Tozer: priorities

Saturday, October 19, 2013
    Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812
Meditation:
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens:
    and thy glory above all the earth...
    —Psalm 108:5 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually, “Be thou exalted,” and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 97 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 108:5; 8:1; 19:7; 21:13; 57:5,11; 116:6; 119:130; Matt. 11:25; 18:2-3; 2 Cor. 1:12; 3:18; 1 Pet. 2:2-3;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant simplicity to my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: selective belief

Friday, October 18, 2013
    Feast of Luke the Evangelist
Meditation:
    I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
    —Galatians 1:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, tr., R. Stothert, in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, v. IV, Philip Schaff, ed., Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1887, XVII.3, p. 235 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 1:6-9; Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Matt. 24:24; Phil. 3:1; 1 Tim. 4:1,16; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; Tit. 1:9; 2:1; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:26; 4:1; 2 John 1:7-10; Jude 1:3-4; Rev. 22:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people receive the whole Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ignatius: you are the stones

Thursday, October 17, 2013
    Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107
Meditation:
    As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
    —1 Peter 2:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Like stones of God’s Temple, ready for a building of God the Father, you are being hoisted up by Jesus Christ, as with a crane (that’s the cross!), while the rope you use is the Holy Spirit. Your faith is what lifts you up, while love is the way you ascend to God.
    ... Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35-98?), in Letter to the Ephesians, par. 9 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:4-5; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19-22; Heb. 3:6; Rev. 3:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people worship You in Your Temple. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: apocalypse

Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.”
    —Luke 17:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The New Testament is indeed a book full of hope, but we may search it in vain for any vague humanist optimism. The second coming of Christ, the second irruption of eternity into time, will be immediate, violent and conclusive. The human experiment is to end, illusion will give way to reality, the temporary disappear before the permanent, and the king will be seen for who he is. The thief in the night, the lightning flash, the sound of the last trumpet, the voice of God’s archangel—these may all be picture-language, but they are pictures of something sudden, catastrophic, and decisive. By no stretch of the imagination do they describe a gradual process.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Good News: Thoughts on God and Man, New York: Macmillan, 1963, p. 158 (see the book)
    See also Luke 17:24; Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 24:30-31; 1 Cor. 15:51-52; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Thess. 4:16-17; 5:1-2; 2 Pet. 3:10; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 8:6-7; 16:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, our hope is in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Theresa: the life of prayer

Tuesday, October 15, 2013
    Feast of Teresa of Avila, Mystic, Teacher, 1582
Meditation:
    ... pray continually;
    —1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The life of prayer is just love to God and the custom of being ever with Him.
    ... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Santa Teresa, an Appreciation, Alexander Whyte, ed., London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1897, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:17-18; 1 Sam. 12:23; Ps. 55:16-17; 109:4; Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12; 18:1; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me into one who loves prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gordon: prayer concerns three

Monday, October 14, 2013
Meditation:
    Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
    —Ephesians 6:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer concerns three, not two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan—that is the main thing to keep in mind in prayer.
    ... Samuel Dickey Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1904, p. 120 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11-12; Ps. 68:1; Matt. 17:20-21; 2 Cor. 2:10-11; Eph. 4:26-27; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, aid me in vanquishing the enemy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nouwen: fleeing loneliness

Sunday, October 13, 2013
    Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”
    —Luke 21:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our culture has become most sophisticated in the avoidance of pain, not only our physical pain but our emotional and mental pain as well. We not only bury our dead as if they were still alive, but we also bury our pains as if they were not really there. We have become so used to this state of anesthesia, that we panic when there is nothing or nobody left to distract us. When we have no project to finish, no friend to visit, no book to read, no television to watch, or no record to play, and when we are left all alone by ourselves we are brought so close to the revelation of our basic human aloneness and are so afraid of experiencing an all-pervasive sense of loneliness that we will do anything to get busy again and continue the game which makes us believe that everything is fine after all.
    ... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Reaching Out, Zondervan, 1998, p. 6 (see the book)
    See also Luke 21:34; Isa. 24:9-11; 56:10-12; Matt. 4:1-2; Mark 4:18-19; John 12:4-6; Eph. 5:18; 1 Thess. 5:7-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I dare to be alone with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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