Phillips: God-starved

Saturday, January 5, 2013
Meditation:
    After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.”
    —John 17:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our society today bears all the marks of a God-starved community. There is little real moral authority because no ultimate Authority is known or acknowledged.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God Our Contemporary, New York: Macmillan, 1960, p. viii (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, reveal Your self anew to those who do not know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: the value of differences

Friday, January 4, 2013
Meditation:
    There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
    —Ephesians 4:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The different emphases of many denominations and sects are not bad in themselves. These very differences would profit the whole Body if each group would only be humble enough to recognize the value of the others, instead of making their differences the basis of exclusivism and separation
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us to embrace those from whom we have been separated. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: an honest apologetic

Thursday, January 3, 2013
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
    —Acts 5:41-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As Christians we must not minimize the need to give honest answers to honest questions. We should have an intellectual apologetic. The Bible commands it and Christ and Paul exemplify it. In the synagogue, in the marketplace, in homes and in almost every conceivable kind of situation, Jesus and Paul discussed Christianity. It is likewise the Christian’s task to be able to give an honest answer to an honest question and then to give it.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), The Mark of the Christian, Inter-Varsity Press, 1976, p. 16-17 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You equip Your witnesses with the truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Basil: whose feet will you wash?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013
    Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
    Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
    Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
    —John 13:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Lord also did not think that the teaching of his word alone was enough, but he wanted to give us an example of humility when, girded with a towel, he washed the feet of his disciples. Whose feet do you wash? Whom do you care for? To whom do you make yourself inferior and last of all, since you live alone?
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), Little Asceticon, Question 3.9, concerning community (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place the Servant’s heart within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: for the new year

Tuesday, January 1, 2013
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
    —James 4:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move, and have our being; glory be to Thee for my recovery from sickness, and the continuance of my life. Grant, O my God, that I may improve the year which I am now beginning, and all the days which Thou shalt add to my life, by serious repentance and diligent obedience; that, by the help of thy Holy Spirit, I may use the means of grace to my own salvation, and at last enjoy thy presence in eternal happiness, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Prayers and Meditations, London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806, p. 18-19 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Grant me true repentance, Lord, for the sake of Your mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: the emblem

Monday, December 31, 2012
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
    —Luke 12:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Hitherto the corpse of John Wickliffe had quietly slept in his grave, about one-and-forty years after his death, till his body was reduced to bones, and his bones almost to dust...
    But now, such the spleen of the Council of Constance [1415], as they not only cursed his memory, as dying an obstinate heretic, but ordered that his bones... to be taken out of the ground, and thrown far off from any Christian burial.
    In obedience hereunto, [the local bishop] sent his officers... to ungrave him accordingly. To Lutterworth they come, [1428] ... take what was left out of the grave, and burnt them to ashes, and cast them into Swift, a neighbouring brook running hard by. Thus this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over.
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), The Church History of Britain, v. I, London: Thomas Tegg and Son, 1837, p. 493 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church praises You for the faith of our predecessors. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: a complacent God?

Sunday, December 30, 2012
Meditation:
    And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
    —Hebrews 12:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If your God can allow you to remain complacently the poor thing that you are; if He tells you soothingly not to worry—that He, for His part, is not making a fuss about your faults and failures, will not overpress such matters...—then there is something essentially wrong. For all who know God by more than mere hearsay are at one in this— that He hates sin, that He can’t abide it, that He will let no friend of His settle down in it in peace.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 54-55 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will never give up on me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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