MacDonald: God pleased vs. God satisfied

Saturday, February 9, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
    —Mark 9:41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That no [obedience] but a perfect one will satisfy God, I hold with all my heart and strength; but that there is none else He cares for, is one of the lies of the enemy. What father is not pleased with the first tottering attempt of his little one to walk? What father would be satisfied with anything but the manly step of the full-grown son?
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Way”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Mark 9:41; Gen. 17:1; Ps. 111:10; Matt. 10:42; 19:17-21; Mark 12:41-44; 2 Cor. 8:11-12; Eph. 4:11-14; Phil. 2:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, be pleased to accept my stumbling and stammering. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hauerwas: the way things are

Friday, February 8, 2013
Meditation:
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
    and established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
    Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not lift up his soul to an idol
    or swear by what is false.
    —Psalm 24:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Any suggestion that the world is sinful cannot be limited to “moralistic” claims about our petty crimes. The Christian story trains us to see that in most of our life we act as if this is not God’s world and therein lies our fundamental sin. Moreover, when we so act, we find that our actions have far-reaching consequences, since in effect we distort our own and the world’s nature. Therefore sin implies not just a claim about human behavior but a claim about the way things are.
    ... Stanley Hauerwas (b. 1940), The Peaceable Kingdom, University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 24:1-4; Deut. 10:14; Josh. 7:12; Isa. 59:2; Mic. 3:4; John 19:10-11; Acts 17:24-26; 1 Tim. 6:13-16; Heb. 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, this is Your world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: free gifts

Thursday, February 7, 2013
Meditation:
    For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
    —1 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Those talents which God has bestowed upon us are not our own goods but the free gifts of God; and any persons who become proud of them show their ungratefulness.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.vii.4, p. 622 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 4:7; Deut. 8:11-14; 1 Chr. 29:11-14; Pr. 2:6; Hos. 13:6; John 1:11,16; Jas. 1:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me ever mindful of my stewardship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the great Answer

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Meditation:
    Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
    —John 4:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Of all the things that are needed by man, and needed in such a way that he can receive them only from God, there is one great gift. And to all the true and legitimate requests that are directed necessarily to God, there is one great answer. This one divine gift and answer is Jesus Christ.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Church Dogmatics, v. III, part 3, London: T & T Clark, 2010, p. 270 (see the book)
    See also John 4:10; Isa. 9:6; John 3:16; Rom. 5:14-17; 6:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 9:15; Eph. 2:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the eternal gift from God. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the hope of sinners

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    [Jesus] did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
    —John 2:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Browning ... tells us that what won him for Christ was this, that while others tried to soothe his angry conscience, and kept urging that, really, things were not nearly so bad as he was making out, Christ looked him in the eyes and told him bluntly that he was a desperate sinner, worse, much worse, even than he realized. And that, queerly enough as you might think, the man was not discomfited but heartened. Here at last, he felt, is one who understands and knows the facts. And since His desperate diagnosis is so accurate, may not His optimism also justify itself even in me. Well does He know what is in human nature, and yet, knowing the worst, He has still confident hope.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 90-91 (see the book)
    See also John 2:25; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 18:11; John 5:41-42; 6:64; Gal. 5:5; Tit. 3:4-7; Heb. 4:13; 1 Pet. 1:3-5; 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know the evil that is in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Murray: selfishness

Monday, February 4, 2013
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
    —James 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Absolute Surrender, Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1897, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also Eccl. 4:4; Rom. 2:7-8; Gal. 5:15,19-23,26; Phil. 2:3; Tit. 3:3; Jas. 3:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, elevate the needs of others in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jud: community experienced in the heart

Sunday, February 3, 2013
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
    —Romans 10:1213 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The church is unique in that it is so able to cut across age boundaries and social-status boundaries. When one loves the Lord Jesus Christ and sincerely seeks to follow Him, then one quite by surprise comes upon a community that he did not know existed, a community that is experienced within the heart; and when this community is found, nothing is ever quite the same again.
    ... Gerald J. Jud (b. 1919), “Ministry in Colonies and Retreats”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 10:12-13; Isa. 56:3-8; Acts 10:34-35; 15:7-9; Gal. 3:28-29; Eph. 2:13; 3:6; Phil. 3:3; Col. 1:3-6; 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the church is led by Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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