Adams: seeing Jesus in you

Saturday, September 2, 2017
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”
    —John 15:18-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If all you have found [in Christianity] is advantage, whether it is fun or profit or security, then you haven’t started following Him yet. His way is the way of the Cross. The world can be very hard on those it hates. If it is not hard on you, perhaps it sees nothing in you to hate. But then it doesn’t see Jesus in you, for it hates Jesus with an undying hatred. While your way is still all fun, all easy, all jolly, it is only your way: when you turn from it to follow His way, it will cost. It may cost you everything you have. That is what it cost Him.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Of Rice and Men” (see the book)
    See also John 15:18-21; Matt. 5:11; 10:22; 24:9; Mark 13:13; Luke 6:22; Jas. 4:4; 1 John 3:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to overcome the world’s hatred. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lightner: a theological domino theory

Friday, September 1, 2017
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    [The Lord:] “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”
    —Isaiah 45:22,23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Much of the present dilemma and chaotic condition of both the secular and religious worlds today finds its cause with the setting aside of the “thus saith the Lord” by the clergy. A long series of rejections and subsequent attendant conditions follow the rejections of the Bible as God’s Word. Next to that rejection has come the rejection of the God of the Bible. Next, there usually follows a rejection of the Bible’s presentation of man as a lost rebel against God, [and then] comes the rejection of biblical morality and ethics. [After] all of these, the next step is a short one—the rejection of biblical obedience to the laws of God and man. And, of course, many more items of rejection can be added to the list. But the crucial point here is that all of these can be traced back to the initial rejection of the absolute authority of Holy Writ.
    ... Robert P. Lightner (b. 1931), The God of the Bible [1973], Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978, formerly published as The First Fundamental: God, p. 31-32 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 45:22-23; 55:10-11; 1 Kings 22:8; Isa. 45:19; Jer. 6:16-17; 18:18; Gal. 4:16; 2 Tim. 3:16; 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are truth eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bunyan: mutual refreshment

Thursday, August 31, 2017
    Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
    Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
    Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Meditation:
    You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
    —Galatians 5:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have upon each of them the dew of Heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of one another.
    ... John Bunyan (1628-1688), The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. I, London: Blackie, 1862, p. xxviii (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:13-14; Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Rom. 15:1-2; 1 Cor. 3:6-8; Eph. 5:19-20; 1 John 3:16-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Bless you, Lord, for the precious brothers and sisters You have given me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hartley Coleridge: Be not afraid to pray

Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Meditation:
    Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
    —Romans 12:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
Be not afraid to pray—to pray is right.
Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever pray,
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay; ...
Whatev’r is good to wish, ask that of Heaven; ...
But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.
    ... Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849), Poems, v. I, London: Moxon, 1851, p. 343 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:12; Matt. 7:7-8; Luke 11:9; Rom. 8:26; Jas. 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart of prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Godsey: opposites united

Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Meditation:
    What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
    —1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Dietrich Bonhoeffer] challenged the church to rethink its own mission in the radically secular world of the twentieth century... The nonbelieving brave men he met in the anti-Nazi underground, the stark realities of prison life, and his disappointment in the professional churchmen of Germany, all may have influenced Bonhoeffer to see real Christianity as “non-religious” and “worldly.”.. The opposition between sacred and secular, supernatural and natural, seemed unreal to him—the apparent opposites are united in Jesus Christ.
    ... John D. Godsey (1922-2010), The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, p. 17 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Ps. 39:6; 73:20; Isa. 40:6-8; Jas. 1:10-11; 4:14; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me to know the the shortness of my days. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: coming to love Thee

Monday, August 28, 2017
    Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
Meditation:
    But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food? Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
    —Job 12:7-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Too late came I to love thee, O thou Beauty so ancient and so fresh, yea too late came I to love thee. And behold, thou wert within me, and I out of myself, where I made search for thee: I ugly rushed headlong upon those beautiful things thou hast made. Thou indeed wert with me; but I was not with thee: these beauties kept me far enough from thee: even those, which unless they were in thee, should not be at all.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, X.xxvii, p. 263 (see the book)
    See also Job 12:7-12; Zech. 12:10; Acts 9:3-6; Rom. 11:25-27; 1 Cor. 15:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, when You found me at last, I truly came home. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: the truly Christian life

Sunday, August 27, 2017
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
    —2 Corinthians 4:5 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love: when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude, in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought; himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and richness of his own faith.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Treatise on Christian Liberty [1520], p. 47 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:5; Matt. 20:25-27; Luke 22:25-26; John 13:14-15; Rom. 15:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a servant’s heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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