Bonhoeffer: belief from obedience

Saturday, April 9, 2022
    Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
    —John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Only the obedient believe. If we are to believe, we must obey a concrete command. Without this preliminary step of obedience, our faith will only be pious humbug, and lead us to the grace which is not costly. Everything depends on the first step. It has a unique quality of its own. The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship; it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 64 (see the book)
    See also John 13:34-35; Matt. 16:24; 18:21-22; 19:21-22; Luke 6:32-36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lead me, Lord, to step into obedience. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Murray: the beauty of holiness

Friday, April 8, 2022
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
For this is what the high and lofty One says—
    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
    —Isaiah 57:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Humility is the bloom and the beauty of holiness. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Humility: the Beauty of Holiness, New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1895, p. 74 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 57:15; Mic. 6:8; Matt. 18:2-5; 23:12; Luke 7:6-9; Rom. 11:17-18; Jas. 1:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You provide the just restraint for my pride. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Trueblood: science and service

Thursday, April 7, 2022
Meditation:
    Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.
    —1 Timothy 6:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When scientists are honest, as most of them are, they are well aware of the fact that their competence in science does not give them a clue to the problem of how their science should be used in the service of man. The sensitive visitor to the mesas of Los Alamos is almost sure to meditate on the experience of that gifted man, Klaus Fuchs. Though his work in the laboratories was outstanding, his decision concerning the use of what he knew was disastrous. What if, in addition to his scientific competence, the younger Fuchs had shared something of the Christian conviction of his father, Emil Fuchs? Much of the subsequent history of our earth might then have been different.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Incendiary Fellowship, New York: Harper, 1967, p. 95 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 6:20-21; 1 Kings 4:30-34; Matt. 16:1-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may our children know You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Michelangelo: To the Supreme Being

Wednesday, April 6, 2022
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
    Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
    —Romans 9:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed,
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray:
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,
That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:
Unless Thou shew to us Thine own true way,
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred
That in Thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of Thee,
And sound Thy praises everlastingly.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), translated by William Wordsworth in The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 220 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 9:21; Isa. 64:8; Rom. 8:26; 2 Cor. 12:9; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, mold me into a vessel of mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Lewis: prosperity

Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
    —Matthew 16:26 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’ while really it is finding its place in him.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Screwtape Letters, Macmillan, 1944, p. 143 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 16:25-26; Deut. 8:10-14; Job 12:5; Hos. 13:6; Luke 21:34; Tit. 2:11-12; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my eyes away from worldly things towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Nida: loving unto death

Monday, April 4, 2022
Meditation:
    And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
    —1 John 4:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Conob Indians of northern Guatemala... describe love as “my soul dies.” Love is such that, without experiencing the joy of union with the object of our love, there is a real sense in which “the soul dies.” A man who loves God according to the Conob idiom would say “my soul dies for God.” This not only describes the powerful emotion felt by the one who loves, but it should imply a related truth—namely, that in true love there is no room for self. The man who loves God must die to self. True love is, of all emotions, the most unselfish, for it does not look out for self but for others. False love seeks to possess; true love seeks to be possessed. False love leads to cancerous jealousy; true love leads to a life-giving ministry.
    ... Eugene A. Nida (1914-2011), God’s Word in Man’s Language, New York: Harper, 1952, p. 126-127 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:16-17; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:1; 86:5; 143:6-7; 1 John 1:5; 4:8,12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, implant Your love for Your people in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

MacDonald: essential opinions?

Sunday, April 3, 2022
Meditation:
    Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
    —1 Peter 1:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have no desire to change the opinion of man or woman. Let everyone for me hold what he pleases. But I would do my utmost to disable such as think correct opinion essential to salvation from laying any other burden on the shoulders of true men and women than the yoke of their Master; and such burden, if already oppressing any, I would gladly lift. Let the Lord himself teach them, I say. A man who has not the mind of Christ—and no man has the mind of Christ except him who makes it his business to obey him—cannot have correct opinions concerning him; neither, if he could, would they be of any value to him: he would be nothing the better, he would be the worse for having them. Our business is not to think correctly, but to live truly; then first will there be a possibility of our thinking correctly.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Justice”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 134-135 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 1:17; Ps. 62:11-12; Eccl. 12:13; Matt. 16:27; John 14:15; Rom. 2:6-8; 14:5,23; 1 Cor. 2:16; 8:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:10; Phil. 2:5; Col. 3:25; 1 John 3:18-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You empower Your people to follow Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth