Bennet: brevity

Saturday, April 7, 2018
Meditation:
    Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
    —Ecclesiastes 5:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The reason that the Ten Commandments are short and clear is that they were handed down direct, and not through several committees.
    ... Dan Bennett
    See also Eccl. 5:2; Ex. 20:3-17; 2 Cor. 11:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me simplicity in Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Willard: the Beloved Presence

Friday, April 6, 2018
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
    On one occasion, while he was eating with them, [Jesus] gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
    —Acts 1:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thomas à Kempis speaks for all the ages when he represents Jesus as saying to him, “A wise lover regards not so much the gift of him who loves, as the love of him who gives. He esteems affection rather than valuables, and sets all gifts below the Beloved. A noble-minded lover rests not in the gift, but in Me above every gift.” The sustaining power of the Beloved Presence has through the ages made the sickbed sweet and the graveside triumphant; transformed broken hearts and relations; brought glory to drudgery, poverty and old age; and turned the martyr’s stake or noose into a place of coronation.
    ... Dallas Willard (1935-2013), Hearing God, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Acts 1:4; John 6:56; 1 Cor. 9:25; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:22; Col. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:8; Jas. 1:17-17; 1 Pet. 5:4; 1 John 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit guarantees my redemption. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: Called out or called in?

Thursday, April 5, 2018
Meditation:
    Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
    —Ephesians 4:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a certain kind of so-called conversion which separates a man from his fellow men. It may fill him with a self-righteousness which rejoices in its own superiority to those who have had no like experience. It may move a man to a Pharisaic self-isolation. There have in fact been not a few so-called conversions as a result of which a man has left the Church to belong to some smaller and holier body. The plain truth is that such a one should very seriously examine himself, if he finds what he regards as his Christian experience separating him from his fellow-men, or his fellow-Christians.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), In the Hands of God, New York: Harper & Row, 1967, Westminster Press, 1981, p. 40-41 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:29-30; Isa. 40:11; Matt. 18:10; John 17:23; Rom. 14:1-8,21; 15:1,7; 1 Cor. 8:12-13; Eph. 4:1-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to love those whom You love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: faith in God's promises

Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Meditation:
    Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
    —2 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What should I think of my child, if I found that he limited his faith in me and hope from me to the few promises he had heard me utter! The faith that limits itself to the promises of God, seems to me to partake of the paltry character of such a faith in my child—good enough for a Pagan, but for a Christian a miserable and wretched faith. Those who rest in such a faith would feel yet more comfortable if they had God’s bond instead of His word, which they regard not as the outcome of His character but as a pledge of His honour. They try to believe in the truth of His word, but the truth of His Being they understand not. In His oath they persuade themselves that they put confidence: in himself they do not believe, for they know Him not.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Higher Faith”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 1:9; Matt. 23:37-38; John 1:11; 5:39-40,44; 8:45-46; 12:37-41; 1 Pet. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the Truth eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: What changed the apostles?

Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Meditation:
    And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
    —Acts 4:31 (ESV)
Quotation:
    What changed these very ordinary men (who were such cowards that they didn’t dare stand too near the cross in case they got involved) into heroes who would stop at nothing? A swindle? Hallucination? Spooky nonsense in a darkened room? Or Somebody quietly doing what He said He’d do—walk right through death?
    What do YOU think?
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Is God at Home?, London: Lutterworth Press, 1957, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Acts 4:31; Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-22; Acts 4:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have changed the course of my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maurice: when unity will come

Monday, April 2, 2018
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
    —Matthew 10:32,33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A united confession of the Name, a united Worship of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,—such a Confession,—such a Worship as the past contains only a dim shadow and prophecy of—we have a right to look for. It may come when we least expect it; it will probably come after a period of darkness, fierce contention, utter disbelief. But the confession will only be united when we cease to confound our feeble expressions of trust and affiance, our praises and adorations, with Him to whom they rise, from whom they proceed; when we are brought to nothingness, that He may be shown to be all in all.
    ... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, v. II [1853], London: Macmillan, 1891, v. 2, p. 144 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:32-33; Luke 12:8-9; John 4:23-24; 1 Cor. 15:27-28; Col. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to worship You as I should. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Coleridge: 22nd Psalm

Sunday, April 1, 2018
    Easter
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    —Mark 15:34 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I am much delighted and instructed by the hypothesis, which I think probable, that our Lord in repeating Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani, really recited the whole or a large part of the 22d Psalm. It is impossible to read that psalm without the liveliest feelings of love, gratitude, and sympathy. It is, indeed, a wonderful prophecy, whatever might or might not have been David’s notion when he composed it. Whether Christ did audibly repeat the whole or not, it is certain, I think, that he did it mentally, and said aloud what was sufficient to enable his followers to do the same. Even at this day to repeat in the same manner but the first line of a common hymn would be understood as a reference to the whole.
    ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Table Talk, 2nd ed., London: John Murray, 1836, p. 81 fn (see the book)
    See also Ps. 22; Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your testimony is unchangeable. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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