Palau: no separation

Sunday, March 9, 2025
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
    —2 Corinthians 1:3-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No matter how great our burdens or how deep our pain, God is able to comfort us. No matter how severe the pressures of daily life, they can’t separate us from the tenderness and compassion of our Heavenly Father.
    ... Luis Palau (1934-2021), Time to Stop Pretending, with Stephen and Amanda Sorenson, Victor Books, 1985, p. 20 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 1:3-6; Ps. 40:1-3; 116:3-7; 126:5-6; Isa. 25:8; 35:10; 57:18-19; Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:21; John 16:20-22; Rev. 21:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your compassion is endless. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Studdert Kennedy: Christ in a box

Saturday, March 8, 2025
    Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
    —Luke 12:49-51 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No body worries about Christ so long as He can be kept shut up in Churches. He is quite safe there, but there is always trouble if you try to let Him out.
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Word and the Work, Longmans, Green, 1934, p. 66 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:49-51; Matt. 10:34-36; Luke 22:36-38; John 18:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the only safety is in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Weil: preferring the truth

Friday, March 7, 2025
    Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
Meditation:
    [Jesus praying to the Father:] “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
    —John 17:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For it seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.
    ... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting for God, Emma Craufurd, tr., Putnam, 1951, p. 69 (see the book)
    See also John 17:17; Gen. 32:24-29; Ps. 31:5; 145:18; Pr. 23:23; John 4:23-24; 8:31-32; 14:6,16-17; 16:13; 18:37-38; 1 Cor. 13:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Do I trust God to be the truth? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barna: the lack of zeal

Thursday, March 6, 2025
Meditation:
    Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
    —Galatians 1:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It occurred to me that in our work with secular organizations, the leader shapes the heart and passion of the corporate entity. In our work with non-profit organizations, we have found the same principle to be operative. When it comes to the focus of the organization, the people who serve there tend to take on many of the core personality traits of the leader toward fulfilling the mandate of the organization. If this is true, and most churches seem to lack the fervor and focus for evangelism, is it reasonable to conclude that it may be because of the lack of zeal most pastors have for identifying, befriending, loving and evangelizing non-Christian people?
    ... George Barna (b. 1955), Evangelism that Works, Gospel Light Pubns., 1995, Regal Books, 1995, p. 90 (see the book)
    See also Acts 11:22-26; Gal. 1:10; Jude 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your people that we may each take the Gospel to the world to which we are called. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Peter the Damascene: remember

Wednesday, March 5, 2025
    Ash Wednesday
Meditation:
    Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    —Ephesians 5:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When you see the light, do not forget Him who gave it to you; when you see the sky, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, marvel at these things and glorify their Creator; when you put on clothing, acknowledge whose gift it is and praise Him who in His providence has given you life. In short, if everything you do becomes for you an occasion for glorifying God, you will be praying unceasingly. And in this way your soul will always rejoice.
    ... Peter the Damascene (12th c.), Philokalia, v. III, St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, St. Makarios of Corinth & Kallistos Ware, G. E. H. Palmer, and Philip Sherrard, trs., Faber & Faber, 1984, reprint, Macmillan, 1986, p. 173 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 5:19-20; Ps. 86:12; Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; 15:5-6; 2 Cor. 9:15; Phil. 4:6; 1 Thess. 5:17-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, increase my prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pierce: the broken Heart

Tuesday, March 4, 2025
    Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Meditation:
    A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
    Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
    —Mark 1:40-41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart.
    ... Robert Pierce (1914-1978)
    See also Isa. 53:3; Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; Col. 3:12; Heb. 4:15; 5:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, refill my heart with Your compassion. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buechner: downside up

Monday, March 3, 2025
Meditation:
The LORD is my shepherd,
    I shall not be in want.
    —Psalm 23:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If the Lord is indeed our shepherd, then everything goes topsy-turvy. Losing becomes finding and crying becomes laughing. The last become first and the weak become strong. Instead of life being done in by death in the end as we always supposed, death is done in finally by life in the end. If the Lord is our host at the great feast, then the sky is the limit.
    ... Frederick Buechner (1926-2022), Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, Zondervan, 2007, p. 130 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 23:1; Matt. 10:39; 20:16; John 10:11; 1 Cor. 15:54-55
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, our hope is solely in You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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