Berger: dialogue about faith?

Saturday, July 9, 2022
Meditation:
    He said to another man, “Follow me.”
    But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
    Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
    —Luke 9:59-60 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ages of faith are not marked by “dialogue” but by proclamation.
    ... Peter L. Berger (1929-2017), Facing up to Modernity, Basic Books, 1977, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:59-60; Matt. 10:27; Acts 20:27; Rom. 10:17; Col. 4:3; Jas. 1:25; 1 Pet. 1:23; 4:6; 1 John 1:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, awaken all Your people to the proclamation of the Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ramsay: in the common speech

Friday, July 8, 2022
Meditation:
    A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
    —Acts 17:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It has been too much the custom to regard the earliest Christian books as written in a specially Christian form of speech, standing apart and distinguishable from the common language of the eastern Roman provinces. Had that been the case, it is not too bold to say that the new religion could not have conquered the Empire. It was because Christianity appealed direct to the people, addressed them in their own language, and made itself comprehensible to them on their own plane of thought, that it met the needs and filled the heart of the Roman world.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939), The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1904, p. 51 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:18; Gen. 11:1-9; Acts 2:8-11; 21:40
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Beach: always a cross

Thursday, July 7, 2022
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
    —Mark 8:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The symbol of the New Testament and the Christian Church is a cross, which stands for a love faithful despite physical agony and rejection by the world. No amount of air-conditioning and pew-cushioning in the suburban church can cover over the hard truth that the Christian life... is a narrow way of suffering; that discipleship is costly: that, for the faithful, there is always a cross to be carried. No one can understand Christianity to its depths who comes to it to enjoy it as a pleasant weekend diversion.
    ... W. Waldo Beach (1916-2000), The Christian Life, Richmond, Va.: CLC Press, 1966 (see the book)
    See also Mark 8:34-35; Matt. 7:13-14; 19:20-21; Luke 13:24; John 10:9; Gal. 5:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me to endure the test. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: just deserts

Wednesday, July 6, 2022
    Feast of John Huss, Reformer, Martyr, 1415
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
    For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
    —James 2:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For since perfection is altogether unattainable by us, so long as we are clothed with flesh, and the Law denounces death and judgment against all who have not yielded a perfect righteousness, there will always be ground to accuse and convict us unless the mercy of God interpose, and ever and anon absolve us by the constant remission of sins. Wherefore the statement which we set out is always true, if we are estimated by our own worthiness, in every thing that we think or devise, with all our studies and endeavors, we deserve death and destruction.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 2:10; Eze. 18:24; Ps. 32:1; 2 Cor. 5:18-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your mercy is my only hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hallesby: the time is gone

Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Meditation:
    Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
    —Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Instinctively and automatically [the carnal mind] will mobilize all the reasons it can conceive of for not praying now: You are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer; later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able to pray in a more devotional frame of mind... Before you know it, the entire day is gone, and you have not had a single quiet hour with God.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 88-89 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:7-8; Ps. 53:1; John 7:7; Rom. 7:5; 8:6-7; 13:14; Eph. 4:17-19; Jas. 1:13-15; 1 John 2:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, ever prompt my heart to prayer and communion with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: the perfect example

Monday, July 4, 2022
Meditation:
    To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
    —1 Peter 2:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a kind of contagion in all examples; men are very apt to do what they see others do, though it be very bad: every day’s experience furnisheth us with many and sad instances of the influence of bad examples; but there are peculiar charms in that which is good and excellent. A perfect pattern of goodness does strongly allure and invite to the imitation of it, and a great example of virtue to a well-disposed mind is a mighty temptation, and apt to inspirit us with good resolutions, to endeavour after that in ourselves, which we so much esteem and admire in others. And such is the example of our Lord, perfect as is possible, and yet obvious to common imitation, and as much fitted for the general direction of mankind in all sorts of virtue and goodness, as any one single example can be imagined to be.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VIII, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CXC, p. 282 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:21; Ps. 85:13; John 13:3-4,15; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 5:1-2; 1 John 2:6; 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me faith to seek to be like You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: to heal the separation

Sunday, July 3, 2022
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
    —Colossians 3:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    And let us be grateful beyond words for this: that God will not let us alone until we have learnt it and stand by His side. He troubles us, He brings His disturbing light back and back to us, showing us how coarse and heavy the dying self, seeking her own, is. How horrible it is that any feeling of unforgiveness, accepted and held on to, towards our brother, drives God from our side; how quickly we must do all we can to heal the separation, because we are out in the cold and the dark indeed, if divorced from that Love.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 67 (see the book)
    See also Col. 3:13; Matt. 5:44-45; 6:14-15; Mark 11:25; Acts 13:37-39; Eph. 4:32; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You bind the fellowship together with Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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