Murray: selfishness

Saturday, February 4, 2023
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
    —James 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917), Absolute Surrender, Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1897, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 3:14-16; Eccl. 4:4; Rom. 2:7-8; Gal. 5:15,19-23,26; Phil. 2:3; Tit. 3:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, elevate the needs of others in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jud: community experienced in the heart

Friday, February 3, 2023
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
    —Romans 10:1213 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The church is unique in that it is so able to cut across age boundaries and social-status boundaries. When one loves the Lord Jesus Christ and sincerely seeks to follow Him, then one quite by surprise comes upon a community that he did not know existed, a community that is experienced within the heart; and when this community is found, nothing is ever quite the same again.
    ... Gerald J. Jud (1919-2019), “Ministry in Colonies and Retreats”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 10:12-13; Isa. 56:3-8; Acts 10:34-35; 15:7-9; Gal. 3:28-29; Eph. 2:13; 3:6; Phil. 3:3; Col. 1:3-6; 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the church is led by Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yancey: what kind of faith

Thursday, February 2, 2023
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”
    —Luke 11:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some Christians long for a world well-stocked with miracles and spectacular signs of God’s presence. I hear wistful sermons on the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues and the daily manna in the wilderness, as if the speakers yearn for God to unleash his power like that today. But the follow-the-dots journey of the Israelites should give us pause. Would a burst of miracles nourish faith? Not the kind of faith God seems interested in, evidently. The Israelites give ample proof that signs may only addict us to signs, not to God.
    ... Philip Yancey (b. 1949), Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 11:29-30; Ex. 16:3-4; 17:1-7; Matt. 12:38-39; 16:4; Mark 8:11-12; John 2:18-21; 4:48; 1 Cor. 1:22-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the only true source for faith. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: out of control

Wednesday, February 1, 2023
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
    —Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. That puts us in the “on-top” position, where we are competent and in control. But when praying, we come “underneath,” where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.
    ... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 7-8 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:5-6; Ps. 19:14; Matt. 6:31-32; Luke 11:1; Rom. 8:26-27; 1 Cor. 2:9-10 Jas. 4:2-3; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You be my only concern in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Maclaren: sloth

Tuesday, January 31, 2023
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    [Jesus] said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’”
    —Luke 8:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This generation abhors mystery, and demands that the deepest truths of the highest subject, which is religion, shall be so broken down into mincemeat that the “man in the street” can understand them in the intervals of reading the newspaper. There are only too many of us who are disposed to grasp at the most superficial interpretation of Christian truth, and lazily to rest ourselves in that.
    ... Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), The Holy of Holies, London: Alexander & Shepheard, 1890, p. 363 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:10; Ps. 1:2; 42:7; 1 Cor. 2:7-10; Eph. 3:2-5; Col. 1:25-27; 2:2-3; 1 Tim. 3:8-9,16; 1 Pet. 1:10-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Lead Your people to desire the deep truths. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: embodied in culture

Monday, January 30, 2023
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”
    —Acts 14:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The idea that one can or could at any time separate out by some process of distillation a pure gospel unadulterated by any cultural accretions is an illusion. It is, in fact, an abandonment of the gospel, for the gospel is about the word made flesh. Every statement of the gospel in words is conditioned by the culture of which these words are a part, and every style of life that claims to embody the truth of the gospel is a culturally conditioned style of life. There can never be a culture-free gospel. Yet the gospel, which is from beginning to end embodied in culturally conditioned forms, calls into question all cultures including the one in which it was originally embodied.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986, p. 4 (see the book)
    See also Acts 14:11-17, 27-28; 2:4-11; 26:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You call us in our own language. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: turning to reality

Sunday, January 29, 2023
Meditation:
How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.
    —Psalm 84:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer means turning to Reality, taking our part, however humble, tentative and half-understood, in the continual conversation, the communion, of our spirits with the Eternal Spirit; the acknowledgment of our entire dependence, which is yet the partly free dependence of the child. For Prayer is really our whole life toward God: our longing for Him, our “incurable God-sickness,” as Barth calls it, our whole drive towards Him. It is the humble correspondence of the human spirit with the Sum of all Perfection, the Fountain of Life. No narrower definition than this is truly satisfactory, or covers all the ground.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Spiritual Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1985, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 84:1-2; 42:1-2; 62:7; 63:1-2; 143:6; Isa. 26:8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:16; Phil. 2:17; Heb. 13:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am driven to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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