Pike: cause and effect

Sunday, April 7, 2024
Meditation:
    Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
    —Galatians 6:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He may affect us directly by His Spirit, with the force of a thunderbolt, or He may choose to woo us gently by stirring up our consciences.
    But, in addition, God affects us by determining that in the universe certain causes shall bring about certain effects. Cause-and-effect is, therefore, the operation of God through normal channels rather than through special channels. We have our normal way of acting when we drive a car. We can more or less put it in “automatic pilot” while we carry on a conversation, but when an emergency arises, we take conscious personal control. I have a hunch that God has something for which this automatic pilot will serve as an illustration. That is, His routine way of operating is cause-and-effect, and He is in control of it, so that when cause-and-effect affects us, then God is affecting us. That is what the Apostle Paul means in Galatians when he says, “Do not kid yourself—God is not blind. What you do, you will get paid for.” The causes which we have set in operation by our own personal choices will inevitably bring about certain results. But God is involved because God makes cause-and-effect to work. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), With Heart and Mind, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:7-9; Job 13:7-9; 34:11; Ps. 62:12; Matt. 16:27; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 9:6; 1 John 3:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to know Your movements in the events of daily life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Michelangelo: No mortal object did these eyes behold

Saturday, April 6, 2024
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
    Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
    —1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
No mortal object did these eyes behold
When first they met the placid light of thine
And my Soul felt her destiny divine,
And hope of endless peace in me grew bold:
Heaven-born, the Soul a heavenward course must hold;
Beyond the visible world She soars to seek
(For what delights the sense is false and weak)
Ideal Form, the universal mould.
The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
In that which perishes; nor will he lend
His heart to aught which doth on time depend.
’Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
That kills the soul: love betters what is best,
Even here below, but more in heaven above.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), translated by William Wordsworth in The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 219 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:12-13; Ps. 82:6-7; Mark 12:29-31; John 6:27; 10:34-36; 14:2-3; Gal. 5:14; Col. 3:14; 1 John 4:7-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let my thirsty soul drink of Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Chapman: no road to God

Friday, April 5, 2024
Meditation:
    Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
    —Isaiah 40:1-5 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The radical failure in so-called religion is that its way is from man to God. Starting with man, it seeks to rise to God; and there is no road that way.
    ... J. Arundel Chapman (1885-1934), The Theology of Karl Barth, London: Epworth Press, 1931, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 40:1-5; Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:2-3; Luke 3:4-6; John 1:23; 10:9; 14:4-6; Acts 4:12; Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:1-2; 1 Pet. 1:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You loved me first. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Wilberforce: no shortcuts

Thursday, April 4, 2024
Meditation:
    Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
    —Hebrews 6:1-2 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We need to warn [secretly self-complacent] persons that there is no shortcut to holiness. It must be the business of their whole lives to grow in grace and continually to add one virtue to another. It is, as far as possible, “to go on to perfection.”
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Real Christianity, ed. James Houston, Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2005, p. 170 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:1-2; Ps. 84:7; John 6:27; 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Cor. 13:11; Gal. 5:22-23; Phil. 2:14-16; 4:8; Col. 3:16; 1 Thess. 3:13; 4:1,7; 1 Tim. 6:11; Heb. 12:10,14; 1 Pet. 1:14-16; 2 Pet. 1:5-8; 3:14; 1 John 3:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me to grow according to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Ellul: intervention

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Meditation:
    [Jonah] answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
    This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
    —Jonah 1:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When the word intervenes in a situation, it changes that situation. When it comes on a man, it changes that man even if he refuses to listen. This goes beyond mere obedience. The word enlists man in an adventure into which he carries all those around him and which may be a controversy with God.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 22 (see the book)
    See also Jon. 1:9-10; Deut. 18:15-19; 1 Sam. 8:18-19; Neh. 9:16-17; Jer. 11:9-10; Matt. 10:14-15; 11;15; 13:15; Mark 4:9; 6:10-11; 9:7; Luke 16:31;
Quiet time reflection:
    Have I ignored the word in my life? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Schaeffer: the mark

Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Meditation:
    This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
    —1 John 3:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Love—and the unity it attests to—is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), The Mark of the Christian, Inter-Varsity Press, 1976, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 3:11; John 13:34-35; 17:21; Acts 4:32-35; Rom. 12:9-10; 13:9-10; Gal. 6:10; Col. 1:3-4; 3:12-13; 1 Thess. 4:9; 2 Thess. 1:3; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 3:8; 4:8; 1 John 2:10; 3:10,14,23; 4:11,20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase our love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth

Lewis: something completely new

Monday, April 1, 2024
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
    They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
    When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
    —Luke 24:36-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Resurrection narratives are not a picture of survival after death; they record how a totally new mode of being has arisen in the Universe. Something new had appeared in the Universe: as new as the first coming of organic life. This Man, after death, does not get divided into “ghost” and “corpse.” A new mode of being has arisen. That is the story. What are we going to make of it?
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), God in the Dock [1970], ed. Walter Hooper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:36-43; Matt. 28:9,17-20; Luke 24:15-16,30-31; John 5:28-29; 20:26-27; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:13-14; 5:1-5; Phil. 3:20-21; Rev. 1:18
Quiet time reflection:
    By Your power, Lord, we shall live. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    inst    Jonah    ; Ruth