Pascal: Incline my heart

Saturday, May 16, 2015
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies,
    and not to covetousness.
    —Psalm 119:36 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning. God imparts to them love of Him and hatred of self. He inclines their heart to believe. Men will never believe with a saving and real faith, unless God inclines their heart; and they will believe as soon as He inclines it. And this is what David knew well, when he said: “Incline my heart, O Lord, unto thy testimonies.”
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #284, p. 100-101 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:36; 51:10; 1 Kings 8:58; Pr. 3:5; Eze. 11:19-20; John 6:44-45; 14:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I not lean on my own understanding, but trust in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Ellul: surrender in prayer

Friday, May 15, 2015
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
I desire to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.
    —Psalm 40:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer in the Scriptures is a renunciation of human means. It is not merely the point beyond which I could not go, the limit of my power which dissolves into impotence, but it is indeed a stripping bare, the abandonment of all human apparatus in order to place myself, without arms or equipment, into the hands of the Lord, who decides and fulfills.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), Prayer and Modern Man, New York: The Seabury Press, 1973, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 40:8; Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 22:42; John 4:34; 5:19,30; 1 Thess. 3:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, all my concerns are in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Packer: the main business

Thursday, May 14, 2015
    Ascension
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
    —Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), Knowing God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 3:10-11; Ps. 9:10; Jer. 31:33-34; Hos. 6:3,6; John 17:3; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17-18; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 8:10-12; 1 John 5:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, knowing You is more important than knowing myself. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Salmon: a new good or a new evil?

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Meditation:
    So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
    —Genesis 1:28-29 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We have still much to learn as to the laws according to which the mind and body act on one another, and according to which one mind acts on another; but it is certain that a great part of this mutual action can be reduced to general laws, and that the more we know of such laws the greater our power to benefit others will be. If, when, through the operation of such laws, surprising events take place, [we may] cry out, ... “Such is the will of God,” instead of setting ourselves to inquire whether it was the will of God to give us power to bring about or prevent such results, then our conduct is not piety but sinful laziness.
    ... George Salmon (1819-1904), “A Sermon on the Work of the Holy Spirit”, Appendix, in The Evidences of the Work of the Holy Spirit, Dublin: Hodges, Smith, 1859, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 1:28-29; Pr. 1:7; 3:19-20; 18:15; 24:5; Luke 11:52; Acts 18:24-28; 1 Cor. 13:9-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak to the whole person. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Tozer: God's consistency

Tuesday, May 12, 2015
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.
    —Romans 11:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All of God’s acts are consistent with all of His attributes. No attribute contradicts the other, but all harmonize and blend into each other in the infinite abyss of the Godhead. All that God does agrees with all that God is, and being and doing are one in Him.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, 1975, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:28-29; Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Hab. 2:3; Luke 21:33; Heb. 6:17-18; Jas. 1:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are unchanging in Your purpose. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Havergal: nothing hidden from God

Monday, May 11, 2015
Meditation:
    Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
    —Hebrews 4:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In perplexities,—when we cannot understand what is going on around us—cannot tell whither events are tending—cannot tell what to do, because we cannot see into or through the matter before us, —let us be calmed and steadied and made patient by the thought that what is hidden from us is not hidden from Him.
    ... Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), My King: or, Daily Thoughts for the King’s Children, E.P. Dutton & cC., 1887, p. 83 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 4:13; 1 Sam. 16:7; 2 Sam. 18:13; 1 Chr. 28:9; Ps. 7:9; 119:105; Isa. 42:16; Matt. 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I entrust the future to Your care. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah

Guder: fate to face

Sunday, May 10, 2015
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
    —John 15:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    New forms of community, shaped largely by media and consumer choices, are displacing many of the former structures of community. But they carry with them a major drawback: they often do not bring persons into face-to-face relationships. Many people today desperately search for a face-to-face community, “a place where everybody knows your name.” Yet many remain alone, trapped in the individualism of the modern condition. Social and ethnic diversity represents a threat, not a resolution.
    ... Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also John 15:12-13; 13:34-35; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:11,23; 4:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free this generation from its isolation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah