Pinnock: persuasive evidence

Saturday, August 10, 2013
    Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258
Meditation:
    Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”
    He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
    —Matthew 12:38-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cannot wait until all uncertainty disappears before dealing with ultimate issues. A decision has to be made in spite of the risk of choosing amiss. The risk after all is greatly diminished on account of the evidential signposts indicating the truth of the gospel, and we ought to take them very seriously. It is not God’s way to overpower us with undeniable demonstrations. We will wait for them in vain. In respect of our cognitive freedom, his way is to provide us with good and sufficient evidence of reasonable, persuasive force, and then to invite us to enter into the trustful certitude of faith.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010), Reason Enough, Exeter: Paternoster, 1980, p. 120-121 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:38-39; John 6:58-64; Acts 17:27-31; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 1:22-23; Eph. 3:12; Heb. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, faith in You is my certainty. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Singh: Christ breathing through the Church

Friday, August 9, 2013
    Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921
Meditation:
    ... Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.
    —1 Corinthians 14:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church is called ‘the body of Christ’ because the relation between Christ and Christians is not that between a master and his servants. It is more than that. Christians are Christ’s own parts. They are not only friends of Christ, they are Christ Himself. He breathes through them.
    ... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, B. H. Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 54 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 14:12; Rom. 15:2; 1 Cor. 12:13,24-28; 2 Cor. 12:19; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Thess. 5:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church is listening to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Yaconelli: the power of goodness

Thursday, August 8, 2013
    Feast of Dominic, Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers, 1221
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”
    —Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The power of goodness is found in the tiny. Since the beginning, God has chosen the tiny over the large: David over Goliath, Gideon and his three hundred soldiers over thousands of Midianites, Elijah over the prophets of Baal, one sheep over ninety-nine sheep. Spirituality is about doing the tiny work of God, little acts, small responses to God’s presence in our lives.
    ... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Messy Spirituality [2002], Zondervan, 2007, p. 129 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 25:40; Judg. 7:2-7; 1 Sam. 17:45-50; 1 Kings 18:18-24; Matt. 10:42; Mark 9:41; 12:42-44; Luke 15:4-7; 2 Cor. 8:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, awaken me to the small opportunities for mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

John of Damascus: Thou hallowed chosen morn

Wednesday, August 7, 2013
    Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
    —John 16:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise,
    That best and greatest shinest!
Lady and Queen and Day of days,
    Of things divine, divinest!
On thee our praises Christ adore
For ever and for evermore.

Come, let us taste the Vine’s new fruit
    For heavenly joy preparing:
Today the branches with the Root
    In Resurrection sharing:
Whom as True God our hymns adore
For ever and for evermore.

Rise, Sion, rise, and looking forth,
    Behold thy children round thee!
From East and West, and South and North,
    Thy scatter’d sons have found thee!
And in thy bosom Christ adore
For ever and for evermore.

O Father! O coequal Son!
    O coeternal Spirit!
In Persons Three, in Substance One,
    And One in power and merit;
In Thee baptiz’d, we Thee adore
For ever and for evermore!
    ... John of Damascus (c.676-749) & John Mason Neale (1818-1866), Hymns of the Eastern Church, London: J. T. Hayes, 1870, p. 105-106 (see the book)
    See also John 16:16; Matt. 16:21; 28:5-7; Mark 16:6-7; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I praise You forever.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Robertson: thinking and action

Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Meditation:
    This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
    —1 John 5:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is perilous to separate thinking rightly from acting [rightly]. He is already half false who speculates on truth, and does not do it. Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done. Life is an action, not a thought. And the penalty paid by him who speculates on truth, is that by degrees the very truth he holds becomes to him a falsehood.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. I, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1857, p. 335 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:3-5, Matt. 7:24-27; John 13:17; 1 Cor. 13:3; Gal. 6:7-8; 1 Thess. 1:3; Jas. 1:22; 2:14,17-22,26; 2 Pet. 1:5-9; 1 John 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth demands action from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Micklem: the goal

Monday, August 5, 2013
    Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”
    —Mark 13:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The idea of endless and limitless progress and development seems unsatisfying both philosophically and religiously; a process only finds its meaning in its goal. However far off be the Beatific Vision, to see the King in His glory, “to know Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent”—this is heaven, and “it were a well-spent journey though seven deaths lay between.”*
    * from letters of Samuel Rutherford
    ... Nathaniel Micklem (1888-1976), Prayers and Praises, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1941, p.36 (see the book)
    See also Mark 13:26-27; Matt. 24:30-31; John 14:2-3; 17:3; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people await Your appearance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Cassels: the supreme message

Sunday, August 4, 2013
    Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
Meditation:
    What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
    —Romans 3:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The phrase “Word of God” as used in the Bible itself, notably in the opening sentences of the Fourth Gospel, is an English translation of a Greek word, Logos, which was in wide use among philosophers at the time the New Testament was written. It connotes the creative, outgoing, self-revealing activity of God. The Logos was not a particular divine utterance, but God’s overall message to mankind. It was not necessarily communicated verbally in speech or writing. Indeed, the whole point of Christianity is that the supreme communication of the Word took place when it was expressed through a human life and personality in Jesus Christ.
    ... Louis Cassels (1922-1974), Your Bible, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also John 1:1-2; Rom. 3:1-2; 1 John 1:1-2; Rev. 19:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people follow Your Word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt