Jones: building the Kingdom?

Saturday, August 19, 2023
Meditation:
    Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
    —Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to “build the Kingdom.” It is already built “from the foundation of the world,” built into the nature of reality. You “see,” “enter,” “proclaim,” “suffer for” the Kingdom, but never “build” it. For the Kingdom is not a relativism to be built, but an absolute to be accepted, submitted to, obeyed.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), The Christ of the American Road, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1944, p. 208 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:19-22; Matt. 5:20; 7:21; 18:3; 19:23-24; Mark 9:1; 10:23-25; Luke 9:27,60; 18:24-25; John 3:3-5; Acts 9:15-16; 14:22; 1 Pet. 2:4-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the creator of Your Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chadwick: from within

Friday, August 18, 2023
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
    ...
    “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
    He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”
    —Mark 7:15,18-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The true pollution of the man comes from within; and the life is stained because the heart is impure. For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, like the uncharitable and bitter judgments of His accusers—and thence come also the sensual indulgences which men ascribe to the flesh, but which depraved imaginations excite, and love of God and their neighbour would restrain—and thence are the sins of violence which men excuse by pleading sudden provocation, whereas the spark led to a conflagration only because the heart was a dry fuel—and thence, plainly enough, come deceit and railing, pride and folly.
    It is a hard saying, but our conscience acknowledges the truth of it. We are not the toy of circumstances, but such as we have made ourselves; and our lives would have been pure if the stream had flowed from a pure fountain.
    ... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also Mark 7:15,18-23; Matt. 15:11,17-20; Luke 11:38-41; Rom. 8:7-8; 1 Tim. 4:4-5; Tit. 1:15; Jas. 4:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your cleansing grace ever flow through me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the language of Heaven

Thursday, August 17, 2023
Meditation:
    ...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thanksgiving is the language of heaven, and we had better start to learn it if we are not to be mere dumb aliens there.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 181 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:18; Ps. 28:7; 30:11-12; 75:1; 136; Eph. 5:19-20; Phil. 4:6; Col. 3:17; Rev. 5:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Fill my heart with thankfulness, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gordon: the basis of prayer

Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Meditation:
    In [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
    —Ephesians 1:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice prayer.
    ... Samuel Dickey Gordon (1859-1936), Quiet Talks on Prayer, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1904, p. 129 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 1:7; Rom. 3:25-26; 5:9; Eph. 2:13; Col. 1:19-20; Heb. 10:19-22; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, receive my confession and plea for forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cundy: the symbiosis

Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Meditation:
    Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
    —Ephesians 4:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Of course, we are accepted by Christ as individuals; we need our private times of study, prayer and devotion, but our individual conversion incorporates us ‘into Christ’ and our individual baptism incorporates us into his body, the Church. To be indwelt by the Spirit is therefore to be part of his people and to have this symbiosis not just with Christ but also with the rest of his people.
    ... Ian P. M. Cundy (1945-2009), “The Church as Community”, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 25 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 4:25; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, by Your will, I am part of Your body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cundy: in Christ

Monday, August 14, 2023
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
    —2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To us with ideas of individuality inherited from Greek and Western philosophy, it may seem strange or even unjust, but this principle of ‘corporate solidarity’ is vital to Christian faith; without it the whole conception of transference from being ‘in Adam’ into another solidarity of being ‘in Christ’ is of little meaning. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Ian P. M. Cundy (1945-2009), “The Church as Community”, in The People of God, Ian Cundy, ed., vol. 2 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 24 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 10:5; Rom. 16:7; 1 Cor. 1:19-21; 2:12; 3:18-19; Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 2:16; 2 Pet. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send away the false assumptions of culture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Taylor: the Spirit's whispers

Sunday, August 13, 2023
    Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
    Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
    Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912
Meditation:
    See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
    —Hebrews 12:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    While the Spirit of God is doing this work [of regeneration] in man, man must also be ‘a fellowworker with God;’ he must entertain the Spirit, attend his inspirations, receive his whispers, obey all his motions, invite him farther, and truly renounce all confederacy with his enemy, sin; at no hand suffering any ‘root of bitterness to spring up,’ not allowing to himself any reserve of carnal pleasure, no clandestine lust, no private oppressions, no secret covetousness, no love to this world, that may discompose his duty... When we leave every sin, when we resolve never to return to the chains, when we have no love for the world but such as may be a servant of God; then I account that we are entered into a state of grace.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. VI, London: Ogle, Duncan & Co., 1822, Sermon XIV, p. 5 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:15; Ps. 32:5; 51:7,10; 130:1-2; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 7:10-11; 2 Pet. 3:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I would leave every sin behind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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