Newbigin: the ground of assurance

Saturday, May 10, 2014
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”
    —Isaiah 45:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The community of faith celebrates the resurrection of Jesus as the ground of assurance that the present and the future are not under the control of blind forces but are open to unlimited possibilities of new life. This is because the living God who was present in the crucified Jesus is now and always the sovereign Lord of history and therefore makes possible a continuing struggle against all that ignores or negates his purpose.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 45:22-23; Ps. 72:11; Isa. 25:7-8; Hos. 13:14; Rom. 8:10-11; 2 Cor. 4:13-14; Phil. 2:10; 3:10-11; 2 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Your victory over death has become ours as well, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: charity

Friday, May 9, 2014
Meditation:
    And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
    —1 Corinthians 13:3 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Without charity no work profiteth, but whatsoever is done in charity, howsoever small and of no reputation it be, bringeth forth good fruit; for God verily considereth what a man is able to do, more than the greatness of what he doth.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xv.1, p. 50 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:1-3; Mark 12:41-44; Rom. 8:29-30,37; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; 1 Thess. 2:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:3,10; 1 John 3:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, ignite all my deeds with charitable love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yelchaninov: behind the closed door

Thursday, May 8, 2014
    Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
Meditation:
    When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
    —Isaiah 8:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The practice of theosophy, occultism, spiritualism is not only harmful in its effect on spiritual health, but has as its basis an illegitimate desire to peep through a closed door. We are humbly to admit the existence of a Mystery, and not try to slip round by the backstairs to listen. Moreover, we have been given a supreme law of life which leads us straight to God—love, a difficult, thorny path; we must follow it, bearing our cross, with no excursions into byways.
    ... Alexander Yelchaninov (1881-1934), Fragments of a Diary: 1881-1934, in A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, Georgii Petrovich Fedotov, ed., Nordland, 1975, p. 428 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 8:19; Matt. 13:35; 24:24; Luke 14:27; Acts 19:19; 1 Cor. 2:7-10; 2 Thess. 2:9-10; 1 Tim. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the mysteries and the hidden future I leave in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Van Dyke: leaving anxiety

Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
    —Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is such a thing as taking ourselves and the world too seriously, or at any rate too anxiously. Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain idea that every man is bound to be a critic of life, and to let no day pass without finding some fault with the general order of things, or projecting some plan for its improvement. And the other half comes from the greedy notion that a man’s life does consist, after all, in the abundance of the things that he possesses, and that it is, somehow or other, more respectable and pious to be always at work making a larger living, than it is to lie on your back in the green pastures and beside the still waters, and thank God that you are alive.
    ... Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), Little Rivers: a book of essays in profitable idleness, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908, p. 35 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:15; Ps. 17:13-15; 37:16; Pr. 15:16; Eccl. 5:10; Matt. 6:25-26; Luke 8:14; 1 Tim. 6:6-8; Heb. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank you for my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Davidman: to protect our treasures?

Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
    —Luke 14:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We must return to Christianity, yes; but why? Because it is true? But do we, in our hearts, believe that it is true, that Christ is the Son of God and that we must follow him even at the cost of renouncing this life and all its treasures? We say little about that, much about our need for Christianity to protect our treasures. Yet surely Christianity was not meant to save the world for us; it was meant to save us from the world.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1955, reprint, Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:33; Ex. 20:4-6; Matt. 6:19-21; 19:21-22; Luke 12:15,33-34; 18:22; Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35; 1 Cor. 10:14; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; Heb. 10:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove all worldly desires from my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Saphir: carnal?

Monday, May 5, 2014
Meditation:
    When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
    —Luke 24:30-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The word “carnal” is ambiguous. “Flesh” means sin and corruption, and is opposed to the Spirit; but embodiment, outward manifestation, concrete form, is not opposed to the Spirit. “Carnal” means sinful and hostile to God; the evil spirits, who we suppose possess no bodies, are carnal, but the Son of God became man, the Word was made flesh, He took upon Him a human body as well as a reasonable soul. God’s ways and thoughts are not ours. While the abstract and ethereal imaginations of human reason create a god, who is not spirit, and whom they do not worship in spirit and truth, the God of the Bible is God manifest in the flesh—Immanuel... Did not Jesus, after His resurrection, eat before His disciples, who gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and honey? Is not the earth to be the scene of God’s triumph and manifestation? Whatever is revealed in spiritual, whatever man imagines is carnal; the end o! f the ways of God is embodiment.
    ... Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), Christ and Israel, London: Morgan and Scott, 1911, p. 180 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:30-31; Matt. 1:17-18,23; 13:55-56; Luke 1:30-35; 24:36-43; John 1:14; 20:26-27; Rom. 9:5; Gal. 4:4-5; 1 John 1:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You became one of us for our sake. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: the eternal matters most

Sunday, May 4, 2014
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
    —Colossians 1:3-6
Quotation:
    The one great fear which is a holy fear is, I think, lest you make your adventure too small, too easy, too self-full, too mediocre. Christianity fails because people will keep on the surface too much, they will not go down to face these deep inner obediences; and that is ultimately to be beaten by themselves.
    We talk big and play so small. And the world has found it out—the great bulk have discarded Christianity as the way of Hope and put their hope in other things.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 26 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:3-6; Ps. 1:2; 25:10; 111:10; Matt. 5:3; 24:14; 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Rom. 1:5; 16:25-27; Col. 1:27; Jas. 1:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me my self-made limitations, that I may be bolder for you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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