Saturday, September 24, 2022

Phillips: deceived by philosophy

Saturday, September 24, 2022
Meditation:
    See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
    —Colossians 2:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We moderns tend to underestimate the intelligence of people like Paul. Because such a man had never seen a bicycle, a typewriter, or a television set, we, perhaps unconsciously, look down on him as living in some sort of twilight ignorance. We forget that he lived in point of time very close to the historic events described in the New Testament, and that he had plenty of opportunity to check their authenticity from many eyewitnesses. We forget, too, that he knew the philosophies of Greece not merely as textbook subjects but as systems of thought being taught and practiced in his day. When he wrote to the Colossians and warned them of “philosophy and vain deceit,” he was not being anti-intellectual. He knew from observation as well as from personal knowledge of human beings that philosophy, however attractive intellectually, is sterile and impotent when it comes to changing human disposition.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Ring of Truth, London: Hodder & Stoughton; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967, p. 52 (see the book)
    See also Col. 2:8; Luke 1:1-2; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 1:17-23; 2:13; 15:3-8; 1 Tim. 6:20-21; 2 Pet. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit bears witness to the truth of Your word.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Friday, September 23, 2022

Hammarskjold: the perilous journey

Friday, September 23, 2022
Meditation:
    But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
    —1 John 2:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
    ... Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Markings, tr. Leif Sjöberg & W. H. Auden, (q.v.), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964 (post.), p. 122 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 2:5-6; Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Thess. 4:7; 1 Tim. 6:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 12:1,14; 2 Pet. 3:11-12; Rev. 19:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me those things I must do.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Bernard: His gifts

Thursday, September 22, 2022
Meditation:
    For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
    —1 Corinthians 15:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    By his first work He gave me to myself; and by the next He gave Himself to me. And when He gave Himself, He gave me back myself that I had lost.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On Loving God, CCEL, ch. 5 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:21-22; Gen. 3:15; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have finished Your work.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Barclay: the Christian hope

Wednesday, September 21, 2022
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
    —Romans 15:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian hope is the hope which has seen everything and endured everything, and still has not despaired, because it believes in God. The Christian hope is not hope in the human spirit, in human goodness, in human endurance, in human achievement; the Christian hope is hope in the power of God.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Letter to the Romans, Westminster Press, 1957, p. 215 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 15:4; 4:23-24; Gal. 5:5; Eph. 1:18-21; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You we hope.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Spurgeon: what to expect

Tuesday, September 20, 2022
    Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871
Meditation:
    Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
    —John 19:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus [did] not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), for Apr. 5, Morning by Morning, New York: Sheldon & Co., 1867, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also John 19:17; Matt. 10:38; 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-37; Luke 9:23; 14:27; 23:26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am thankful for the grace to endure.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Monday, September 19, 2022

Smith: temptation is not sin

Monday, September 19, 2022
    Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690
Meditation:
    For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
    —Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Temptation ... cannot be sin; and the truth is, it is no more a sin to hear these whispers and suggestions of Satan in our souls, than it is for us to hear the swearing or wicked talk of bad men as we pass along the street. The sin only comes in either case by our stopping and joining in with them.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, London: F. E. Longley, 1876, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 4:15; Matt. 6:13; 26:41; Heb. 2:18; Jas. 1:2-3,12; 2 Pet. 2:9; 3:17; 1 John 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me strong while in temptation.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Sunday, September 18, 2022

MacDonald: salvation from consequences?

Sunday, September 18, 2022
    Commemoration of George MacDonald, Spiritual Writer, 1905
Meditation:
    [Angel:] “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
    —Matthew 1:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The notion that the salvation of Jesus is a salvation from the consequences of our sins, is a false, mean, low notion. The salvation of Christ is salvation from the smallest tendency or leaning to sin. It is a deliverance into the pure air of God’s ways of thinking and feeling. It is a salvation that makes the heart pure, with the will and choice of the heart to be pure. To such a heart, sin is disgusting. It sees a thing as it is,—that is, as God sees it, for God sees everything as it is. The soul thus saved would rather sink into the flames of hell than steal into heaven and skulk there under the shadow of an imputed righteousness. No soul is saved that would not prefer hell to sin. Jesus did not die to save us from punishment; he was called Jesus because he should save his people from their sins.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “Justice”, in Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1889, p. 132-133 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 1:21; Ps. 62:11-12; Mark 2:17; Heb. 2:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge away my tendency to sin.
CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth