Stott: forward towards union

Saturday, July 27, 2013
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
    —Ephesians 2:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If only we could agree that Scripture is ‘God’s Word written’, that it is supreme in its authority over all human traditions however venerable, and that it must be allowed to reform and renew the church, we would take an immediate leap forward in ecumenical relationships. Reformation according to the Word of God is indispensable to reunion.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), The Contemporary Christian, Inter-Varsity, 1992, p. 182 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:19-20; Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Luke 20:17-18; John 3:34; Acts 4:11-12; Rom. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, if it be Your will, unite Your people in Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whitefield: restless heart

Friday, July 26, 2013
Meditation:
    Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
    —Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.
    ... George Whitefield (1714-1770), from a letter, 1739, The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., v. I, London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771, p. 47 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:9; Eccl. 4:5; Isa. 6:8; Matt. 9:37-38; Rom. 12:11; 1 Thess. 4:10; 2 Thess. 3:10-13; Heb. 6:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Send me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: arguing with God

Thursday, July 25, 2013
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?”
    —Isaiah 45:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 48 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 45:9; Gen. 32:27-28; Deut. 9:6; 31:27; Neh. 9:30; Job 9:2; 40:2; Zech. 7:11-12; Matt. 23:31-33; Acts 7:51; Eph. 4:30; Phil. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the Author of reason. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: fellowship

Wednesday, July 24, 2013
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
    We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
    —1 John 1:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Why do we talk and gossip so continually, seeing that we so rarely resume our silence without some hurt done to our conscience? ... Devout conversation on spiritual things helpeth not a little to spiritual progress, most of all where those of kindred mind and spirit find their ground of fellowship in God.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.x.1, p. 42-43 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:3; Lev. 19:16; Pr. 20:19; Jer. 31:34; Rom. 12:9; Eph. 4:31; Col. 1:27; Tit. 3:1-2; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 3:13; 1 John 3:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me to guard my tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hauerwas: self-knowledge

Tuesday, July 23, 2013
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
    —1 John 1:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not only is knowledge of self tied to knowledge of God, but we know ourselves truthfully only when we know ourselves in relation to God. We know who we are only when we can place our selves—locate our stories—within God’s story.
    ... Stanley Hauerwas (b. 1940), The Peaceable Kingdom, University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:5-7; Pr. 1:7; Hos. 6:6; Matt. 18:10; 22:39; Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 8:3; 13:9-12; Phil. 3:8; 1 John 3:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people are secure in Your plan. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buechner: keeping silence

Monday, July 22, 2013
    Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
Meditation:
    Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near. The LORD has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.
    —Zephaniah 1:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort... than being able from time to time to stop that chatter including the chatter of spoken prayer. If we choose to seek the silence of the holy place, or to open ourselves to its seeking, I think there is no surer way than by keeping silent.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Temple: a book of prayers, William Edwin Orchard, 3rd ed., New York, E. P. Dutton, 1918, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also Zeph. 1:7; Deut. 27:9-10; Ps. 4:4; 46:10; Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13; Luke 4:33-35; Rom. 9:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, still the voice of my vanity within. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: childlikeness

Sunday, July 21, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
    —Mark 10:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a childhood into which we have to grow, just as there is a childhood which we must leave behind; a childlikeness which is the highest gain of humanity, and a childishness from which but few of those who are counted the wisest among men, have freed themselves in their imagined progress towards the reality of things.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), David Elginbrod, vol. 1, Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1871, p. 50 (see the book)
    See also Mark 10:15; Matt. 18:3; 19:13-15; Luke 18:17; John 3:3-6; 1 Pet. 1:14; 2:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me simple in Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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