Chadwick: faith in the world

Saturday, September 7, 2013
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
    “I will live with them
        and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
        and they will be my people.”
Therefore,
    “Come out from them
        and be separate,
        says the Lord.
    Touch no unclean thing,
        and I will receive you.”
    —2 Corinthians 6:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah... The energy of the flesh can run bazaars, organise amusements, and raise millions; but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a Temple of the Living God. The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realised presence and power.
    ... Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932), The Way to Pentecost, Hodder and Stoughton, 1932, p. 16 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 6:16-17; Luke 4:14; John 4:24; Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; Eph. 2:19-22; 3:16; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your church is the holy habitation of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ham: building up the members in love

Friday, September 6, 2013
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
    —Romans 15:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian Church does not want and does not need members because of a job it has to do. The Christian Church has a secret at her heart and she wants to share it. Whenever one, by repentance and forgiveness, enters this community of grace, he discovers life’s end, and he too will be constrained to let this life flow out in appropriate channels. Thrilling and costly projects will come into existence, but not as ends in themselves, and the group will not become a means to [such ends]. The group will never forget that one of its primary functions is to upbuild the members in love.
    ... William T. Ham, “Candles of the Lord”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 182 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 15:1-2; Acts 20:32; 1 Cor. 8:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:1; Phil. 2:4; Col. 1:24; 1 Thess. 5:11; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable me to build up those You have placed me near. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jewett: faith in the authority of God

Thursday, September 5, 2013
Meditation:
And the words of the LORD are flawless,
    like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
    purified seven times.
    —Psalm 12:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The axioms of reason are non-demonstrable assumptions. Why should faith not be granted the same privilege? “... The denial of [the truths of] faith is, no less a faith than faith itself..., for it rests on an assumption of a personal kind, which is apart from all scientific necessity.”
    As the truth of reason carries its own evidence, so also with faith. To the mind to whom the axioms of reason are not self-evident, they cannot be proven. So also in the case of faith... For the mind that knows no faith [the evidence of faith] is ridiculous. But for the man whose eyes have been [enlightened by the Spirit], faith has its proper evidence, though it is a different kind of evidence from that of reason... The only sufficient ground of faith is the authority of God Himself as he addresses me in His Word.
    ... Paul K. Jewett (1919-1991), Emil Brunner’s Concept of Revelation, London: J. Clarke, 1954, p. 112 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 12:6; Deut. 6:6-7; 29:29; 30:11-14; Ps. 18:30; 85:8; 102:18; 119:105; Matt. 22:43; 1 Cor. 2:12-13; 15:3-5; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:16,21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: that we might believe

Wednesday, September 4, 2013
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
    —John 20:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but he died for all God’s elect, that they should believe, and believing have eternal life. Faith itself is among the principal effects and fruits of the death of Christ; as shall be declared. It is nowhere said in Scripture, nor can it reasonably be affirmed, that if we believe, Christ died for us, as though our believing should make that to be which otherwise was not,—the act create the object; but Christ died for us that we might believe.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Death of Death in the Death of Christ [1647], in Works of John Owen, v. X, New York: R. Carter, 1852, II.5, p. 235 (see the book)
    See also John 20:31; Matt. 26:53-54; 27:54; Luke 1:3-4; John 10:17-18,37-38; 11:42; Rom. 10:8-9; Eph. 5:1-2; 1 Thess. 4:14; Heb. 7:27; 9:26; 1 John 5:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted me faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: religion vs. philosophy

Tuesday, September 3, 2013
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “This is what the LORD says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”
    —Isaiah 44:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    True religion can make no peace with a false philosophy, any more than with a science that is falsely so-called; a thing cannot possibly be true in religion and false in philosophy or in science. All methods of arriving at truth, if they be valid methods, will arrive at a harmonious result. Certainly the atheistic or agnostic Christianity which sometimes goes under the name of a “practical” religion is no Christianity at all. At the very root of Christianity is the belief in the real existence of a personal God.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), Christianity and Liberalism, The Macmillan Company, 1923, p. 58 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 44:6; Gen. 5:24; 17:1; Ex. 3:14; Ps. 90:2; John 8:58; Heb. 13:8; Rev. 1:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have graciously permitted me to know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nida: commanding love

Monday, September 2, 2013
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
    —John 15:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It has been said that agapao refers to “the love of God” and phileo is only “the love of men.” But this distinction is only a very small part of the difference, and as such is in itself incorrect. Both of these words may convey intense emotion or may be relatively weak in their meanings. These words do not indicate degree of love, but kinds of love. Agapao refers to love which arises from a keen sense of the value and worth in the object of our love, and phileo describes the emotional attachment which results from intimate and prolonged association. That is why in the Scriptures we are never commanded to “love” with the word phileo. Even when husbands and wives are instructed to love one another, the word agapao is used, for it is impossible to command that kind of love which can arise only from intimate association. On the other hand, the saints are admonished to apprec! iate profoundly the worth and value in others, and agapao is used to convey this meaning. All Christians are not necessarily to have sentimental attachments for one another (phileo). This would be impossible, for our circle of intimate friends is limited by the nature of our lives. But we can all be commanded to appreciate intensely the worth of others.
    ... Eugene A. Nida (1914-2011), God’s Word in Man’s Language, New York: Harper, 1952, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also John 13:34; 15:12; 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 5:1-2; Phil. 2:1-2; 1 John 4:7-11; 5:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have implanted Your love within Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Head: Yes

Sunday, September 1, 2013
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”
    —John 17:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not pleading with the Father, but expressing the Father’s good pleasure is the key-note of true intercession. Forgiveness is God’s idea, God’s desire; and it is He who appoints both the Judge and the Counsel for the Defense. It was He who inaugurated the priestly work, that men might receive His cleansing and turn to the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. God has provided for himself a Lamb. It is He who sends His Son to be our Elder Brother, and to incorporate us as adopted sons into the circle of His Fatherly love. So then it is the voice of His beloved Son which is most clearly heard by the Father in heaven. In that voice of intercession, all the voices of intercession are contained and heard. The Son is talking to the Father about us, and what He says is not “Please” but “Yes,” for in Him is the “Yea” and “Amen.”
    ... David Head, Shout for Joy, New York: MacMillan Co., 1962, p. 147 (see the book)
    See also John 17:9; Isa. 53:12; Matt. 28:18; Mark 1:10-11; John 5:26-27; 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 9:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 John 5:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I belong to Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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