Booth: declaring salvation

Saturday, August 20, 2022
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
    —Luke 9:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Scheme of Social Salvation is not worth discussion which is not as wide as the Scheme of Eternal Salvation set forth in the Gospel. The Glad Tidings must be to every creature, not merely to an elect few who are to be saved while the mass of their fellows are predestined to a temporal damnation. We have had this doctrine of an inhuman cast-iron pseudo-political economy too long enthroned amongst us. It is now time to fling down the false idol, and proclaim a Temporal Salvation as full, free, and universal, and with no other limitations than the “Whosoever will,” of the Gospel.
    ... William Booth (1829-1912), In Darkest England, London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1890, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:25; Matt. 16:25-26; 20:26-27; Mark 8:34-35
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your salvation is open to all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stewart: the greatest menace

Friday, August 19, 2022
Meditation:
    For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
    —Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest drag on Christianity to-day, the most serious menace to the Church’s mission, is not the secularism without, it is the reduced Christianity within: the religious generalities and innocuous platitudes of a pallid, anaemic Christianity which is simply (in the language of arithmeticians) the “highest common factor” of half a dozen different religions.
    ... James S. Stewart (1896-1990), A Faith to Proclaim, New York: Scribner, 1953, p. 31 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:8-10; Matt. 5:13-16; Mark 4:21-22; Rom. 12:1; 13:11-12; Phil. 2:14-16; 1 John 1:5-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are awakening Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: we are not our own

Thursday, August 18, 2022
Meditation:
    If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
    —Romans 14:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not our own; therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels. We are not our own; therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature. We are not our own; therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours. On the other hand, we are God’s; let us, therefore, live and die to him.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.vii.1, p. 619 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 14:8; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I would abandon myself to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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M'Cheyne: speak for eternity

Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Meditation:
    Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
        His love endures forever.
    —Psalm 136:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.
    ... Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Dundee: W. Middleton, 1845, p. 94 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 136:1; Acts 23:1; 24:14-16; Rom. 9:1; 1 Tim. 1:5; 1 Pet. 3:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my heart show forth Your love always. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: what He is doing

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Meditation:
    Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
    —Luke 9:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The more earnestly you are at work for Jesus, the more you need times when what you are doing for Him passes totally out of your mind, and the only thing worth thinking of seems to be what He is doing for you.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Twenty Sermons, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1887, p. 234 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:16-17; Ps. 1:1-2; Jer. 14:22; Hag. 2:19; Matt. 6:32-33; 1 Cor. 2:9-10; 2 Cor. 9:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I abandon myself to You in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: the center of prayer

Monday, August 15, 2022
Meditation:
    One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
    —Luke 6:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the beginning we are indeed the subject and the center of our prayers. But in God’s time and in God’s way a Copernican revolution takes place in our heart. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, there is a shift in our center of gravity. We pass from thinking of God as part of our life to the realization that we are part of his life. Wondrously and mysteriously God moves from the periphery of our prayer experience to the center.
    ... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 15 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:12; Ps. 42:8; Matt. 6:6; John 14:16; Rom. 8:26; 1 Thess. 5:17-18; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me of Yourself in my prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clarkson: the titles of God

Sunday, August 14, 2022
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
    —John 8:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The titles of God are virtually promises. When he is called a sun, a shield, a strong tower, a hiding-place, a portion. The titles of Christ, light of the world, bread of life, the way, truth, and life; the titles of the Spirit, the Spirit of truth, of holiness, of glory, of grace, and supplication, the sealing, witnessing Spirit; faith may conclude as much out of these as out of promises. Is the Lord a sun? Then he will influence me, &c. Is Christ life? Then he will enliven me.
    ... David Clarkson (1622-1686), The Practical Works of David Clarkson, v. 1, Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864, p. 187-188 (see the book)
    See also John 8:12; Gen. 15:1; Ps. 46:1; John 6:35; 14:6,16-17; Heb. 10:38; 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You we receive repeated renewal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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