Moffatt: the closing of the canon

Saturday, May 9, 2020
Meditation:
    In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
    —Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Old Testament [is] a reflection of national life in sharply defined phases: the Hebrews, Israel, and the Jews successively appear as its bearers. But there is a religious unity through the complicated story, a unity which carries with it a continuity of purpose. The people themselves were not always conscious of that purpose; even when they were, they frequently did their best to thwart it. Nevertheless, the purpose prevailed. The religious mind calls it a revelation of God, and the more we pass through a study of the literature into a conception of the people among whom it arose, the more we compare their faith and fortunes with those of their neighbours, the more impossible it seems to explain the rise and career of these particular Semitic clans within the ancient world, a part from a Divine choice. Those who called the literature the “Old Testament” believed that this Divine choice and purpose was fulfilled in the “New Testament,” in the religious movement within Judaism which, during the first century A.D., named itself after Jesus Christ. The members of this movement held that the Old Testament was unintelligible apart from the New, and the New unintelligible apart from the Old. The Church believes that the divine purpose revealed in the Old Testament is not to be fulfilled in any national future for Judaism, within Palestine or elsewhere, but in a catholic community for the world. Hence its Bible adds the New Testament to the Old as the one and only sequel.
    ... James Moffatt (1870-1944), A New Translation of the Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935, New York: Harper, 1935, Introduction, p. xv-xvi (see the book)
    See also Heb. 1:1-2; Ps. 18:2; 67:1,2; Acts 2:16-18,36; Rom. 8:1,2; Heb. 12:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed the history of Your salvation before us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Willard: the ruined soul

Friday, May 8, 2020
    Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417
    Commemoration of Dallas Willard, Teacher, Spiritual Writer, 2013
Meditation:
    When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
    —Matthew 8:10-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man. The ruined soul must be willing to hear of and recognize its own ruin before it can find how to enter a different path, the path of eternal life that naturally leads into spiritual formation in Christlikeness.
    ... Dallas Willard (1935-2013), The Renovation of the Heart, Colorado Springs, Colo.: Navpress, 2002, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 8:10-12; 1 Kings 16:30-31; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 5:8; 6:12; 1 Pet. 2:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Break, O Lord, that rebellious spirit within me, and lead me to submission to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Dudley-Smith: in His heart and mind

Thursday, May 7, 2020
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.
    —Jeremiah 7:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
And what am I, to know
your promises, your mercies, your grace, your love?
Suppose my heart is (as I can only too well believe)
hard, unfruitful, deep, deceitful—is that beyond the power
of the fingers that made the heavens?

O, majestic Lord, you care for me,
you have me in your mind and heart.
In that I rest.
Amen.
    ... Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926), Someone Who Beckons: readings and prayers for 60 days, InterVarsity Press, 1978, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also Jer.7:5-7; 17:9; Heb. 3:12-13; 4:1,11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You make me able to believe.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Augustine: foolish talk

Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Meditation:
He who guards his mouth and his tongue
    keeps himself from calamity.
The proud and arrogant man—“Mocker” is his name;
    he behaves with overweening pride.
    —Proverbs 21:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    For when they find one belonging to the Christian body falling into error on a subject with which they themselves are thoroughly conversant, and when they see him moreover enforcing his groundless opinion by the authority of our Sacred Book, how are they likely to put trust in these Books about the resurrection of the dead, and the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, having already come to regard them as fallacious about those things they had themselves learned from observation, or from unquestionable evidences? And indeed it were not easy to tell what trouble and sorrow some rash and presumptuous men bring upon their prudent brethren, who, when they are charged with a perverse and false opinion by those who do not accept the authority of our Books, attempt to put forward these same Holy Books in defense of that which they have lightly and. falsely asserted, sometimes even quoting from memory what they think will suit their purposes, and putting forth many words without well understanding either what they say, or what they are talking about.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), On Genesis [415], tr. John Hammond Taylor, Newman Press, 1982, I.xix, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 21:23-24; 1 Cor. 15:12-13; 2 Pet. 2:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, banish all arrogance from me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Augustine: our testimony to the Scriptures

Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Meditation:
    I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
    —Ecclesiastes 2:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It often happens that one who is not a Christian hath some knowledge, derived from the evidence of his senses, about the earth, about the heavens, about the elements of this world, about the movements and revolutions, or about the size and distance of the stars, about certain eclipses of the sun and moon, about the course of the years and the seasons, about the nature of animals, plants, and minerals... Now it is an unseemly and mischievous thing, and greatly to be avoided, that a Christian man speaking on such matters, as if according to the authority of the Christian Scriptures, should talk so foolishly that the unbeliever on hearing him and observing the extravagance of his error, should hardly be able to refrain from laughter. And the great mischief is not so much that the man himself is laughed at for his errors, but that our authors are believed, by many people without the Church, to have taught such things, and so are condemned as unlearned and cast aside, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we are so much concerned. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), On Genesis [415], tr. John Hammond Taylor, Newman Press, 1982, I.xix, p. 42-43 (see the book)
    See also Eccl. 2:13-15; 1:13-18; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Tit. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the wisdom to speak with humility. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Huessey: founder and trustee

Monday, May 4, 2020
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
    —1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “The Future and Christianity” are no casual combination of words like the “future of motoring”, or the “future of Europe”. Christianity is the founder and trustee of the future.
    ... Eugen R. Huessey (1888-1973), Christian Future, or the Modern Mind Outrun, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1966, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:35-58; Ps. 96:10; Isa. 2:4; Matt. 16:27-28; 26:64; John 14:3,18; 1 Cor. 11:26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You hold the nations in Your hands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Packer: the main business

Sunday, May 3, 2020
Meditation:
    I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
    —Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), Knowing God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, p. 34 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 3:10-11; Ps. 9:10; Jer. 31:33-34; Hos. 6:3,6; John 17:3; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17-18; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 8:10-12; 1 John 5:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, knowing You is more important than knowing myself. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth