Taylor: the goal of faith

Saturday, May 18, 2013
Meditation:
    And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    —Mark 15:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Risk, as we have seen, is indispensable to any significant life, nowhere more clearly than in the life of the spirit. The goal of faith is not to create a set of immutable, rationalized, precisely defined and defendable beliefs to preserve forever. It is to recover a relationship with God.
    ... Daniel Taylor, The Myth of Certainty, Jarrell, 1986, p. 123 (see the book)
    See also Mark 15:34; Job 13:15; Ps. 23:4; 44:6-7; Isa. 26:4; 2 Cor. 1:9; 10:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You showed us how to venture faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mallone: God is the cure

Friday, May 17, 2013
Meditation:
    Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
    —Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God is often faulted for creating a world full of suffering and evil. The issue is complex, both philosophically and theologically; but surely it is inappropriate to blame God for a problem He did not initiate, and [that is] in fact, one which He has sought to alleviate, at great cost to Himself. God sent His Son to inaugurate the Kingdom and to “destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” God is not the cause of suffering and sickness; He is its cure! Jesus’ ministry and death guarantee this.
    ... George Mallone (b. 1944), Those Controversial Gifts, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1983, p. 109 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 2:14-15; Isa. 25:7-8; 53:4-7; Hos. 13:14; Matt. 12:12; John 12:31-32; Col. 2:15; 2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 9:15; Jas. 5:14-15; Rev. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will set all things right. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: the smallest things

Thursday, May 16, 2013
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
    —Matthew 10:41-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God, and when they serve to unite us with Him eternally.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Letters to Men and Women, P. Owen, 1957, p. 55 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:41-42; 18:3-5; 25:40; Mark 9:41; 12:42-44; Luke 6:35; John 6:9-13; Acts 11:29; 2 Cor. 8:12; 9:6; Heb. 6:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all I have belongs to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: learning the Scriptures from God

Wednesday, May 15, 2013
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”
    —John 6:45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cannot attain to the understanding of Scripture either by study or by the intellect. Your first duty is to begin by prayer. Entreat the Lord to grant you, of His great mercy, the true understanding of His Word. There is no other interpreter of the Word of God than the Author of this Word, as He Himself has said, “They shall be all taught of God.” (John 6:45) Hope for nothing from your own labors, from your own understanding: trust solely in God, and in the influence of His Spirit. Believe this on the word of a man who has experience.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), in a letter (see What Luther Says: An Anthology, #233), quoted in History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Germany, Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné, London: Walther, 1838, p. 320 (see the book)
    See also John 6:45; Isa. 54:13; John 3:9,10; Rom. 8:16; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:21; Rev. 2:7; 19:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the only true source of all learning. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: the fellowship and money

Tuesday, May 14, 2013
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
    —2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What fellowship means in material matters is made very plain. Every man is to work for his living. “If a man will not work, neither let him eat.” But those who cannot work are to be provided for out of the common fund. Old and helpless persons who have relations of their own should, indeed, find support from them and not be forced to come upon the Church; but for the resourceless the Church must provide. And those who are rich and who earn more than enough to support their own families are to be willing contributors to the common fund. The love of money—the desire to accumulate wealth—is the root of every kind of evil. The relation of one to another is to be that of members in one body, in which, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), Christ and Society, London: Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1928, p. 78-79 (see the book)
    See also 2 Thess. 3:10Matt. 6:24; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:11-12; 1 Tim. 5:3-6,13; 6:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me diligence in my work. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kurosaki: more than merely human

Monday, May 13, 2013
Meditation:
    As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
    —1 Corinthians 12:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The One Body cannot be created by human collaboration. It exists through simply removing the barriers and having fellowship with God, a reality prevailing among those who obey Him and love each other. No other merely human method will avail.
    ... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 5 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 12:13; John 15:12; 17:20-23; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:20; Eph. 2:14-16; 4:4-6; 5:29-30; Col. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:17; 1 John 1:7; 2:6; 3:24; 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to remove my obstacles to fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: flee or die

Sunday, May 12, 2013
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
    —1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Root of the Righteous, Christian Publications, 1955, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:17-18; Rom. 6:3-7; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 2:11-15; 3:3,9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your cross is my salvation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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