Bowne: essential prayer

Saturday, October 31, 2020
    Reformation Day
Meditation:
    In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
    —Romans 8:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This religious desire and effort of the soul to relate itself and all its interest to God and his will is prayer in the deepest sense. This is essential prayer. Uttered or unexpressed, it is equally prayer. It is the soul’s desire after God going forth in manifestation, ... —the soul striving after God. This is a prayer that may exist without ceasing, consisting, as it does, not in doing or saying this or that, but in temper and attitude of the spirit.
    ... Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910), The Essence of Religion, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, p. 132 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:26; Matt. 6:10; Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am quiet in your presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: in the midst of your enemies

Friday, October 30, 2020
    Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546
Meditation:
The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion;
    you will rule in the midst of your enemies.
    —Psalm 110:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing, who would ever have been spared?
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), paraphrase from "Sermon on Psalm 110" [1518], WA, 1:696, quoted in Life Together [1954], Dietrich Bonhoeffer & tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 110:2; 23:5; Luke 6:27-29; Rom. 12:14,20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove our fears, and lead us out into the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: praying for laborers

Thursday, October 29, 2020
    Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.”
    —John 4:35-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is true that [people] are praying for a worldwide revival. But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Eternal Punishment, Swengel, Pa. : Bible Truth Depot, 1951, Introduction (see the book)
    See also John 4:35-38; Matt. 9:35-38; Mark 16:15; Luke 10:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, call out Your people, that the world may be saved. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton: left untried

Wednesday, October 28, 2020
    Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
    —John 3:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), What’s Wrong with the World, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1912, p. 48 (see the book)
    See also John 3:11-12; Matt. 7:13-14; Luke 6:46-49; 7:30-35; 12:16-21; John 1:11; 5:39-40; 12:37; 1 Cor. 1:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You draw Your people to Yourself, regardless the difficulty. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fuller: but one sin more

Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Meditation:
    If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
    —1 John 5:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord, often have I thought to myself, I will sin but this one sin more, and then I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins together. So foolish was I, and ignorant. As if I should be more able to pay my debts when I owe more: or as if I should say, I will wound my friend once again, and then I will lovingly shake hands with him; but what if my friend will not shake hands with me?
    ... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), Good Thoughts in Bad Times [1645], Chicago: United Society of Christian Endeavor, Boston, 1898, Personal Meditations, XXIII (see the book)
    See also 1 John 5:16-18; Isa. 30:1; Jer. 9:3; 2 Tim. 3:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the self-control to stop the cycle of sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: Christ transcends ignorance

Monday, October 26, 2020
    Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899
    Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664
Meditation:
    When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
    —Acts 4:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ transcends all ignorance. It will be observed that my friend from India said that ignorance was a bar preventing the people from receiving our message. That may very well be. Our message is not delivered in a form easy to be understood by men of no literary education, nor is it always delivered by men who can approach their hearers with true understanding and use the expressions which they naturally understand. But that the most ignorant man on earth cannot receive Christ and find grace and help in Him seems to me to be contradicted by our own knowledge of Christ’s nature and our frequent experience of His power.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It, London: World Dominion Press, 1949, reprint, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1997, p. 113 (see the book)
    See also Acts 4:13; Luke 1:46-49; John 9:17-21,25; Jas. 1:9; 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, there is no defect of ours that You cannot overcome. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Graham Swift: Jesus' sovereignty first

Sunday, October 25, 2020
    Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285
Meditation:
    At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
    —Matthew 11:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The basic assumption which all expositors seem anxious to secure is certainly right, namely, that the ultimate purpose of a parable is to help and not hinder the apprehension of the truth. But beyond this, we may say that it belongs to the very nature of revelation that the capacity to receive it depends upon the prior surrender and obedience of the will... The disciples had so surrendered to the sovereignty of Jesus and could therefore know. If temporarily parables concealed the truths of the kingdom from the outsider on the intellectual plane, it was only in order that moral conviction might first be secured with a view to intellectual enlightenment afterwards. There are many who, through intellectual pride, would like to have it otherwise, but it cannot be.
    ... C. E. Graham Swift, The New Bible Commentary, ed. Frances Davidson, Eerdmans., 1963, p. 814-815 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:25-27; 13:10-17; Mark 4:11-36; Luke 8:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your wisdom goes out to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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