Tozer: omnipresence

Sunday, July 6, 2025
    Feast of John Huss, Reformer, Martyr, 1415
    Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
    John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535
Meditation:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
    —Psalm 139:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God is present at every point in space, if we cannot go where He is not, cannot even conceive of a place where He is not, why then has not that Presence become the one universally celebrated fact of the world? ... Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948], Christian Publications, 1982, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 139:7-12; 63:8; 73:23; Isa. 41:13; Jer. 23:23-24; Matt. 6:3-4; 10:42
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your presence is all joy to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Laubach: God hates greed

Saturday, July 5, 2025
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “... He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
    —Matthew 5:45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is that spirit of greed which Jesus said God hated more than any other. It is so diametrically opposite to the spirit of God. For God forever lavishes His gifts upon the good and bad alike, and finds all His joy in endless giving.
    ... Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970), from a letter, October 7, 1930, Man of Prayer: Selected Writings of a World Missionary, Laubach Literacy International, 1990, p. 45 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:45; Ps. 112:9; Matt. 7:11; Luke 11:13; 1 Tim. 6:10; Jas. 1:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, replace the greed in my heart with thanksgiving. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bell: Christianity and America

Friday, July 4, 2025
Meditation:
Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
    and the rulers gather together
    against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say,
    “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
    —Psalm 2:1-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As for what the Church thinks and says, what influence does that have on the handling of American politics, the conduct of American education, the regulation of marriage and divorce, on sex and drink, on how industrial disputes are settled, on how we carry on business? As a plain matter of fact, religion in this country is generally regarded as a tolerated pastime for such people as happen to like to indulge in occasional godly exercises—as a strictly private matter in an increasingly close-knit and socially acting society—in other words, as something that does not count. I should like to see the Church recognize that it has been pushed into the realm of the non-essentials, and to persuade it to fight like fury for the right and the duty to bring every act of America and Americans before the bar of God’s judgment.
    [Christian leaders] are making valiant claim to such a right and duty; but the great mass of Church members are content to regard the Church as a conglomerate of private culture clubs, nice for christenings, weddings and funerals. Most Church members readily agree with the unchurched majority that it is not the proper business of the Church to criticize America or Americans.
    ... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), God is Not Dead, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. 121 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 2:1-4; 9:17,19-20; 33:10-11; 46:10; 50:7-10; 82:8; Isa. 1:13-17; 42:1; Amos 5:21-24; Phil. 2:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone are the righteous Judge. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: the bells speak

Thursday, July 3, 2025
    Feast of Thomas the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
    —Matthew 11:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The bells say: we have spoken for centuries from the towers of great Churches. We have spoken to the saints your fathers, in their land. We called them, as we call you, to sanctity. What is the word with which we called them?
    We did not merely say “Be good, come to church.” We did not merely say “Keep the commandments” but above all, “Christ is risen, Christ is risen!” And we said: “Come with us, God is good, salvation is not hard, His love has made it easy!” And this, our message, has always been for everyone, for those who came and for those who did not come, for our song is perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect, and we pour our charity out upon all.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Thoughts in Solitude [1958], Macmillan, 1999, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:29-30; 28:5-6; Luke 2:10; 24:6-7; Rom. 5:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may our hearts ring out with joy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: ferocious charity

Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Meditation:
    Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
    —Mark 10:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We all need at times, some of us at most times, that Charity from others which, being Love Himself in them, loves the unlovable. But this, though a sort of love we need, is not the sort we want. We want to be loved for our cleverness, beauty, generosity, fairness, usefulness. The first hint that anyone is offering us the highest love of all is a terrible shock. This is so well recognized that spiteful people will pretend to be loving us with Charity precisely because they know that it will wound us. To say to one who expects a renewal of Affection, Friendship, or Eros, “I forgive you as a Christian” is merely a way of continuing the quarrel. Those who say it are of course lying. But the thing would not be falsely said in order to wound unless, if it were true, it would be wounding.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Four Loves, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 131-132 (see the book)
    See also Mark 10:21; Ps. 10:2-3; Pr. 14:9; Mic. 7:8-9; Matt. 26:49-50; Mark 14:45; 1 Cor. 13:4-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your love is sometimes like a rebuke. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: seeing troubles rightly

Tuesday, July 1, 2025
    Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873
Meditation:
    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
    —Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, except when we see them in the wrong light. When we see them as dispensed by the hand of God, when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us, our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even a matter of consolation.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Fifteenth Letter, p. 43-44 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:18; Matt. 5:11-12; John 16:33; 2 Cor. 4:17-18; 1 Pet. 1:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You support me in all difficulties. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: miracles

Monday, June 30, 2025
Meditation:
    When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
    —Matthew 14:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    According to the Christian conception, a miracle is wrought by the immediate power of God... by the very God to whom the regularity of nature itself is due—by the God, moreover, whose character is known through the Bible... It is not an uncaused event, but an event that is caused by the very source of all the order that is in the world. It is dependent altogether upon the least arbitrary and most firmly fixed of all the things that are—namely upon the character of God.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), Christianity and Liberalism, The Macmillan Company, 1923, p. 87 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 14:14; Gen. 1:1; Matt. 12:38-39; Mark 16:20; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; 12:7; Heb. 2:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are merciful and compassionate. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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