Gossip: our work

Saturday, October 27, 2012
Meditation:
    Do not put out the Spirit’s fire...
    —1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Most of us in the Church ... still believe mainly in fuss and noise and crowding and organization and machinery. If things drag, we evolve some other type of meeting... There may be no spiritual outcome whatsoever, but we are pleasantly tired, and there is a wind blowing in our faces and so we have the sense something is being done. So long as we are hot and perspiring, are talking and meeting, are bustled and rushed, we feel that things are happening, for we trust in efficiency and busyness, and a certain material capacity far more than in the Holy Spirit.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 76 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, do not allow Your people to be deceived. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Rutledge: the greatest reward

Friday, October 26, 2012
    Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
    Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664
Meditation:
Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
    children a reward from him.
    —Psalm 127:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest reward is the gift unearned.
    ... John Rutledge, from a paraphrase of Ps. 127
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You pour out gifts to the undeserving. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Griffith: commitment

Thursday, October 25, 2012
    Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285
Meditation:
    So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
    —1 Peter 4:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In religion, we are not asked to make up our minds, we are asked to make up our lives... We may refuse to make up our minds, but our lives get made up, one way or the other... Whatever we believe with our minds, our lives are committed either to God’s way or to the God-denying way, and what matters in religion is the act of commitment.
    ... A. Leonard Griffith (b. 1920), Barriers to Christian Belief, New York: Harper & Row, 1962, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962, p. 190-192 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I choose Your ways consistently. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Carmichael: not turned away

Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Meditation:
Praise be to God,
    who has not rejected my prayer
    or withheld his love from me!
    —Psalm 66:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The day may bring many strange things to us, perplexing or painful or disappointing; but this stands strong: our prayer has not been turned away, nor His loving kindness.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Edges of His Ways [1955], London: SPCK, 1957, p. 105 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to reflect Your love.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Newman: in the heart

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Meditation:
    Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
    —Luke 17:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who attempts to set up God’s kingdom in his heart, furthers it in the world.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Sermons, Bearing on Subjects of the Day, London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1844, p. 151 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take Your place in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Rutherford: better than the world's best

Monday, October 22, 2012
Meditation:
    But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
    —Philippians 3:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The worst of Christ, even his chaff, is better than the world’s corn.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Feb. 23, 1637, p. 197 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me not to love the things of the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Eliot: the silence required

Sunday, October 21, 2012
Meditation:
Clap your hands, all you nations;
    shout to God with cries of joy.
    —Psalm 47:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
Where shall the world be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence.
    ... T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), from Ash Wednesday, in The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1952, p. 65 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your word known to this generation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt