Carmichael: the special word

Saturday, August 26, 2017
Meditation:
Oh, how I love your law!
    I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
    for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
    for I meditate on your statutes.
    —Psalm 119:97-99 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Have you noticed this? Whatever need or trouble you are in, there is always something to help you in your Bible, if only you go on reading till you come to the word God specially has for you. I have noticed this often. Sometimes the special word is in the portion you would naturally read, or in the Psalm for the day, ... but you must go on till you find it, for it is always somewhere. You will know it the moment you come to it, and it will rest your heart.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Edges of His Ways [1955], London: SPCK, 1957, p. 41 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:97-99; Matt. 11:28-29; John 16:33; Heb. 4:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit speaks to me through Scripture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: the mystery

Friday, August 25, 2017
Meditation:
    Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”
    —Matthew 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Never was a book so full of incredible sayings—everywhere the sense of mystery dominates; unless you feel that mystery, all becomes prosaic—nothing about God is prosaic.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 80 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 13:34-35; John 1:16; Rom. 11:33; Eph. 3:8-11,16; Col. 1:27; 2:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I bow before Your presence in Scripture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the supernatural Book

Thursday, August 24, 2017
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
    The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 2 :9-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1966, p. 112 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 2:9-16; Rom. 11:33-34; 1 Cor. 1:17; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:6,20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cause Your Spirit to give me understanding of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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van Dyke: four things

Wednesday, August 23, 2017
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
    —Micah 6:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his record true:
To think without confusion clearly,
To love his fellow men sincerely,
To act from honest motives purely,
To trust in God and heaven securely.
    ... Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920, p. 277 (see the book)
    See also Mic. 6:8; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 6:36; Col. 3:12; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 3:8; 2 Pet. 1:5-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that trusts You in all things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Williams: the analogy to a family

Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Meditation:
    Pointing to his disciples, [Jesus] said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
    —Matthew 12:49-50 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our deepest insight into the nature of God is expressed with a family analogy. He is both Father and Son bound together in one Spirit. We are created to be brothers under God, the Father. The human family is our best illustration of how each person grows in his unique potentialities by sharing in the loving care of a society of other persons. Yet each member of the family discovers what it is to give of himself for the sake of the others. The human family is only an analogy both for our thought about God and about society; but no Christian thought gets very far away from it.
    ... Daniel Day Williams (1910-1973), Interpreting Theology, 1918-1952, Daniel Day Williams, London: SCM Press, 1953, ed. 3, under alternative title, New York: Harper, 1959, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:44-45; 6:9; 7:11; 12:49-50; 23:9; Luke 11:2,13; John 1:12-14; Rom. 8:14; Eph. 2:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have brought me into your household. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cherry: We rest on Thee

Monday, August 21, 2017
Meditation:
Our soul waiteth for the LORD:
    he is our help and our shield.
    —Psalms 33:20 (KJV)
Quotation:
We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
    ... Edith Gilling Cherry (1872-1897) (see the book)
    See also Ps. 33:20; 115:9-12; 144:1-2; 2 Chr. 14:11; Isa. 40:28-31; Matt. 11:28-30
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You shield me from evil. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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McGiffert on Bernard: Christian love in action

Sunday, August 20, 2017
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
    —Luke 6:31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Bernard [of Clairvaux] did not stop with love for God or Christ, he insisted also that the Christian must love his neighbors, including even his enemies. Not necessarily that he must feel affection for them—that is not always possible in this life, though it will be in heaven—but that he must treat them as love dictates, doing always for others what he would that they should do for him.
    ... A. C. McGiffert (1861-1933), A History of Christian Thought, v. II [1932], New York, London: C. Scribner’s sons, 1960, p. 232 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:31; Matt. 5:44-45; 7:12; 22:39; Luke 6:27,35; Rom. 12:14,20-21; Gal. 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that loves those who do not love me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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