Piper: worship abides forever

Saturday, September 6, 2014
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
    —Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
    ... John S. Piper (b. 1946), Let the Nations Be Glad!, Baker Academic, 2010 (3rd ed.), p. 229 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 2:9-11; Deut. 6:13; Isa. 45:23-25; Rom. 14:10-11; Eph. 3:14-15; Rev. 4:9-11; 5:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I have the privilege of worshiping You eternally. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Weil: the source of the beauty

Friday, September 5, 2014
Meditation:
    [Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
    —Colossians 1:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The beauty of the world is Christ’s tender smile for us coming through matter.
    ... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting for God, Emma Craufurd, tr., Putnam, 1951, p. 164-165 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:17; 1 Sam. 2:8; Ps. 75:3; Isa. 40:26; Matt. 10:29-30; Acts17:27-28; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your care for your people is clear from the many provisions You make for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

M'Cheyne: your life preaches all week

Thursday, September 4, 2014
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
    —Romans 6:19-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this. Your sermon .. lasts but an hour or two—your life preaches all week. ... If Satan can only make you a covetous minister, or a lover of pleasure, or a lover of praise, or a lover of good eating, he has ruined your ministry for ever. Give yourself to prayer, ... and get your texts, your thoughts, your words, from God.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Dundee: W. Middleton, 1845, p. 365-366 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:19-22; John 15:16; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:8-10; Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my words always come from You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Amiel: the gate

Wednesday, September 3, 2014
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
    —Luke 15:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    By saying “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance,” [Jesus] made humility the very gate into paradise.
    ... Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881), The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, tr. Mrs. Humphry Ward, New York: Macmillan, 1885, p. 263 (see the book)
    See also Luke 15:4-7; Pr. 3:34; Matt. 11:29; 18:12-14; Luke 1:52; 5:32; Eph. 4:2; Jas. 1:9; 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the humility of Your heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Talmage: the efficacy of prayer

Tuesday, September 2, 2014
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
    —Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Not one of us yet knows how to pray. All we have done has only been pottering and guessing and experimenting... God cares not for the length of our prayers, or the number of our prayers, or the beauty of our prayers, or the place of our prayers; but it is the faith in them that tells—believing that prayer soars higher than the lark ever sang, plunges deeper than diving-bell ever sank, darts quicker than lightning ever flashed. Though we have used only the back of this weapon instead of the edge, what marvels have been wrought! If saved, we are all the captives of some earnest prayer.
    ... Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832-1902), The Pathway of Life, Historical Publishing Company for the Christian Herald, 1894, p. 280 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 11:6; Ps. 119:151; 139:1,7-10; Matt. 6:5; Acts 15:8; Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18; Heb. 4:13; Jas. 4:8; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are closer than my thoughts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Tauler: listening and learning

Monday, September 1, 2014
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
    —Matthew 26:40-41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If ye keep watch over your hearts, and listen for the Voice of God and learn of Him, in one short hour ye can learn more from Him than ye could learn from Man in a thousand years.
    ... Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), The Inner Way, Sermon XV (see the book)
    See also Matt. 26:40-41; Ps. 19:14; 104:34; Mark 13:33-37; Eph. 1:13-14; Heb. 13:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me listening to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt

Saphir: the new covenant

Sunday, August 31, 2014
    Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
    Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
    Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Meditation:
    The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
    —1 Timothy 1:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    John Bunyan understood the Gospel when he wrote that tract, “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved.” He knew that every sinner is a Jerusalem sinner who has crucified the Lord of Glory; and to whom, notwithstanding all this, the grace of God is exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Therefore the Apostle Paul himself is a pattern... of the grace of God abounding to the Christ-crucifiers. A new covenant is made with those who transgressed the first covenant. It is the brethren of Joseph, who have sold him into Egypt, who are made the partakers of Joseph’s power and of Joseph’s riches.
    ... Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), Christ and Israel, London: Morgan and Scott, 1911, p. 191 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 1:14; Matt. 27:25; Acts 2:36; 4:8-10; 7:9-10,52; 1 Cor. 1:22-23; 2:8; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I have participated in Your death. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt