Kierkegaard: above human categories

Saturday, September 8, 2018
    Commemoration of Søren Kierkegaard, Teacher and Philosopher, 1855
Meditation:
    About 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?”
    —Matthew 27:46 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If one could talk absolutely humanly about Christ, one would have to say that the words: “my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” are impatient and untrue. They can only be true if God says them, and consequently also when the God-Man says them. And indeed—since it is true, it is the very limit of suffering.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Journals, ed. Alexander Dru, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 301 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 27:46; Ps. 22:1; Mark 15:34; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; Heb. 2:18; 13:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You bought Your people with a price beyond our understanding. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: knowledge

Friday, September 7, 2018
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
    —James 2:19 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #280, p. 99 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:19; Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:24; 5:7; Luke 4:34; Acts 19:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, with knowledge, increase my love for You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: faith's nature

Thursday, September 6, 2018
    Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851
    Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965
Meditation:
    If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
    —John 15:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We allow no faith to be justifying, ... which is not itself, and in its own nature, a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, in Works of John Owen, v. V, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also John 15:10; 14:15,21; 15:9-12; Phil. 1:9-11; 2 Tim. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me root out ineffective faith and seek only the faith that is united with obedience. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: the central fact of history

Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Meditation:
    That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
    —John 1:9 (KJV)
Quotation:
    If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited Planet. It is not enough to express formal belief in the “Incarnation” or in the “Divinity of Christ,” the staggering truth must be accepted afresh—that in this vast, mysterious Universe, of which we are an almost infinitesimal part, the great Mystery, Whom we call God, has visited our planet in Person. It is from this conviction that there springs unconquerable certainty and unquenchable faith and hope. It is not enough to believe theoretically that Jesus was both God and Man; not enough to admire, respect, and even worship Him; it is not even enough to try to follow Him. The reason for the insufficiency of these things is that the modern intelligent mind, which has had its horizons widened in dozens of different ways, has got to be shocked afresh by the audacious centra l Fact—that, as a sober matter of history, God became one of us.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. iii, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also John 1:1-9,14; Luke 1:31-35; Rom. 1:2-4; 9:5; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:6-8; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:11-17; 1 John 4:2-3;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have visited our hearts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: quest for unity

Tuesday, September 4, 2018
    Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650
Meditation:
    Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
    —2 Timothy 2:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Homesickness for the [One True Church]” is genuine and legitimate only in so far as it is a disquietude at the fact that we have lost and forgotten Christ and with Him have lost the unity of the Church.
    Thus we must be on our guard, all along the line, lest the motives which stir us today lead us to a quest that looks past Him. Indeed, however rightful and urgent those motives are, we could well leave them out of our reckoning. We shall do well to realize that in themselves they are well-meaning but merely human desires, and that we can have no final certainty that they are rightful, no unanswerable claim for their fulfillment. Unless we regard them with a measure of holy indifference we are ill placed for a quest after the unity of the Church.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Church and the Churches [1936], Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005, p. 15-16 (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 2:19; Pr. 10:25; Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:19-20; Heb. 11:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have not lost even one of Your sheep. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gregory: the old standard vs. the new

Monday, September 3, 2018
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
    —Ephesians 4:28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some think that the Old Testament is stricter than the New, but they are judging wrongly: they are fooling themselves. The old Law did not punish the desire to hold onto wealth: it punished theft. But now the rich man is not condemned because he has taken the property of others: rather, he is condemned for not giving his own property away.
    ... St. Gregory the Great (540?-604), from Homily 40 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:28; Matt. 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 3:11; 12:33; 16:20-31; 18:22; 21:1-4; 2 Cor. 8:2,12; 1 Tim. 6:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the same, now and forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moody: remembering God

Sunday, September 2, 2018
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
    —John 15:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), Glad Tidings, New York: E. B. Treat, 1876, p. 487 (see the book)
    See also John 15:14; Deut. 8:11-14; Luke 12:15-21; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, imprint Your will on my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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