Hodge: the predicted atonement

Saturday, March 20, 2021
    Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.”
    —Acts 13:26-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    That the death of Christ as an atoning sacrifice was predicted by the law and the prophets is the constant doctrine of the New Testament.
    ... Charles Hodge (1797-1878), An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians [1857], New York: Robert Carter & Bros., 1860, p. 313 (see the book)
    See also Acts 13:26-27; Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:44-45; John 1:45; 1 Cor. 15:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have fulfilled the promises You made of old. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Foster: the new control center

Friday, March 19, 2021
    Feast of Joseph of Nazareth
Meditation:
    But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
    —1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer frees us to be controlled by God. To pray is to change. There is no greater liberating force in the Christian life than prayer. To enter the gaze of the Holy is never to be the same. To bathe in the Light in quiet wonder and glad surrender is to be slowly, permanently transformed. There is a richer inward orientation, a deep hunger for communion. We feel as if we are being taken over by a new control Center, and so we are.
    ... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Freedom of Simplicity, HarperCollins, 1989, p. 58 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:9; Rom. 8:14,26; Eph. 6:18; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; 1 John 5:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, center my life on prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Manley: the costly love of unity

Thursday, March 18, 2021
Meditation:
    Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
    —Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The task to which we are called is not the sacrifice of any principle in which we firmly believe. It is rather to return to Christ, not a figure of the imagination, but the Christ of the Scriptures, and to listen to His voice in obedience, to discover afresh what is the Truth. All unpretentious Bible study, every effort to disseminate a true scriptural theology, and every earnest prayer is part of the task of promoting that unity which is truly Christian.
    We must not envisage Christian Unity as consisting of far-off and doubtful schemes, but as something very nigh which affects us all. If we are really to seek for Christian Unity, we must be prepared to pay the cost. For it must be based upon love, and love is always costly. It will never be attained until there is “far more humility, far more thought, far more self-sacrifice, and far more prayer, than there is at present.” *
    If we a re right in the conclusion that such disunion as has been sinful in the history of the Church has been due to pride, self-assertion, and contempt for God’s Word and commandment, then it follows that the way to the unity which God wills is through humility, love of the brethren, and obedience to the Divine Revelation. When Christians pray to be shown where they have been wrong, proud, complaisant, or censorious, and to be put right; when they meet for common counsel and study of the Word, in the spirit of obedience and prepared to subject their individual opinions to the guidance of the Spirit; where the strong are willing to foster and strengthen the weak; and where all are seeking the common good rather than their own sectional interests; then the pathway to unity will become plain, and God will grant His blessing.
* Streeter, B. H., Restatement and Reunion, 1914, p. 56
    ... G. T. Manley (1872?-1961?), Christian Unity, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1945, p. 87-88 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 10:25; Jer. 3:17; John 17:20-23; Eph. 4:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone can grant Your people unity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Newbolt: unhelpful controversy

Wednesday, March 17, 2021
    Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
Meditation:
    I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
    —1 Timothy 2:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let us guard with all our might against lapsing into mere controversialists, unless God has given us special talents in that way, which we can use with fear and trembling as given us for the special defence of truth and of the Church. As we follow Him after the day of disputation up the slope of the Mount of Olives, and watch there, in the blood-red glow of sunset, and the purple of the deepening gloom, and the blackness of approaching night, Jerusalem with its individual history and palpitating heart of religious frenzy, melting into the judgment of a world, and the crash of falling kingdoms, and the winding up of final doom, how little all the controversy has become, in the face of a world’s sin and a world’s judgment! Jesus Christ was the Truth; and as the Truth, He met and laid low controversy.
    ... W. C. E. Newbolt (1844-1930), Speculum Sacerdotum, London: Longmans, Green, 1894, p. 188 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 2:8; Matt. 21:23-27; 1 Cor. 6:1-2; Phil. 2:14-15; 1 Tim. 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 2:23-25; Tit. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, unite Your people’s factions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Jones: belonging to a Person

Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Meditation:
    When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
    —John 10:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In conversion you are not attached primarily to an order, nor to an institution, nor a movement, nor a set of beliefs, nor a code of action—you are attached primarily to a Person, and secondarily to these other things... You are not called to get to heaven, to do good, or to be good—you are called to belong to Jesus Christ. The doing good, the being good, and the getting to heaven, are the by-products of that belonging. The center of conversion is the belonging of a person to a Person.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Conversion, New York: Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 244 (see the book)
    See also John 10:4; 8:47; Rom. 6:11; 8:1-2; 1 Cor. 3:21-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people belong only to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Owen: God has work to do

Monday, March 15, 2021
Meditation:
    You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
    —Galatians 5:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority... It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him, is to oppose Him.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. IX, New York: R. Carter, 1851, Sermon XIII, p. 171 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 5:13; Gen. 6:9; Ps. 55:6; Jer. 9:2; 2 Pet. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Teach me Lord, not to hinder the work You are doing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Newbigin: forget self

Sunday, March 14, 2021
Meditation:
    Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
    —1 Peter 1:13-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To make the improving of our own character our central aim is hardly the highest kind of goodness. True goodness forgets itself and goes out to do the right thing for no other reason than that it is right.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Christian Freedom in the Modern World, London: SCM Press, 1937, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:13-16; Lev. 19:2; Hos. 6:6; Rom. 12:20; Eph. 4:15-16; Heb. 12:14; 1 John 3:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cure my unbelief, that I may forget self and love righteousness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth