Day: the new man

Saturday, March 14, 2015
Meditation:
    In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
    —Hebrews 12:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have to begin to see what Christianity really is, that “our God is a living fire; though He slay me yet will I trust Him.” We have to think in terms of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount and have this readiness to suffer. “We have not yet resisted unto blood.” We have not yet loved our neighbor with the kind of love that is a precept to the extent of laying down our life for him. And our life very often means our money, money that we have sweated for; it means our bread, our daily living, our rent, our clothes. We haven’t shown ourselves ready to lay down our life. This is a new precept, it is a new way, it is the new people we are supposed to become.
    ... Dorothy Day (1897-1980), Meditations—Dorothy Day, Paulist Press, 1970, p. 88 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:4; Deut. 4:24; Job 13:15; Matt. 5:3-11; Heb. 12:29
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a sacrificial heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kelly: the cross on the road

Friday, March 13, 2015
Meditation:
    Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
    —1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God, out of the pattern of His own heart, has planted the Cross along the road of holy obedience.
    ... Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941), A Testament of Devotion, London: Quaker Home Service, 1941, reprint Harper, Collins, 1996, p. 71 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 4:12-13; Matt. 16:24; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:3-4; Gal. 2:20; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Tim. 1:8-9; Heb. 2:10; 10:32; Jas. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I might praise You in hardship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: within and without

Thursday, March 12, 2015
Meditation:
    Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
    —James 1:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If thine heart were right, then should every creature be a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so small and vile but that it showeth us the goodness of God.
    If thou wert good and pure within, then wouldst thou look upon all things without hurt and understand them aright. A pure heart seeth the very depths of heaven and hell. Such as each one is inwardly, so judgeth he outwardly.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.iv.1-2, p. 89 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 1:17; Gen. 1:31; Ps. 34:8; 19:1-2; 104:24; 145:9; Lam. 3:25; Nah. 1:7; Matt. 7:11; 19:17; Mark 10:18; Acts 11:8-9; 1 Tim. 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all the gifts of Your hand are good. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: moving on

Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Meditation:
    But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
    They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
    —Acts 14:20-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Paradoxical as it may seem, I think that it is quite possible that the shortness of his stay may have conduced in no small measure to St. Paul’s success. There is something in the presence of a great teacher that sometimes tends to prevent smaller men from realizing themselves. They more readily feel their responsibility, they more easily and successfully exert their powers when they see that, unless they come forward, nothing will be done. By leaving them quickly, St. Paul gave the local leaders opportunity to take their proper place, and forced the church to realize that it could not depend on him, but must depend on its own resources.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 125 (see the book)
    See also Acts 14:20-26; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Cor. 12:7; 14:12; Eph. 4:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You can raise up whatever is needed in the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sayers: transformation

Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Meditation:
    Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
    —Galatians 3:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We find God continually at work turning evil into good. Not, as a rule, by irrelevant miracles and theatrically effective judgments—Christ was seldom very encouraging to those who demanded signs, or lightnings from Heaven, and God is too subtle and too economical a craftsman to make very much use of those methods. But He takes our sins and errors and turns them into victories, as He made the crime of the crucifixion to be the salvation of the world.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Creed Or Chaos?: and Other Essays in Popular Theology, Methuen, 1957, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:13-14; Matt. 11:2-5; 12:39-40; 16:4; Mark 8:11-12; Luke 11:29-30; John 2:18-19; 1 Cor. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have redeemed my sins. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Edwards: pray for ministers

Monday, March 9, 2015
Meditation:
    And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
    —Colossians 4:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If some Christians who have been complaining of their ministers... had said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all their might to cry to God for their ministers—had, as it were, risen and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers for them—they would have been much more in the way of success.
    ... Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M., v. I, London: William Ball., 1839, p. 427 (see the book)
    See also Col. 4:3-4; Rom. 15:31; 1 Cor. 3:1-5; Eph. 6:18-19; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1-2; Heb. 13:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I lift up my ministers _____ in prayer before You, that they may clearly proclaim the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Studdert Kennedy: Christ in a box

Sunday, March 8, 2015
    Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
    —Luke 12:49-51 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No body worries about Christ so long as He can be kept shut up in Churches. He is quite safe there, but there is always trouble if you try to let Him out.
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Word and the Work, Longmans, Green, 1934, p. 66 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:49-51; Matt. 10:34-36; Luke 22:36-38; John 18:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the only safety is in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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