Tournier: personal language

Saturday, September 24, 2016
Meditation:
    Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
    —Matthew 13:10-13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. In them the Ancients personified living realities—intelligence, beauty, love, or lust, which are still at work in our hearts, and which fashion our person. The language they speak is that of image and myth, which touches the person much more directly than the explicit language of science and the intellectual dialectic of the modern world. It is also the language of the Bible, of the parables of Christ, which the rationalist of today finds it so difficult to understand, of the Word of God which demands of us not a discussion but a personal decision.
    ... Paul Tournier (1898-1986), The Meaning of Persons, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 13:10-13; 25:29; Luke 8:18; John 15:2-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I not shrink from the demands of Your parables. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jowett: right listening

Friday, September 23, 2016
Meditation:
    If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
    —Mark 4:23 (ESV)
Quotation:
    When a man listens to the voice of the tempter within him, he is inclined to do as others do, not to resist when the temptation seems great. But when he looks into the law of God and hears the words of Christ, his natural sense of right and wrong is restored to him, and he becomes elevated, purified, sanctified.
    ... Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), Sermons on Faith and Doctrine, London: John Murray, 1901, p. 259 (see the book)
    See also Mark 4:23; Matt. 11:15; Mark 4:9; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Tim. 4:13; Heb. 2:18; Rev. 2:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Speak Your law into my heart, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: what would Abraham do?

Thursday, September 22, 2016
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
    They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”
    —John 8:37-40 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Because they were prejudiced against the meanness of our Saviour’s birth and condition, and had upon false grounds (though, as they thought, upon the infallibility of tradition, and of Scripture interpreted by tradition) entertained quite other notions of the Messiah from what he was really to be; because they were proud, and thought themselves too wise to learn of him: and because his doctrine of humility, and self-denial, did thwart their interest, and bring down their authority and credit among the people; therefore they set themselves against him with all their might, opposing his doctrine, and blasting his reputation and persecuting him to the death; and all this while did bear up themselves with a conceit of the antiquity and privileges of their church, and their profound knowledge in the laws of God, and a great external show of piety and devotion, and an arrogant presence and usurpation of being the only church and people of God in th e world.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. IV, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon LXXXII, p. 524-525 (see the book)
    See also John 8:37-40; 5:39-40; 16:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, prevent me from using You to my own ends. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: shallow comfort

Wednesday, September 21, 2016
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
    —John 7:37-38 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them has run out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God (because that hunger is no ache in our own heart) nor [brought them] anywhere near to the end of self.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also John 7:37-38; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:1-2; 143:6-7; Isa. 26:8-9; 44:3; 59:21; John 4:14; 6:51; Gal. 5:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to point others to the Living Bread and the Living Water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rashdall: following Christ

Tuesday, September 20, 2016
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
    —Matthew 4:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Belief in God through Christ is the most important of all aids to the following of Christ, but (let us never forget) the following is the great thing. To those who, by whatever means they are attracted to Him, really seek to do God’s will as He revealed it, Christ will prove a Saviour—a Saviour from sin, a Saviour from the power of sin here, and from the misery which sin brings with it here and hereafter.
    ... James Hastings Rashdall (1858-1924), Principles and Precepts, Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1927, p. 127 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 4:19; 1:21; 8:19-23; 16:24; 19:21; Mark 1:17; 8:34; 10:21; Luke 5:27-28; 9:23,57-62; 14:27; 18:22; John 1:43; 10:3-4,27; 1 Cor. 11:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I follow You more fully. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: keeping God in his place

Monday, September 19, 2016
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”
    —John 3:20-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    I think that most Christians would be better pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely. They want Him to save them, to keep them happy, and to take them off to heaven at last, but not to be too inquisitive about their conduct or services.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), That Incredible Christian, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1964, p. 105 (see the book)
    See also John 3:20-21; Amos 5:10; Luke 11:45; John 7:7; Jas. 1:23-25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, shine Your light in the darkest places of my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the only fear

Sunday, September 18, 2016
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
    —John 18:37 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If I mistake, He will forgive me. I do not fear Him; I only fear lest, able to see and write these things, I should fail of witnessing, and myself be, after all, a castaway—no king but a talker; no disciple of Jesus, ready to go with Him to the death, but an arguer about the truth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Kingship”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 104 (see the book)
    See also John 18:37; 7:17; 8:47; 1 Pet. 1:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me true discipleship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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