Allshorn: forgiveness

Saturday, July 2, 2022
Meditation:
    Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
    —Romans 12:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To realize that you are safe and happy standing at God’s side, with His love encompassing you because you are forgiven; too happy to take offense any more; too much in love with life to want to be made miserable with an unforgiving heart, and that now every conflict is a chance to learn more of the exceeding beauty of Love: that is worth living for, and surely worth dying to this misery-making self for. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 67 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:17-21; Gen. 50:20; Matt. 18:21-22; Luke 14:27; Acts 13:37-39; Rom. 6:6-8,11; 2 Cor. 4:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can fulfill my heart’s need. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the veil

Friday, July 1, 2022
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
    —Romans 6:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:4-7; 8:13-14; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Col. 2:11-14; 3:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, heal my heart of sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: strength

Thursday, June 30, 2022
Meditation:
    Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
    —Ephesians 6:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [God desires] not that He may say to them, “Look how mighty I am, and go down upon your knees and worship,”—for power alone was never yet worthy of prayer; but that He may say thus: “Look, my children, you will never be strong but with my strength. I have no other to give you. And that you can get only by trusting in me. I can not give it you any other way. There is no other way.”
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, v. I [1867], London: Strahan & Co., 1873, p. 513 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:10; Deut. 20:3-4; Isa. 40:31; Hag. 2:4; Zech. 8:13; Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:10-12; 2 Tim. 4:17; Heb. 11:1; 1 Pet. 5:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in my own strength, I fail; grant me Your strength for Your glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: shaping the stones

Wednesday, June 29, 2022
    Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles
Meditation:
    Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
    —James 1:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Faith hath cause to take courage from our very afflictions; the devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints. I know that he but heweth and polisheth stones all this time for the New Jerusalem.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, March 9, 1637, p. 218 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 1:2-4; Ps. 37:7-9; Hab. 2:4; Luke 21:17-19; Rom. 5:3-4; 8:25; Gal. 6:9; Col. 1:10-12; 1 Pet. 2:21-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You shape me in Your image. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Irenaeus: hold the rule of faith

Tuesday, June 28, 2022
    Feast of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200
Meditation:
    You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
    —2 Corinthians 3:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Now, that we may not suffer [heretical teaching], we must needs hold the rule of the faith without deviation, and do the commandments of God, believing in God and fearing Him as Lord and loving Him as Father. Now this doing is produced by faith: for Isaiah says: If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand. And faith is produced by the truth; for faith rests on things that truly are. For in things that are, as they are, we believe; and believing in things that are, as they ever are, we keep firm our confidence in them.
    ... Irenaeus (c.130-c.200), The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching [2nd c.], par. 3 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 3:3-4; Rom. 10:17; Gal. 1:6-7; 6:10; 2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 1:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: leaving the victory to God

Monday, June 27, 2022
Meditation:
    But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
    ...
    “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
    —Acts 5:34,38-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To hold your truth, to believe it with all your heart, to work with all your might, first to make it real to yourself and then to show its preciousness to other men, and then—not till then, but then—to leave the questions of when and how and by whom it shall prevail, to God; that is the true life of the true believer. There is no feeble unconcern and indiscriminateness there, and neither is there any excited hatred of the creed, the doctrine, or the Church which you feel wholly wrong. You have not fled out of the furnace of bigotry to freeze on the open and desolate plains of indifference. You believe, and yet you have no wish to persecute.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Sermons, v. III, New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1883, Sermon XII, p. 257 (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:34,38-39; Job 39:1; Eccl. 9:1; John 7:16,17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make calm my mind and strengthen my heart to trust You in all things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: humility

Sunday, June 26, 2022
Meditation:
Good and upright is the LORD;
    therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
    and teaches them his way.
    —Psalm 25:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification; and as without this, without holiness, no man shall see God, though he pore whole nights upon his Bible; so without that, without humility, no man shall hear God speak to his soul, though he hear three two-hours’ sermons every day.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. I, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon VII, p. 149 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 25:8-9; Matt. 11:15; John 10:10; Rom. 12:3; Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 3:4; 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break the rebellious spirit within me, that I may be humble in Your sight. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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