Love Salvation, But Chriatianity's Tough February 28, 2015

For many of us the assurance of an eternity spent in heaven may be the most glorious thing about become a Christian.  The restoration of the relationship with God may take top honors for other Believers.  The benefits of becoming a Christian are boundless.  However, living the Christian life not always so much fun.

That whole, "Love your neighbor as yourself" thing. (Mark 5:31)  You take my coat, I am supposed to give you my shirt also! ( Luke 6:31)  If someone has something against me, I am to go to him? (Matthew 5:23) 

Today my obedience to God was uncomfortable, but once I had pushed through the discomfort, I was able to let go of some negative.

This morning I had to take our little camper to a local car audio shop to get the DVD player repaired.  The events leading up to this morning's appointment had been fraught with folly, so I was already a bit on edge.  When I went to pick up the camper, it was sitting outside with the door open and show piling up in side on the mattresses.  That was the final straw.

When I went in to pay, I let them know displeased I was and they would no longer receive any of my business.  (I bet the threat of my $49.00 missing from their bottom line still has them shaking.)  I didn't yell, swear, or threaten, but my tone of voice and demeanor were far from Christ like.

As soon as I walked out the door, I know I blew it.  I tried to rationalize.  I tried to justify.  I tried to ignore.  But that still small voice kept pecking away.  I knew I needed to call the gentleman I was working with at the dealership and apologize, but that was uncomfortable.

"They had left the door open."
"Call and apologize."
"I am not ever going to go back anyway."
"Call and apologize."
"I didn't swear or yell."
"Call and apologize."

Within the hour, it was clear that the voice inside my head wasn't going to shut until I called.  Then butterflies, I called.  Thankfully the person I needed to speak with answered the phone.  He was very gracious in accepting my apology.  Immediately I felt better.  A weight was lifted.

Did they make a mistake?  Yes.  Will I go ever go back?  No.  Was my anger pleasing to God?  No  Was He pleased with my obedience?  Yes.  At the end of the day, the call was tough to make, but the peace that followed made it worthwhile.

Lack of a Dipper February 26, 2015

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep." John 4:11 ESV

Noah had faith an built an arc even before he had ever experienced rain.  Abraham laid his son Isaac on an alter before God showed him the ram in the bushes.  Peter stepped out of the boat onto the water based on Jesus' word alone.  

In Matthew Jesus told his disciples, "I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Throughout the Bible faith is shown to be more than just a way to heaven.  It empowers puny humans to accomplish supernatural feats- Paul healed a man who had never walked, Peter walked on water, Joshua collapsed a city with horns and shouts.  In many of the stories where people perform miracles, there is one constant.  They are never told the "how".  God reveals what they should do and perhaps the outcome, but the how is not revealed.

In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  The woman failed to see what Christ was offering her, but instead focused on the mechanics, the "how".  


“Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep."

How many blessings  have we missed in our lives because we get caught up in the how?  I would give to that ministry, but how will we pay our cable bill?  I would teach that Sunday school class, but how will I have time for all my Sunday afternoon chores?  We might profess to believe God can.  We might agree that God will.  But get caught up on needing to understand the how.

The how is His concern.  Our concern is obedience.  If we will obey, God will take care of the hows.

February 25, 2015

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39 ESV

Mice and Men February 24, 2015

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

What a comforting verse.  God's plans for us are pleasing, profitable, positive.  God wants to give us good things, not evil.  With Him we have "a future and a hope".  As I was pondering the implications of this verse, a secular saying came to mind: "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

If God's plans for us are for the best, why do so many of His children live life with less than that?  Is it because God does not have the power to implement  His plans?  No, He is omnipotent.  Perhaps God has overlooked something in His plans for us.  That's not it.  He is omniscience.  Maybe He was not being truthful when He made the promise in Jeremiah.  Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2, and Numbers 23:19 all remind is that God is incapable of lying.  So dishonesty on God's part is not the issue.

Since God posses the wisdom, power, and integrity to give us only the best, then when we experience anything less, the fault must be ours.  
  
Weight Watchers International had profits of $1,800,000,000 (that's billion) in 2012.  The diet and weight loss industry grossed $61,000,000,000 that same year.  Over 1 million people attended 40,000 WW meetings each week last year but the average annual weight loss was only 5 pounds.  Not much payback for a lot of time and money.  Yet U.S. News and World Report ranked WW as the number one plan for weight loss.  Something's amiss.

The fault is not with the plan, but with the implementation.  People don't stick to the plan. They continue to snack, skip exercise, eat unhealthy foods, and a myriad of other plan-dooming behaviors.

God does have the very best planned for His children.  His plans are for us to prosper.  His plan is for all to come to a life-giving relationship with Him.  But He will not foist His plans on us.  We are creatures with a freewill.  He will allow us to trade riches for poverty.  Although it breaks God's heart, He won't keep us from wrecking our lives.  He allows addiction, adultery, and avarice. 

When your life is filled with less than the best, it is not God who deserves the blame.  We have deviated from His plan.  Return to your knees.  Seek His path.  Search for His will.  When we walk in obedience, then, and only then, will we discover the best and brightest. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/10/29/americans-new-way-of-losing-weight-left-weight-watchers-behind/ 

 

Servanthood February 23, 2015

The Determination to Serve 

²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, Matthew 20:28 ESV

Paul’s idea of service is the same as our Lord’s: “I am among you as He that serveth”; “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the “door-mat” of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. “I know how to be abased,” says Paul. This is Paul’s idea of service—“I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference. So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does.” The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men. 

Paul’s realisation of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious”—no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realise that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 38). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

While I imagine that most every scripture has practical application, there are sections of the Holy Writ that seem more esoteric than others.  However, today's verse is not one of those.  Christians are called to serve.  We are not better than others.  Ours is a mission of serving, helping, assisting.  Whether it is in spiritual realms or secular endeavors, we are servants.

I especially like Chambers line, "their spiritual leaders, not their superior".  Each of us has some role of leadership.  As a principal, I am the leader of a building, but not superior to the teachers.  Classroom teachers are the leaders of the students, but not their superior.  A father is the leader of the family, but not superior to the other members of the family.  A person may have organizational superiority in a company, but that does not extend to personhood superiority.

February 21, 2015

February 20, 2015

Divine Drudgery February 19, 2015

The Initiative against Drudgery 

Arise, shine. Isaiah 60:1 ESV

We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one. We must do the thing and not lie like a log. If we will arise and shine, drudgery becomes divinely transfigured.

Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character there is. Drudgery is work that is very far removed from anything to do with the ideal—the utterly mean, grubby things; and when we come in contact with them we know instantly whether or not we are spiritually real. Read John 13; we see there the Incarnate God doing the most desperate piece of drudgery, washing fishermen’s feet, and He says—“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it. Some people do a certain thing, and the way in which they do it hallows that thing for ever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it. Our Lord took on Him our human flesh and transfigured it, and it has become for every saint the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 35-36). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Over the years, I have heard several sermons delivered about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.  Generally the focus is on one of two things:  the servant mindset demonstrated by Christ, or that we only need a spiritual footwashing after salvation, not a heat-to-toe bath.  Chambers emphasizes another aspect of the event: drudgery.

As Chambers points out, drudgery is work that is of the most base, mundane type imaginable.  Yes Christ emphasized the importance of serving others, but he could have done that by serving them dinner, hemming their tunics, or mending fishing nets.  Yet the Incarnate God chose the "most desperate piece of drudgery".  Yet that act of servitude has become one of the most recounted tales from the life of Christ.  God transfigured drudgery into divine.  The humble became holy.  The common became Christ-like.

Whatever the task, low or great, if we are obedient in our service to Him,

Eat a Burger February 17, 2015

The Initiative against Depression

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 1 Kings 19:5 ESV

The angel did not give Elijah a vision, or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable; he told Elijah to do the most ordinary thing, viz., to get up and eat. If we were never depressed we should not be alive; it is the nature of a crystal never to be depressed. A human being is capable of depression, otherwise there would be no capacity for exaltation. There are things that are calculated to depress, things that are of the nature of death; and in taking an estimate of yourself, always take into account the capacity for depression. When the Spirit of God comes He does not give us visions; He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable. Depression is apt to turn us away from the ordinary commonplace things of God’s creation, but whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple things—the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there. The inspiration which comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression; we have to do the next thing and to do it in the inspiration of God. If we do a thing in order to overcome depression, we deepen the depression; but if the Spirit of God makes us feel intuitively that we must do the thing, and we do it, the depression is gone. Immediately we arise and obey, we enter on a higher plane of life.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 34-35). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

How often I have looked, prayed, and hoped for the miraculous.  A life-altering revelation.  A career- changing bit of new learning.  A self-improvement lightening bolt.  God can work in these ways, but more often it is through the day-to-day "ordinary" obedience that God works to improve, transform, and renew.

While the Bible is replete with miraculous visions and occurrences, it also reminds us that God works through the mundane.

Daniel just ate a healthy diet.  The disciples went fishing.  Haggai wrote letters.

We can spend our lives looking for flashes of lightening, reports of thunder, and paths through seas, or we can take walks, enjoy meals, and fellowship with friends. God is just as easily found in a spring breeze as He is in a lion's den.

First Step February 16, 2015

The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative 

“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14 ESV

All initiative is not inspired. A man may say to you—“Buck up, take your disinclination by the throat, throw it overboard, and walk out into the thing!” That is ordinary human initiative. But when the Spirit of God comes in and says, in effect, “Buck up,” we find that the initiative is inspired. We all have any number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power to make them real.

We cannot do the things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come and say—“Arise from the dead.” When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do the “bucking up.” God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says—“Arise from the dead,” we have to get up; God does not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand—“Stretch forth thy hand,” and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because He gives life immediately.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 33-34). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

"He gives us life as we overcome."  No matter the urgency of the call.  Regardless of the loftiness of the mission.  If we don't take the first step, nothing will ever get done.  Had the man with the withered hand refused to flex his fingers, the gift from Christ would have been for naught.


Moses' faith would have been empty if he had not laid Isaac on the alter.  Peter's trust in Jesus would have been hollow had he stayed in the boat.

God speaks.  We must act.  The Holy Spirit prods.  It is our duty to obey.

Quiet Darkness February 14, 2015

The Discipline of Heeding

²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.  Matthew 10:27 ESV

At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God’s hand until we learn to hear Him. “What I tell you in darkness”—watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there, keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason of the darkness, but listen and heed. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.

After every time of darkness there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation (if there is delight only, I question whether we have heard God at all), delight in hearing God speak, but chiefly humiliation—“What a long time I was in hearing that! How slow I have been in understanding that! And yet God has been saying it all these days and weeks.” Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 32). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-10 tells us there is a season for all things: birth and death, tears and laughter, war and peace.  Also in that list is a time to speak and a time to be quiet.

Chambers points out that one of those times for silence is when we are in a dark place.  That darkness can be in "your circumstances, or in your life with God."  All too often when I am in a dark place I will seek the counsel of others and unload.  Is the purpose of this truly cathartic or a "holy excuse" to bemoan my situation or talk down another?  When I do approach another for counsel during these dark times, I usually get more riled up after having talked about the situation.

Isaiah tells us that Jesus will be called "Wonderful Counselor."  Isaiah 9:6  What need have we of a human gripe session if the most Wonderful Counselor is but a prayer away?  Why choose a fleeting friend, and all friends are fleeting, when the "friend that sticks closer than a brother" resides within?  Proverbs 18:24

There are times when godly counsel should be sought, when another set of eyes on a problem or decision would be advantageous.  But be judicious in those times.  Strive to keep those times productive, not destructive.  Only seek out human insight after you have listened, prayed, and cried out in the darkness to the Wonderful Counselor.  If He is not able to calm, correct, or direct, what hope have we that another could do any better?

Before the Rain February 11, 2015

Is Your Hope in God Faint and Dying? 

³ You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    Isaiah 26:3 ESV

Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker’s life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and be saved. Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us, and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature—the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

“We have sinned with our fathers . . . [and] remembered not”—then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. “God is not talking to me just now,” but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 30). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Today's entry from Chambers is very similar to yesterday's.  I have highlighted the line that stood out to me.  It reminded me that we cannot be spiritually ready for trials and troubles if we wait until those times to practice spiritual disciplines.  Chambers points out that it is our spiritual habits that prepare us for those inevitable challenges in life.

It is interesting that in many areas of our lives we practice preparation.  Driving range before match play.  401K before retirement.  Lesson plan before the bell.  Yet when it comes to our spiritual disciplines, we often wait until sickness, divorce, or depression before we get serious about our daily walk with God.

God has assured us there will be times of trouble. 
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 
James 1:2 ESV (italics mine)

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. John 16:33 ESV

If we wait until those times arrive to draw near to Him, we are at a tremendous disadvantage.  Pray before problems. Meditate before misfortune.  Only then can we say with confidence, "when the time of trial comes, your faith and the Spirit of God will work together."

Wonder February 10, 2015

^{Is Your Imagination of God Starved?}

^{26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens Isaiah 40:26 ESV}

<sup>The people of God in Isaiah’s day had starved their imagination by looking on the face of idols, and Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their imagination aright. Nature to a saint is sacramental. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature. In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realise it. 

The test of spiritual concentration is bringing the imagination into captivity. Is your imagination looking on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Your work? Your conception of what a worker should be? Your experience of salvation and sanctification? Then your imagination of God is starved, and when you are up against difficulties you have no power, you can only endure in darkness. If your imagination is starved, do not look back to your own experience; it is God Whom you need. Go right out of yourself, away from the face of your idols, away from everything that has been starving your imagination. Rouse yourself, take the gibe that Isaiah gave the people, and deliberately turn your imagination to God. 

One of the reasons of stultification in prayer is that there is no imagination, no power of putting ourselves deliberately before God. We have to learn how to be broken bread and poured-out wine on the line of intercession more than on the line of personal contact. Imagination is the power God gives a saint to posit himself out of himself into relationships he never was in.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 29-30). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.</sup>


Educators are bemoaning the loss of imagination and creativity in our current crop of school children.  The ability/willingness of kids to make up games, write without a prompt, and think outside the box is slowly being eroded not only by schools, but society as well.  Xboxes have replaced cardboard boxes.  Direct TV has replaced hide and seek.  Standardized testing has trumped creative writing.

In a now famous study, a group of kindergartners were asked to think of all the possible ways to use a paperclip.  As kindergarten students, the scores ranged in the "genius" level for divergent thinking.   However, when that the same group of students were tested at different times in their scholastic career, their scores on this "test" were lower each time.  What this and other students have shown is that as we get older, our willingness to use our imagination declines.

In Matthew 18:3, Christ tells his disciples, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Perhaps we need to revert to our childhood awe and imagination when coming before the throne of God.  Let's look at the night sky with wonder.  Let's once again become enthralled with a spring flower.  Let's dance with joy in a spring rain.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Paperclip discussion at approx. 8 minutes into the video. 

Making a List February 9, 2015

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. 2 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV

Get a pen and paper.  Go on.  No, I am not kidding. Do you have a them yet?  Good.

Now list all the people in your life for which you are thankful- past and present.  But don't just rush through that list.  Beside each one write 2-3 things about which you most thankful in regards to that person.  Make this list prayfully thanking God for the people on your list and their value in your life.

As I did this exercise, I found my prayers of thankfulness turned into prayers of intercession for many on the list.  A word of gratitude for this person brought to mind a need he or she had.  In some cases I was convicted to reach out to that person with a call or note.

We are accustomed to thanking God for spiritual and material things.  Let's not forget to thank Him for people as well.

"Hopelessly Insignificant" February 5, 2015

Are You Ready to Be Offered? 

¹⁷ Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.  Philippians 2:17 ESV

Are you willing to be offered for the work of the faithful—to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith of others? Or do you say—“I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’” It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people’s feet. Suppose God wants to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased”—are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket—to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 26). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

There are days I read Chambers and question.  There are other days when I expound.  Some days I ponder and pontificate.  Then there are there those days when I just say, "Wow!"  Today is one of those days.

Misguided Prayers February 4, 2015

The Overmastering Majesty of Personal Power 

   

¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us. . .  2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV 

  
Paul says he is overruled, overmastered, held as in a vice, by the love of Christ. Very few of us know what it means to be held in a grip by the love of God; we are held by the constraint of our experience only. The one thing that held Paul, until there was nothing else on his horizon, was the love of God. “The love of Christ constraineth us”—when you hear that note in a man or woman, you can never mistake it. You know that the Spirit of God is getting unhindered way in that life. 

When we are born again of the Spirit of God, the note of testimony is on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost obliterates that for ever, and we begin to realise what Jesus meant when He said—“Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do—that is an elementary witness—but “witnesses unto Me.” We will take everything that happens as happening to Him, whether it be praise or blame, persecution or commendation. No one can stand like that for Jesus Christ who is not constrained by the majesty of His personal power. It is the only thing that matters, and the strange thing is that it is the last thing realised by the Christian worker. Paul says he is gripped by the love of Christ; that is why he acts as he does. Men may call him mad or sober, but he does not care; there is only one thing he is living for, and that is to persuade men of the judgement seat of God, and of the love of Christ. This abandon to the love of Christ is the one thing that bears fruit in the life, and it will always leave the impression of the holiness and of the power of God, never of our personal holiness.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 25-26). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition. 

Each morning when I spend time in prayer at least a part of my prayer contains the phrase, "Lord, help me (fill in the blank)"  Perhaps it is to meet a work deadline.  Handle a work situation in the right way.  Work on extinguishing a bad habit.  Get along with _____ better.  As I read Chambers' entry for today, it occurred to me that my prayers all these years have had the wrong focus.

God, please help "me".  There is that first-person pronoun.  My prayers imply that I am the most important part of the equation.  "I will do it God, you just need to help me.  You give me the assist, but I will bring it on home."  Only when I allow God to absolutely control me will my life ever bear any true, lasting spiritual fruit.

One hallmark of the Christian faith is the belief in our right to choose.  We can choose to become children of Light.  We can choose to please God.  We can choose to sin.  But we are only truly pleasing to our Father when we give up that right to choose.  We freely abandon our rights.  We relinquish any thought of self-determination.

Paul wrote the love of Christ controlled him.  He no longer made his own decisions.  He no longer determined his comings and goings.  Each step, each word, each thought was subjected to God's control.  Our lives should be so controlled, so directed, so ruled by the Spirit of God we would appear to be marionettes.  Each string of thought, word, and deed pulled by the Master Marionette. 

So Easy Yet So Hard February 2, 2015

The Constraint of the Call

¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!  1 Corinthians 9:16  ESV

Beware of stopping your ears to the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact; but that is not the call to preach, it is merely an illustration in preaching. Paul is referring to the pangs produced in him by the constraint to preach the Gospel. Never apply what Paul says in this connection to souls coming in contact with God for salvation. There is nothing easier than getting saved because it is God’s sovereign work—“Come unto Me and I will save you.” Our Lord never lays down the conditions of discipleship as the conditions of salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Jesus Christ. Discipleship has an option with it—“IF any man . . .” Paul’s words have to do with being made a servant of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated unto the gospel” means to hear the call of God; and when a man begins to overhear that call, then begins agony that is worthy of the name. Every ambition is nipped in the bud, every desire of life quenched, every outlook completely extinguished and blotted out, saving one thing only—“separated unto the gospel.” Woe be to the soul who tries to put his foot in any other direction when once that call has come to him. This College exists to see whether God has any man or woman here who cares about proclaiming His Gospel; to see whether God grips you. And beware of competitors when God does grip you.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 24). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.



"There is nothing easier than getting saved because it is God’s sovereign work—'Come unto Me and I will save you.'”   While I agree in theory, in application I disagree.  Yes, salvation requires no work, no effort, no gifts on our part, but that doesn't mean it is easy.  Perhaps the hardest thing we can ever do is admit we are sinners.  We are damned.  We are not in control.  Salvation is not available until we can face our failures as a human being.  That is no easy thing.  In fact it is that inability to admit our brokenness that keeps the check-in desk at Hotel Hell a bustling place.


"Our Lord never lays down the conditions of discipleship as the conditions of salvation."  I love this line.  It is a truism that is missed by many non Christians.  "To become a Christian I have to ______."   " In order to get to heaven I will have to give up ______."  Does today's church really believe what Chambers wrote decades ago?  Can a person be a Christian and still struggle with alcoholism?  Are any homosexuals heaven-bound?  Do we directly or indirectly place additional requirements on salvation other than belief in the cleansing blood of Christ?

??? February 1, 2015

The Call of God 

¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. . .  1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV

Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel; but remember what Paul means by “the gospel” viz., the reality of Redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are apt to make sanctification the end-all of our preaching. Paul alludes to personal experience by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are nowhere commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification; we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (John 12:32). It is a travesty to say that Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to redeem the whole world, and place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God. The fact that Redemption can be experienced by us is an illustration of the power of the reality of Redemption, but that is not the end of Redemption. If God were human, how sick to the heart and weary He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation, for our sanctification. We tax His energies from morning till night for things for ourselves—something for me to be delivered from! When we touch the bedrock of the reality of the Gospel of God, we shall never bother God any further with little personal plaints. The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heart-breaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.

Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (p. 23). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Perhaps the First Baptist Church of Bolivar led me astray, but I have always believed that the Gospel message is one of salvation.  In fact is that not the Great Commision- to go forth and make disciples? 

While I agree with Chambers that sanctification is not the message the world needs prior to salvation, is not salvation the very message that needs be preached?  What am I missing?

I also take exception with Chamber's line, "We tax His energies from morning till night for things for ourselves--something for me to be delivered from!"  Many of the Psalm written by David, a man after God's own heart, are about salvation for himself from various trials and travails.  When Christ taught his disciples to pray, there was a personal aspect.  Even Christ cried out to His Father for strength and guidance.  It seems as if Chambers is downplaying, even ridiculing, prayers for personal strength, salvation, and sanctification.  Perhaps I am not interpreting things correctly.

Thoughts?