God is his father—it is not he who loses, but I: for then I have no father.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Journals, ed. Alexander Dru, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 411 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, You have ransomed Your children. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: covetousness

Friday, September 7, 2012
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
    —Ephesians 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When I say that people are not good, I am not adopting a Christian or a moral standpoint. I am saying that their two great characteristics, no matter what their society or education, are covetousness and the desire for power. We find these traits always and everywhere. If, then, we give people complete freedom to choose, they will inevitably seek to dominate someone or something and they will inevitably covet what belongs to others, and a strange feature of covetousness is that it can never be assuaged or satisfied, for once one thing is acquired it directs its attention to something else.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), Anarchy and Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991, p. 20 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can save me from my greed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wells: sound-proof civility

Thursday, September 6, 2012
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.
    —John 7:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The mildest assertion of Christian truth today sounds like a thunderclap because the well-polished civility of our religious talk has kept us from hearing much of this kind of thing.
    ... David F. Wells, No Place for Truth, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993, p. 10 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your word go forth in power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: Where is thy sting?

Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
    —Matthew 10:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be sure that you will look to death, according to your manner of life. If a pure heart and mortified spirit have broken down the earthly barrier between you and God; if trial and sacrifice have brought you into a close realisation of the Cross, to union with God, you cannot fear death; you will see it from His Side only, and in no way from your own, all that is fearful is lost when merged in His Holy Will. Death is wholly loveable and peaceful seen in the Light of His Love.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 253 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken away death’s terror forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browning: there is sorrow

Tuesday, September 4, 2012
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
    —1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
“There is no God,” the foolish saith,
    But none, “There is no sorrow.”
And nature oft the cry of faith
    In bitter need will borrow:
Eyes which the preacher could not school,
    By wayside graves are raised;
And lips say, “God be pitiful,”
    Who ne’er said, “God be praised.”
    ... Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, London: MacMillan, 1899, p. 259 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my shelter in all times. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: a time of doubt

Monday, September 3, 2012
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
    forever.
    —Psalm 23:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we are really convinced of the truth of our message, then we can proclaim it before a world of enemies, then the very difficulty of our task, the very scarcity of our allies becomes an inspiration, then we can even rejoice that God did not place us in an easy age, but in a time of doubt and perplexity and battle. Then, too, we shall not be afraid to call forth other soldiers into the conflict.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), The Princeton Theological Review, v. 11, 1911, p. 13 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people faith and boldness to proclaim Your salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beecher: but for Calvary

Sunday, September 2, 2012
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    When [Judas] was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.”
    —John 13:31-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The whole earth will have dwindled, and would have gone out, were it not for one glowing spot,—Calvary. For that mountain it shall stand forever, and, glowing through all space, shine as a mighty jewel that God hath set as a memorial of his everlasting love!
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Eyes and Ears, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, p. 58 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have expressed Your love to the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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