Hudson Taylor

Saturday, September 15, 2012
Meditation:
    Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
    —1 Peter 5:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [God] is helping me to rejoice in our adverse circumstances, in our poverty, in the retirement of our Mission. All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestation of His grace, power, and love.
    ... J. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, Moody Publishers, 2009, p. 218 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You turn all Your people's failures into glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: community in Christ alone

Friday, September 14, 2012
    Feast of the Holy Cross
Meditation:
    If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
    —Philippians 2:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christian community is not an ideal that we must realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly shall we think of our community and pray and hope for it.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 38 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You enfold us in Your body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Chrysostom: seeing without light

Thursday, September 13, 2012
    Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407
Meditation:
    The fool says in his heart,
    “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;
    there is no one who does good.
    —Psalm 53:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He is “a natural man,” who attributes every thing to reasonings of the mind and considers not that he needs help from above; which is a mark of sheer folly. For God bestowed it that it might learn and receive help from Him, not that it should consider itself sufficient unto itself. For eyes are beautiful and useful, but should they choose to see without light, their beauty profits them nothing; nor yet their natural force, but even doth harm. So if you mark it, any soul also, if it choose to see without the Spirit, becomes even an impediment unto itself.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, v. XII, ed. Philip Schaff, New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889, p. 38 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I see by the light of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: the pupose of speech

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Meditation:
    Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
    —Colossians 4:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), The Soul of Prayer [1916], Regent College Publishing, 2002, p. 18 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable me to pray as You would have me do. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Torrey: beyond the need to pray?

Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Meditation:
    I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
    —Romans 15:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We hear much in our day of the “rest of faith”, but there is such a thing as the fight of faith in prayer as well as in effort. Those who would have us think that they have attained to some sublime height of faith and trust because they never know any agony of conflict or of prayer, have surely gotten beyond their Lord, and beyond the mightiest victors for God, both in effort and prayer, that the ages of Christian history have known.
    ... R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), How to Pray, Fleming H. Revell, 1900, p. 36 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith to pray in earnest and belief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wilson: idols

Monday, September 10, 2012
Meditation:
    Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
    —1 John 5:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There are few who have not their idols, which their hearts adore, in which they put their trust, and place their happiness. The worst of all is ourselves.
    ... Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), Maxims of Piety and of Christianity, London: Macmillan, 1898, p. 71 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You forbid that I worship any but You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aldrich: at the point of need

Sunday, September 9, 2012
Meditation:
    ... the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
    Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
    —Luke 5:30-32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus met a person at his point of need. We should, too. If his need is in the area of marriage, God has good news for him. If he is struggling with guilt, God has good news for him. Likewise God has good news for the person who needs love and affection, security or esteem... A caring friend who meets them with the gospel at a point of need is often the only way they will see through the caricatures to the real Christ.
    ... Joseph C. Aldrich (1941-2009), Lifestyle Evangelism, Multnomah Press, 1981, p. 88 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have met my needs. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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