Rashdall: do we believe?

Saturday, May 6, 2023
Meditation:
Let those who love the LORD hate evil,
    for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
    and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
    —Psalm 97:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The great question for us now is, Do we believe in that love of God which Christ taught by His words, and of which His followers saw in His voluntary death a crowning manifestation? And remember that even belief in the love of God will do us no good unless it awakes answering love in ourselves—unless it adds to our hatred of the sin which separates us from God and increases our love of other men.
    ... James Hastings Rashdall (1858-1924), Principles and Precepts, Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1927, p. 126 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 97:10; Amos 5:15; John 15:13; Rom. 5:6-8,20-21; 7:13; 12:9; Heb. 1:8-9; Jas. 1:13-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hate my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bright: to be Jeremiah

Friday, May 5, 2023
Meditation:
    [Jeremiah:] Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.
    —Jeremiah 15:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jeremiah refutes the popular, modern notion that the end of religion is an integrated personality, freed of its fears, its doubts, and its frustrations. Certainly Jeremiah was no integrated personality. It is doubtful if... he ever knew the meaning of the word “peace.” We have no evidence that his internal struggle was ever ended, although the passing years no doubt brought an increasing acceptance of destiny. Jeremiah, if his “confessions” are any index, needed a course in pastoral psychiatry in the very worst way... The feeling cannot be escaped that if Jeremiah had been integrated, it would have been at the cost of ceasing to be Jeremiah! A man at peace simply could not be a Jeremiah. Spiritual health is good; mental assurance is good; but the summons of faith is neither to an integrated personality nor to the laying by of all questions, but to the dedication of personality—with all its fears and questions—to its duty and destiny under God.
    ... John Bright (1908-1995), The Kingdom of God, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1953, p. 120 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 15:10; 9:25-26; Hos. 1:2; Matt. 10:34-36; Luke 12:49-53; John 7:40-49; Acts 14:1-6; Rom. 2:28-29; 2 Cor. 11:23-27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I lay my faults before You as a sacrifice. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: contention

Thursday, May 4, 2023
    Feast of English Saints & Martyrs of the Reformation
Meditation:
    Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
    —2 Timothy 2:23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Dr. Johnson to a Quaker:] Oh, let us not be found, when our Master calls us, ripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., v. IV [1791], James Boswell, New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858, p. 12 fn (see the book)
    See also 2 Tim. 2:23; Matt. 23:23-24; Luke 11:42; 1 Cor. 1:8; 13:2; Tit. 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:3-7; 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, liberate your people from trivial disputes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Athanasius: teaching the One Word

Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
    —Luke 19:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Human and human-minded as men were, therefore, to whichever side they looked in the sensible world, they found themselves taught the truth. Were they awe-stricken by creation? They beheld it confessing Christ as Lord. Did their minds tend to regard men as gods? The uniqueness of the Savior’s works marked Him, alone of men, as Son of God. Were they drawn to evil spirits? They saw them driven out by the Lord, and learned that the Word of God alone was God and that the evil spirits were not gods at all. Were they inclined to hero-worship and the cult of the dead? Then the fact that the Savior had risen from the dead showed them how false these other deities were, and that the Word of the Father is the one true Lord, the Lord even of death. For this reason was He both born and manifested as Man, for this He died and rose, in order that, eclipsing by His works all other human deeds, He might recall man from all the paths of error to know the Father. As He says Himself, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
    ... St. Athanasius (293?-373), The Incarnation of the Word of God [4th century], St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996, XV, p. 43-44 (see the book)
    See also Luke 19:10; Matt. 9:12-13; 18:11; Luke 5:31-32; John 6:46; 14:7-9; Rom. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:15; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 4:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, because of Jesus, we seek and embrace You as the one true God. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Athanasius: God's solution

Tuesday, May 2, 2023
    Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373
Meditation:
    The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
    —Genesis 6:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What was God to do in the face of the dehumanizing of mankind—this universal hiding of the knowledge of Himself? ... So burdened were men with their wickedness that they seemed rather to be brute beasts than reasonable men, reflecting the very likeness of the Word... What, then, was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ? ... Men had turned from the contemplation of God above, and were looking for Him in two opposite directions, down among created things, and things of sense. The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to Himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, half-way. He became Himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which He, the Word of God, did in the body. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... St. Athanasius (293?-373), The Incarnation of the Word of God [4th century], St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996, XIII-XV, p. 40,41,43 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 6:5; 1:26-27; 3:17; Matt. 4:24; John 1:14; Rom. 1:18-23; 8:3-4; Gal. 3:16; Phil. 2:5-8; Col. 1:15; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 1:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know You only through Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: the pulpit and the press

Monday, May 1, 2023
    Feast of Philip & James, Apostles
Meditation:
    Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
    —Ephesians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Between the press and the pulpit there is this mighty difference. The pulpit has a Word, the press has none... The one has a Gospel which is the source of its liberty, the other has no Gospel but liberty, which in itself is no Gospel at all. Liberty is only opportunity for a Gospel... The press may offer an opinion as to how the public should act, but the pulpit is there with a message as to whom the acting public must obey and trust. The press is an adviser, but the pulpit is a prophet; the press may have a thought, the pulpit must have a Gospel, nay a command.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), Positive Preaching and Modern Mind, New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1907, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:19-20; Matt. 10:27-28; Acts 4:29; 28:31; Rom. 8:21; 1 Cor. 1:5-6; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 5:1; Col. 4:3-6; 1 Thess. 2:2; Jude 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Gospel is salvation to all who believe. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: oneness with Christ

Sunday, April 30, 2023
    Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922
Meditation:
    And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
    —1 John 4:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is out of the question to be one with Him in any other way than in the way of nature, and character, and life. Unless we are Christ-like in our thoughts and our ways, we are not one with Him, no matter how we feel.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, London: F. E. Longley, 1876, p. 130 (new ed.) (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:16-17; Matt. 10:37-38; John 6:53-56; 14:23; Rom. 8:10-11,29; 12:2; 1 Cor. 15:48-49; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:5-7; 3:10-11; 1 John 3:2; 4:12-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my desire to be one with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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