Phillips: truth and committment

Saturday, July 6, 2013
    Feast of John Huss, Reformer, Martyr, 1413
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
    We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
    —1 John 2:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is no discovery of the truth of Christ’s teaching, no unanswerable inward endorsement of it, without committing oneself to his way of life.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God Our Contemporary, New York: Macmillan, 1960, p. 116 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 2:3; Matt. 6:14-15; 7:24-27; 12:50; Luke 6:47-49; 11:28; John 13:17; 14:15; 15:10,14; Rom. 2:6-7; Gal. 6:7-8; Jas. 1:21-24; 1 John 3:24; 5:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth changes my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: concentration in prayer

Friday, July 5, 2013
Meditation:
    When [Jesus] rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
    —Luke 22:45-46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in and invite God, and His Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and His Angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, p. 477-478 (see the book)
    See also Luke 22:45-46; Matt. 14:23; 24:42; 26:36-41; Mark 1:35; 14:37-38; Luke 21:36; Rev. 3:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, return my wandering mind to conversation with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stringfellow: repentance

Thursday, July 4, 2013
Meditation:
    Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
    —Matthew 6:10 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The problem of America as a nation, in biblical perspective, remains this elementary issue of repentance. The United States is, as all nations are, called in the Word of God to repentance. That, in truth, is what the church calls for, whether knowingly or not, every time the church prays Thy Kingdom come.
    ... William Stringfellow (1928-1985), The Politics of Spirituality, Westminster Press, 1984, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:10; Dan. 2:44; 7:13,27; Col. 1:13-14; Rev. 11:15; 20:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people wait expectantly for Your will to prevail. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: plain truth

Wednesday, July 3, 2013
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’”
    —Job 28:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It seems to be very hard, and if that would do any good, might be a just matter of complaint, that we are fallen into so profane and skeptical an age, which takes a pleasure and a pride in unraveling almost all the received principles both of religion and reason, so that we are put many times to prove those things, which can hardly be made plainer than they are of themselves.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. I, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon I, p. 332 (see the book)
    See also Job 28:28; Ps. 19:1-6; Isa. 40:26; Jer. 10:10-13; John 1:9; Rom. 1:18-19; Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:3-4; Jas. 3:13; 1 John 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You overcome the resistance of _____ and _____ to Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Murray: love of the brethren

Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Meditation:
    If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
    —1 John 4:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God keep me from saying anything that would be unloving; God shut my mouth if I am not to speak in tender love. But what I am saying is a fact. How often there is found among Christians who are banded together in work, sharp criticism, sharp judgment, hasty opinion, unloving words, secret contempt of each other, secret condemnation of each other. Oh, just as a mother’s love covers her children and delights in them and has the tenderest compassion with their foibles or failures, so there ought to be in the heart of every believer a motherly love toward every brother and sister in Christ. Have you aimed at that? Have you sought it? Have you ever pleaded for it?
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Absolute Surrender, Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1897, p. 28 (see the book)
    See also John 1:18; 13:34; Col. 3:12-13; 1 John 2:4; 3:17; 4:12,20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my love for Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the accountability of God

Monday, July 1, 2013
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
    —Job 40:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Philosophy and science have not always been friendly towards the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, 196, p. 33 (see the book)
    See also Job 40:2; 38:2-3; Isa. 40:14; Eccl. 6:10-11; Rom. 9:19-21; 11:34-36; 1 Tim. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth will make the world free. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Drummond: the easy yoke

Sunday, June 30, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
    —Matthew 11:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Did you ever stop to ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plow would be intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy. It is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle device to make hard labor light... [Christ] knew the difference between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good one... The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke caused no pain, and the burden was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness was a misery; the well fitted collar was “easy.”
    And what was the “burden”? It was not some special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction that they alone must bear. It was what all men bear. It was simply life, human life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was a weariness, to others failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole world’s problem. And here is Christ’s solution: “Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at it from My point of view. Interpret it upon my principles. Take my yoke and learn of me, and you will find it easy. For my yoke is easy, works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and therefore my burden is light.”
    ... Henry Drummond (1851-1897), “Pax Vobiscum”, in Addresses, H. Altemus, 1891, p. 124,127-129 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:29-30; 7:24; 17:5; John 14:21; 15:10-14; 2 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 5:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place Your yoke on me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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