Vitz: what about my profession?

Saturday, February 22, 2020
Meditation:
    ... then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.
    —Ecclesiastes 8:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is difficult to document such a thing as the general attitude of a profession. But the hostility of most psychologists to Christianity is very real. For years, I was part of that sentiment; today it still surrounds me. It is a curious hostility, for most psychologists are not aware of it. Their lack of awareness is due mostly to sheer ignorance of what Christianity is—for that matter, of what any religion is. The universities are so secularized that most academics can no longer articulate why they are opposed to Christianity. They merely assume that, for all rational people, the question of being a Christian was settled—negatively—at some time in the past.
    ... Paul C. Vitz (b. 1935), Psychology as Religion, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977, p. 12 (see the book)
    See also Eccl. 6:11-12; 8:17; 1 Cor. 2:7-10; 3:19; Jas. 1:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead my colleagues, especially _____ and _____, to open their minds to Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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CT: the greatest need

Friday, February 21, 2020
Meditation:
    For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
    —Romans 1:20-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    None of these good works [e.g., HIV/AIDS outreach, relief of hunger, poverty, or eliminating malaria or tuberculosis]—nay, great works—deal with the most profound social problem facing humankind.
    That social problem is alienation from God.
    ... Christianity Today Magazine, Carol Stream, IL, “The Greatest Social Need”, editorial for January 19, 2009 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 1:18-23; Ps. 14:1; Job 12:7-25; John 10:16; 15:5; 1 Cor. 10:19-20; Eph. 2:12-13; Col. 1:21; 1 Thess. 4:3-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to make You known to those You have placed before me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: living by faith?

Thursday, February 20, 2020
    Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906
Meditation:
    [We] know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
    —Galatians 2:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When the time comes to enter the darkness in which we are naked and helpless and alone; in which we see the insufficiency of our greatest strength and the hollowness of our strongest virtues; in which we have nothing of our own to rely on, and nothing in our nature to support us, and nothing in the world to guide us or give us fight—then we find out whether or not we live by faith.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Seeds of Contemplation, London: Hollis & Carter, 1949, New Directions. 1949, p. 172 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 2:15-16; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; 5:1; Gal. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beecher: the Holy Ghost

Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Meditation:
    This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
    —1 Corinthians 2:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I should as soon attempt to raise flowers if there were no atmosphere, or produce fruits if there were neither light nor heat, as to regenerate men if I did not believe there was a Holy Ghost.
    ... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, eighth series, New York: J. B. Ford, 1873, p. 390 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 2:13-14; Isa. 11:2-5; Matt. 19:26; Luke 11:13; 12:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, it is only by Your Spirit that we turn towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: more faith

Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Meditation:
    When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
    —Matthew 8:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In a modern-day brand of Christianity devoted to good works, faith in the forgiveness of sin deteriorates, and the Golden Rule becomes a means of salvation rather than the fruit of salvation. An empty stomach is no way to a man’s heart, and racial justice is long overdue, but a cup of water can never replace the healing power of the Cross. In a country where famine and poverty have reduced the day’s ration to a bowl of rice and the domicile to one room, food and shelter are obviously important, but so is faith in God’s mercy. Faith is indispensable. Neither individual holiness nor social concern can be legislated... The fact is that the more seriously one takes the demands of God, the more conscious of his own need for mercy he becomes. But, fortunately, as Kierkegaard put it, “The opposite of sin is not ‘virtue’ but faith.”*
* from Kierkegaard, Sickness unto Death
    ... Paul G. Johnson (b. 1931), Buried Alive, Richmond: John Knox Press, 1968, p. 143 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 8:16-17; Rom. 6:3-8; 14:13; Gal. 3:21-22; Tit. 1:15; Heb. 11:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe Your promise of forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Webb: joy

Monday, February 17, 2020
    Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977
Meditation:
    Be joyful always.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God’s will, because the soul delights itself in God Himself... Rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.
    ... Hanmer William Webb-Peploe (1837-1923), included in Springs in the Valley, ed. Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997, p. 163 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:16; Neh. 8:10-12; Nah. 1:15; Acts 2:45-47; 2 Cor. 1:24; 8:2; Phil. 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let Your will in my life be my joy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: inarticulate groans

Sunday, February 16, 2020
Meditation:
    See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
    —Isaiah 32:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you. Just as a mother understands the first lispings of her infant, so does the blessed Saviour understand sinners. He can read a sigh, and see a meaning in a groan.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), A Call to Prayer, published in the 1850’s as a pamphlet, American Tract Society, 1867, sec. VII (see the book)
    See also Isa. 32:1-4; Rom. 8:26; 15:1; 2 Cor. 12:5-10; Heb. 4:15; 5:2; Jas. 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, receive my prayer, though it be poorly expressed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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