Trueblood: what the Church is

Saturday, April 18, 2020
Meditation:
    And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
    —Mark 13:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All of the early Christians were missionaries. They did not leave the evangelistic task either to professional evangelists or to pastors to whom they paid salaries, for these did not exist... The early Church did not have a missionary arm; it was a missionary movement.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Incendiary Fellowship, New York: Harper, 1967, p. 112 (see the book)
    See also Mark 13:10; Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 13:47
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me a missionary wherever You place me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: an idolized doctrine?

Friday, April 17, 2020
Meditation:
    Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
    “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”
    —Luke 18:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We Lutherans... have paid the doctrine of pure grace divine honours unparalleled in Christendom; in fact, we have exalted the doctrine to the position of God Himself. Everywhere Luther’s formula has been repeated, but its truth perverted into self-deception. So long as our Church holds the correct doctrine of justification, there is no doubt whatever that she is a justified Church! So they said, thinking that we must vindicate our Lutheran heritage by making this grace available on the cheapest and easiest terms. To be “Lutheran” must mean that we leave the following of Christ to the Nomians, the Calvinists, and the Anabaptists—and all this for the sake of grace! We justified the world, and condemned as heretics those who tried to follow Christ. The result was that a nation became Christian and Lutheran, but at the cost of true discipleship... We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus was hardly ever heard.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 53-54 (see the book)
    See also Luke 18:28-30; Matt. 10:32-39; Luke 14:26-27; John 1:17; Rom. 6:14; 1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 2:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Speak, Lord, so Your people may hear Your call. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kierkegaard: what is immortality

Thursday, April 16, 2020
Meditation:
    All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
    —Matthew 25:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Jesus] does not waste a word in talking about immortality, as to whether it actually is or not; he states what it is, that it is the separation between the just and the unjust.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Christian Discourses, tr. Walter Lowrie, New York: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 214 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 25:31-46; 12:37; Mark 8:38; Luke 3:17; 12:2-5; 2 Cor. 2:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your judgment is true. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: intercession

Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Meditation:
    And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
    —Ephesians 6:17-18 (KJV)
Quotation:
    You can also offer your prayers, obedience and endurance of dryness to Our Lord, for the good of other souls—and then you have practised intercession. Never mind if it all seems for the time very second-hand. The less you get out of it, the nearer it approaches to being something worth offering—and the humiliation of not being able to feel as devout as we want to be, is excellent for most of us. Use vocal prayer... very slowly trying to realise the meaning with which it is charged and remember that... you are only a unit in the Chorus of the Church and not responsible for a solo part so that the others will make good the shortcomings you cannot help.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Letters of Evelyn Underhill, Charles Williams, ed., London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1991, p. 190 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:17-18; Ps. 6:9; Isa. 26:16; Luke 18:1-7; Acts 1:14; 12:5; Rom. 8:26; 12:12; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist me in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whale: the reason for the Gospels

Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Meditation:
    I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
    —John 5:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Gospels cannot explain the Resurrection; it is the Resurrection which alone explains the Gospels.
    ... John S. Whale (1896-1997), Christian Doctrine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also John 5:25; 11:25; Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 15:16-22; Eph. 2:1-5; 5:14; Col. 2:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: saving faith

Monday, April 13, 2020
Meditation:
    If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
    —Romans 14:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The only saving faith is that which casts itself on God for life or death.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed., Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, p. 116 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 14:8; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:18-19; Phil. 1:21; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 Pet. 4:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my life and death are in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fulbert: Sing, choirs of New Jerusalem

Sunday, April 12, 2020
    Easter
Meditation:
    Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
    —John 20:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
Ye choirs of New Jerusalem,
Your sweetest notes employ,
The Paschal victory to hymn
In songs of holy joy!

For Judah’s Lion burst his chains
And crushed the serpent’s head;
Christ cries aloud through death’s domains
To wake the imprisoned dead.

Triumphant in his glory now,
To him all power is given;
To him in one communion bow
All saints in earth and heaven.

All glory to the Father be,
All glory to the Son,
All glory to the Spirit be
While endless ages run.
    ... Fulbert of Chartres (d. 1028), tr. Robert Campbell (1814-1868), Songs of Praise, enl. ed., Ralph Vaughan Williams, et al., ed., Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also John 20:18; Gen. 3:15; 49:9-10; Matt. 28:18; Rev. 5:5-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Your victory ours as well.

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