Bruce: praying for the unlikeable

Saturday, August 29, 2015
Meditation:
    ... pray for them which despitefully use you.
    —Luke 6:28 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Persistence in prayer for someone whom we don’t like, however much it goes against the grain to begin with, brings about a remarkable change in attitude.
    ... F. F. Bruce (1910-1990), Hard Sayings of the Bible, InterVarsity Press, 2009, p. 364 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:27-28; 23:34; Acts 7:60; Rom. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:12-13; Jas. 3:9-10; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, warm my heart towards those who are against me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: from the beginning

Friday, August 28, 2015
    Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
Meditation:
    For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
    —Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The love, therefore, wherewith God loveth, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, vol. ii, Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. xi of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1884, tract. CX.6, p. 460 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 1:4-6; Jer. 1:5; John 15:16; 17:20-23; Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot comprehend Your love for me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tauler: receiving the Creator

Thursday, August 27, 2015
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    [John the Baptizer:] “He must become greater; I must become less.”
    —John 3:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Verily, if thou desirest to have the Creator of all creatures, thou must renounce all creatures; for it cannot be otherwise, but only insomuch as thy soul is emptied and bared; the less of the creature, the more of God: this is but a [fair] bargain.
    ... Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), The Inner Way, Sermon II (see the book)
    See also John 3:30; Isa. 9:7; 53:2-3; Luke 14:26; John 12:25; Acts 13:36-37; 1 Cor. 3:5; 2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 2:5-7; Col. 1:18; Heb. 3:2-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to discard love for the things of this world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: no living like the world

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!”
    —Acts 5:29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Holy Spirit never enters a man and lets him live like the world. You can be sure of that.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), from a sermon ca. 1930, (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:29; John 15:19; 17:14; Acts 2:17-18; Rom. 1:8; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Jas. 1:27; 4:4; 1 Pet. 1:14; 2:11; 1 John 2:15-17; 4:1-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit rejects the world’s ways. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Short: nominal Christians

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Meditation:
    For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you.
    —2 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The nominal Christian, then, will see Jesus as a name, a representative, a symbol, a personification, a prototype, a figure, a model, an exemplar for something else. The nominal Christian pays homage to something about Jesus, rather than worshiping the man himself. For this reason, nominal Christians will extol the moral teachings of Jesus, the faith of Jesus, the personality of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the world view of Jesus, the self-understanding of Jesus, etc. None of these worships Jesus as the Christ, but only something about him, something peripheral to the actual flesh-and-blood man. This is why when the almighty God came into the world in Jesus, he came as the lowest of the low, as weakness itself, as a complete and utter nothing, in order that men would be forced into the crucial decision about him alone and would not be able to worship anything about him.
    ... Robert L. Short (1932-2009), The Parables of Peanuts [1968], New York: HarperCollins, 2002, p. 166-167 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 13:4; Luke 22:43-44; Rom. 6:8-11; 1 Cor. 15:43; 2 Cor. 4:7-11; 12:9-10; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 5:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, it is You alone that I worship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forest: praying for enemies

Monday, August 24, 2015
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”
    —Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In praying for enemies, we are not hurling holy thoughts at them or petitioning God to make them into copies of ourselves. Rather we are bringing our enemies into that part of ourselves that is deepest and most vulnerable. We are begging God for the good of those whom, at other times, we wished ill or wished to harm. In praying for enemies, we are asking God to use us for the well-being of those we fear.
    ... Jim Forest (b. 1941), Loving Our Enemies, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:43-45; Luke 6:27-29; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to pray for my enemies. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: continually praying

Sunday, August 23, 2015
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
    —Isaiah 55:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must first apply to Him with some diligence; but that after a little care we should find His love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Second Conversation, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:6; Ps. 4:3; 32:6; 119:150-151; Matt. 28:20; Acts 17:27-28; 2 Cor. 6:2; Eph. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You hear me when I call to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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