Willard: at the center

Saturday, August 26, 2023
Meditation:
Pride goes before destruction,
    a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed
    than to share plunder with the proud.
    —Proverbs 16:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... the fundamental pride of putting oneself at the center of the universe is the hinge upon which the entire world of the ruined self turns.
    ... Dallas Willard (1935-2013), The Renovation of the Heart, Colorado Springs, Colo.: Navpress, 2002, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 16:18-19; Ps. 18:27; Pr. 11:2; Matt. 20:25-27; Mark 7:20-23; 10:42-44; Luke 1:51-52; 11:43; Rom. 12:3,16; 2 Cor. 10:12; Eph. 4:17-19; 2 Tim. 3:2-5; Rev. 3:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break my pride and cast my sin out. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: no suffering, no love

Friday, August 25, 2023
Meditation:
    And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
    —Revelation 5:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We should all like life to be free from suffering, and our love to be free from pain. But there is no true love without suffering. So the highest love of all, the love of Christ for men, showed unforgettably how deeply he must suffer in order to bring men to himself.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), For This Day, Denis Duncan, ed., Word Books, 1978, p. 54 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 5:9; John 12:32-33; Rom. 5:8; 8:32; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 2:9; 5:7-10; 13:12; 1 Pet. 2:20-21; 4:1; 1 John 2:2; 4:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me patience in all suffering. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: for the glory of God

Thursday, August 24, 2023
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
    —2 Corinthians 9:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As I do no good action here, merely for the interpretation of good men, though that be one good and justifiable reason of my good actions: so I must do nothing for my salvation hereafter, merely for the love I bear to mine own soul, though that also be one good and justifiable reason of that action; but the primary reason in both, as well as the actions that establish a good name, as the actions that establish eternal life, must be the glory of God.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon LXI, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 9:12-13; Hab. 2:14; Matt. 5:16; John 15:7-8; Eph. 2:8-10; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 2:12
Quiet time reflection:
    For all that I may accomplish, to God be the glory. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: return to stern doctrines

Wednesday, August 23, 2023
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
    —1 Corinthians 10:19-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is in St. Paul’s definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at hand, a truth more profound than any that underlies our somewhat enfeebled ideas of universal benevolence and the determined progress of the race. There is something more true in his denunciation of idolatry as sin than in our denial that it is possible for a man to worship an idol, or in our suggestion that all idolatry is only a road to spiritual worship of the one true God... One day I think we shall return to these stern doctrines, realizing in them a truth more profound than we now know, and then we shall preach them with conviction, and being convinced ourselves we shall convince others.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:19-21; Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:16-17; Ps. 78:58; 106:37-39; Matt. 6:24; 1 Cor. 8:10-13; 10:14-16; 2 Cor. 4:4; 6:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, clear all idols away. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ramsay: to hesitate is to be lost

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Meditation:
    Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
    —Revelation 2:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing could have saved the infant Church from melting away into one of those vague and ineffective schools of philosophic ethics except the stern and strict rule that is laid down here [in Rev. 2:15, 16] by St. John. An easy-going Christianity could never have survived; only the most convinced, resolute, almost bigoted adherence to the most uncompromising interpretation of its own principles could have given the Christians the courage and self-reliance that were needed. For them to hesitate or to doubt was to be lost.
    ... Sir William M. Ramsay (1851-1939), The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1904, p. 300 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 2:15-16; Isa. 11:1-4; Acts 7:54-56; 8:1-4; 17:30-31; Rom. 8:35-37; Eph. 6:17; 2 Thes. 1:4; Rev. 2:5,21-22; 3:19; 19:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your church hold fast to Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: focusing on God, rather than unity

Monday, August 21, 2023
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
    —John 17:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 90 (see the book)
    See also John 17:22-23; 6:40; Rom. 14:5-7; 15:5-7; 1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 4:2-7,11-13; Phil. 2:1-2; Col. 3:13-14; Heb. 12:1-2,14; 1 John 4:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep our eyes on Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: to seek and to find

Sunday, August 20, 2023
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
    “Let God be exalted!”
    —Psalm 70:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Here is a paradox, that no one can seek the Lord who has not already found Him. It is Thy will, O God, to be found that Thou mayest be sought, to be sought that Thou mayest the more truly be found.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On Loving God, CCEL, ch. 7 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 70:4; 27:8; 105:3-4; Amos 5:4; Matt. 6:33; 7:7; Luke 12:31; John 6:27; Heb. 11:6; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have found me so that I might find You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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