Allen: the Spirit of redeeming love

Sunday, May 19, 2024
    Pentecost
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy...
    Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ...
    Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
    —Acts 2:17-18,36,38 (AV)
Quotation:
    The Spirit is Love expressed towards man as redeeming love, and the Spirit is truth, and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Redemption is inconceivable without truth and holiness. But the mere fact that the Holy Spirit’s first recorded action in the gospels is an expression of redeeming love should cause us to suspect a teaching which represents His work as primarily, if not solely, the sanctification of our own souls to the practical exclusion of His activity in us towards others. It is important to teach of Him as the Spirit of holiness; it is also important to teach of Him as the Spirit which in us labours for the salvation of men everywhere.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Pentecost and the World, London: Oxford University Press, 1917, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 27-28 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:17-18,36,38; Mic. 3:8; Luke 4:1-14; 24:49; John 14:16-17,26; 15:26; Acts 1:8; 2:1-6,33; 9:31; Rom. 5:5; Tit. 3:4-7; Heb. 2:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit is seeking and saving the lost. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wright: Jesus is Lord

Saturday, May 18, 2024
Meditation:
    “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
    “Caesar’s,” they replied.
    He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
    —Mark 12:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We have come to think that the difficulty about Christianity is believing in God in the teeth of the scientific evidence, but this misses the point. The real problem is giving allegiance to Jesus as Lord in the teeth of the claims of earthly rulers, systems and philosophies. Kyrios Iesous, Jesus is Lord, was the earliest confession of Christian faith, the thing you had to say before you got baptized. Confessing that Jesus was Lord—meaning among other things, that Caesar wasn’t—was basic, bottom-line Christianity right from the start.
    ... N. T. Wright (b. 1948), For All the Saints?: Remembering The Christian Departed, Church Publishing, Inc., 2004, p. 67 (see the book)
    See also Mark 12:17; Luke 20:24-25; Ps. 62:10; Matt. 6:24-25; 13:22; 16:16-17; Mark 4:18-19; Luke 8:14; 12:15; 21:34; John 13:13; Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; 12:3; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; 1 John 2:15-16; Jude 1:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Kingdom is supreme in all the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: the pilgrimage

Friday, May 17, 2024
Meditation:
    As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
    —Luke 24:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The true meaning of faith can be learned only on pilgrimage, and to the end of time the people of God will be the pilgrim people. But this is not an unaccompanied journey. The experience of the believing company is always that of the two disciples who walked to Emmaus on the evening of the first Easter Day: “Jesus himself drew near and went with them.”
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), Jesus Through Many Eyes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976, p. 195 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:15-16; Ps. 39:12; 119:19; Matt. 8:20; Luke 9:58; John 15:19; 17:14-16; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11-12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, when least at home, we are most at home with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Spurgeon: communion with Christ

Thursday, May 16, 2024
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
    —Luke 24:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Above all, feed the flame with intimate fellowship with Christ. No man was ever cold in heart who lived with Jesus on such terms as John and Mary did of old, for he makes men’s hearts burn. I never met with a half-hearted preacher who was much in communion with the Lord Jesus.
    ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), Lectures to My Students, New York: R. Carter & Brothers, 1890, p. 425 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:32; Deut. 4:24; Jer. 23:29; Matt. 3:11; 28:19-20; Luke 3:16; John 6:63; Acts 2:3; Heb. 4:12; 12:29; 13:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Gospel is continually fresh. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warfield: the sign

Wednesday, May 15, 2024
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
    —Matthew 16:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our Lord Himself deliberately staked His whole claim to the credit of men upon His resurrection. When asked for a sign, He pointed to this sign as His single and sufficient credential.
    ... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), The Saviour of the World [1914], Cherry Hill, N.J.: Mack Publishing, 1972, p. 196 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 16:4; Jonah 1:17; Matt. 12:39-40; 16:21; Luke 11:29-30; John 2:19; Acts 1:3; 2:24; 10:39-41; Rom. 1:2-4; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Cor. 1:24; 15:4-8,14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in raising Your Son, You have vindicated all that He said and did. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brent: the meaning of prayer

Tuesday, May 14, 2024
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
    An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
    —Luke 22:42-43 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is not so much the means whereby God’s will is bent to man’s desires, as it is that whereby man’s will is bent to God’s desires... The real end of prayer is not so much to get this or that single desire granted, as to put human life into full and joyful conformity with the will of God.
    ... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), With God in the World [1899], London: Longmans Green, 1914, p. 29-30 (see the book)
    See also Luke 22:42-43; Job 1:20-21; Rom. 12:1-2; Matt. 26:39,42; Mark 14:36; Acts 14:23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, speak peace to me in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dekker: to sing

Monday, May 13, 2024
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
    —John 10:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Grant this, O my God, for thy Son’s sake, Jesus Christ, or if it be thy pleasure to cut me off before night, and that this flower of my youth shall fade in all the beauty of it, yet make me, O my gracious Shepherd, for one of thy Lambs, to whom thou wilt say, Come you blessed, and clothe me in a white robe of righteousness that I may be one of those singers who shall cry to thee Allelluia.
    ... Thomas Dekker (ca. 1572-1632), from Foure Birdes of Noah’s Arke, “The Dove”, The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, v. V, private circulation only, 1886, p. 18 (see the book)
    See also John 10:1-16; Job 29:14; Isa. 40:7; 61:10; Matt. 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7; Rev. 6:11; 19:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I praise You forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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