Saturday, August 25, 2018

Brown: pride in humility

Saturday, August 25, 2018
Meditation:
    All these [gifts] are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
    —1 Corinthians 12:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a false self-distrust which denies the worth of its own talent. It is not humility—it is petty pride, withholding its simple gifts from the hands of Christ because they are not more pretentious. There are men who would endow colleges, they say, if they were millionaires. They would help in the work of Bible study if they were as gifted as Henry Drummond. They would strive to lead their associates into the Christian life if they had the gifts of Dwight L. Moody. But they are not ready to give what they have and do what they can and be as it has pleased God to make them, in His service—and that is their condemnation.
    ... Charles Reynolds Brown (1862-1950), “The Unrealized Possibilities in Life”, in Homeletic Review, V. LXIII, Jan. to June, 1912, New York Funk & Wagnalls, 1912, p. 397 (see the book)
    See also Mark 12:41-44; Luke 11:39-41; 1 Cor. 12:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take all false humility away, and lead me to give of myself freely.
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Friday, August 24, 2018

Bonhoeffer: Christ stands between

Friday, August 24, 2018
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
    —Galatians 3:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are separated from one another by an unbridgeable gulf of otherness and strangeness which resists all our attempts to overcome it by means of natural association or emotional or spiritual union. There is no way from one person to another. However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, however frank and open our behaviour, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbours through Him.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:28; John 17:20-21; Eph. 2:13-22; 4:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to know my neighbor through You.
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Thursday, August 23, 2018

Knight: withdrawing to pray

Thursday, August 23, 2018
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
    —Luke 5:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was no exceptional thing for Jesus to withdraw Himself “into the wilderness to pray.”
    He was never for one moment of any day out of touch with God... He was speaking and listening to the Father all day long; and yet He, who was in such constant touch with God, felt the need, as well as the joy, of more prolonged and more quiet communion with Him... Most of the reasons that drive us to pray for strength and forgiveness could never have driven Him; and yet He needed prayer.
    ... G. H. Knight (1835-1917), In the Secret of His Presence, Rock Island, Ill.: Augustana Book Concern, 1934, p. 42-43 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:16; Matt. 6:6; 14:23; Mark 1:35-36; 6:46; Luke 6:12; John 6:15; 10:28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You bless me in prayer.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Underhill: from ethics to love

Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Meditation:
    Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
    He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
    Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
    —Matthew 12:9-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Books,” said St. Augustine after his conversion, “could not teach me charity.” We still keep on thinking they can. We do not realize ... the utter distinctness of God and the things of God. Psychology of religion can not teach us prayer, and ethics cannot teach us love. Only Christ can do that, and He teaches by the direct method, in and among the circumstances of life. He does not mind about our being comfortable. He wants us to be strong, able to tackle life and be Christians, be apostles in life, so we must be trained by the ups and downs, the rough and tumble of life. Team games are compulsory in the school of Divine Love; there is no getting into a corner with a nice, spiritual book.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Light of Christ, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 53 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:9-15; Eccl. 12:12; Matt. 7:22-23; 21:28-32; Luke 13:14-17; 14:3-6; 2 Cor. 8:1-5; 2 Tim. 2:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, too often I reject the lessons You place before me in life. Alert my heart to Your teaching each day.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Brent: call to suffering

Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Meditation:
    And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
    —1 Peter 5:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If every call to Christ and His righteousness is a call to suffering, the converse is equally true—every call to suffering is a call to Christ, a promotion, an invitation to come up higher.
    ... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), The Consolations of the Cross, London: Longmans, Green, 1904, p. 55 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 5:10; Ps. 30:5; Acts 20:23; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive your call to suffering and righteousness.
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Monday, August 20, 2018

Bernard of Clairvaux: faith

Monday, August 20, 2018
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
    —Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Faith is not an opinion, but a certitude. “The substance of things hoped for,” says the Apostle—not the phantasies of empty conjecture. You hear the substance. You may not dispute on the faith as you please; you may not wander here and there through the wastes of opinion, the byways of error. By the name, “substance,” something certain and fixed is placed before you; you are enclosed between boundaries, you are restrained within unchanging limits.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), iv.9, Treatise on the Errors of Abeilard [1139], in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, New York: Scribners, 1908, p. 16, article on Abeilard (see the book)
    See also Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 4:18; Gal. 5:6; Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 10:22; 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:7; 2 Pet. 1:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have demonstrated Your truth forever.
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Sunday, August 19, 2018

Tozer: a disturbing adoration

Sunday, August 19, 2018
Meditation:
    Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..
    —Luke 23:34 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and repulses, it sobers and enraptures. There can be nothing more terrible or wonderful than to be stricken with love for Christ so deeply that the whole being goes out in a pained adoration of His person, an adoration that disturbs and disconcerts while it purges and satisfies and relaxes the deep inner heart.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), That Incredible Christian, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1964, p. 129-130 (see the book)
    See also Luke 23:34; Acts 9:16; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Eph. 3:16-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I kneel in awe at Your mercy towards me.
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