Stott: sure words

Saturday, July 27, 2019
    Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901
    Commemoration of John R. W. Stott, spiritual writer and teacher, 2011
Meditation:
    I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
    —2 Peter 3:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our starting point is Scripture, which we accept as God’s unique and trustworthy revelation. Yet, in seeking with loyalty to conserve this truth from God, we attribute no infallibility to our own evangelical traditions. We desire, rather, to re-examine them radically, that is to say, with a thoroughness which digs down even to their roots. If we seem to the reader to be always sure about the truthfulness of Scripture but sometimes less than sure in our understanding of how to apply it to complex contemporary questions, then he has accurately grasped our mood.
    ... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), general introduction to The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 7 (see the book)
    See also 2 Pet. 3:2; Luke 24:44; John 10:35-36; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:19-21; Jude 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe Your word for my time. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Denney: the only sphere of existence

Friday, July 26, 2019
Meditation:
    [John the Baptist:] “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
    —Luke 3:8,9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cannot divide either man or the universe... into two parts which move on different planes and have no vital relations; we cannot... limit the divine reaction against sin, or the experiences through which, in any case whatever, sin is brought home to man as what it is, to the purely spiritual sphere. Every sin is a sin of the indivisible human being, and the divine reaction against it expresses itself to conscience through the indivisible frame of that world, at once natural and spiritual, in which man lives. We cannot distribute evils into the two classes of physical and moral, and subsequently investigate the relation between them: if we could, it would be of no service here. What we have to understand is that when a man sins he does something in which his whole being participates, and that the reaction of God against his sin is a reaction in which he is conscious, or might be conscious, that the whole system of things is in arms against him.
    ... James Denney (1856-1917), The Atonement and the Modern Mind, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903, p. 59-60 (see the book)
    See also Luke 3:8-9; Jer. 7:5-10; Amos 4:4-11; 8:11; Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, quicken consciences for the sake of the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: everything in God

Thursday, July 25, 2019
    Feast of James the Apostle
Meditation:
    For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
    —1 Corinthians 15:27-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:27-28; Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:22-23; Heb. 3;14; 1 John 1:3; 2 John 1:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my thirst is for You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: our need of God

Wednesday, July 24, 2019
    Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471
Meditation:
    So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
    —Romans 7:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we are troubled with temptation and evil thoughts, then we see clearly the great need we have of God, since without him we can do nothing good... No one is so good that he is immune to temptation; we will never [in this life] be entirely free of it.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xii-xiii, p. 45-46 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 7:18-21; Matt. 15:19; Eph. 2:1-5; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; 1 John 1:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I fail in combating sin. Without You every minute, I am lost. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: praying at a distance

Tuesday, July 23, 2019
    Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373
Meditation:
    Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
    —John 14:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), The Life and Remains, Letters, Lectures, and Poems of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar, New York: R. Carter, 1866, p. 138 (see the book)
    See also John 14:16-20; 17:9,15,20-21; Rom. 8:26-27; Heb. 7:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence drives out all fear. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the poem itself

Monday, July 22, 2019
    Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
Meditation:
But God made the earth by his power;
    he founded the world by his wisdom
    and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
    —Jeremiah 10:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Miracles, New York: Macmillan, 1947, p. 212 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 1:1; 2:1; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 8:3-4; 19:1; 33:6-9; Jer. 10:12; John 1:3; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:2,10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I see Your hand behind all that is. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: user rather than used

Sunday, July 21, 2019
Meditation:
    Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
    —Hebrews 2:14,15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that to another the word of release may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 52 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:20-22; 10:1; Gal. 4:3-5; Heb. 2:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we must be taught still more about neighbor-love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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