Tag: Thought to Ponder

This was written by Oswald Chambers.

“My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words.” – I Corinthians 2:4

Paul was a scholar and an orator of the first rank; he is not speaking out of abject humility, but saying that he would veil the power of God if when he preached the gospel he impressed people with his “excellency of speech.” Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the efficacy of Redemption, not by impressiveness of speech, not by wooing and winning, but by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of the Redemption comes through the preaching of the Gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher. The real fasting of the preacher is not from food, but rather from eloquence, from impressiveness and exquisite diction, from everything that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God – “as though God did beseech you by us.” He is there to present the Gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get anywhere near Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching the Gospel will end in making me a traitor to Jesus; I prevent the creative power of His Redemption from doing its work.

I found yesterday’s Oswald Chambers daily to be a good reminder:

“Lovest thou me….feed my sheep.” – John 21:16

Jesus did not say – Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or creed. “If any man comes to me and hate not…, he cannot be my disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply – If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says – “Now I see who Jesus is,” and that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted creedal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus is the source of deep offense to the educated mind of today that does not want him in any other way than as a comrade. The lord’s first obedience was to the will of his father not to the needs of men. The saving of men was the natural outcome of his obedience to his father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will faulter, but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately I can serve humanity though men treat me as a doormat. The secret of a disciples life is devotion to Jesus Christ and the characteristics of the life is it’s unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape.

I thought this was really powerful.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind you work up occasions to sacrifice yourself; ardour is mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2 (“Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, perfect will.”). It is a great deal better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “To obey is better than to sacrifice.” Beware of harking back to what you were once when God wants you be be something you’ve never been.

Ok, today’s thought is sort of an inspiration from several different sources. Mostly, I’ve just got something that I need to say that’s been ruminating in my mind for a while now.

On this day, June 6, 1944, allied forces began the invasion of Normandy. Those men, who were about my age, were there for the purpose of fighting for a victory. For that we honor them and the sacrifice they made. But what I need to tell you is that we are approaching a spiritual D-Day.

I have been a Christian for a very long time, but it took a person who I initially thought was just on this side of spiritual sanity to spark the recognition in my spirit that God and His spirit are so much more that most of us ever dream about even in our wildest fantasies. Sometimes it frightens me at how much more sensitive I have become to certain things. And one of the things that I have is an overwhelming sense of tension. I feel that there is a huge undercurrent happening in my generation; a huge spiritual undercurrent. And I’m both frightened and excited by it.

We’ve been working on our foundation of faith, but we’ve forgotten that we also need to build a roof and walls through spiritual revelation that results from our contact with God. “In Him the whole building (that you and me) is joined together and rises to become a Holy temple.” (Ephesians 2:19-22) We need to come together as his Holy temple and prepare ourselves for the coming storm. We’re going to have to stand together, side by side, in the coming onslaught to the Christian world. A catalyst is coming and it is going to look like it will break us to the foundation, but it’s not. We do not gain strength from the doctrines we’ve set in place, we get our strength from God who is the source of our revelation.

Dan Riley, the pastor of my parents church, said something almost in passing during the service this morning, but it resonated so deeply inside me as truth that I wrote it down before I forgot, “God’s leading us into an era of victory.” Are you ready to walk on the water and storm the shores?

This one came from my back reading of my dalies.

“Behold the birds of the air….the lilies of the field.” – Matthew 6:26-28

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; the simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars and the moon-all these are, and wheat a ministration the exert. So often we mar God’s designed influence through us by our selfconscious effort to be consistent and useful. Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by cocentration on God. “Do not bother about being of use to others, believe on Me” – pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense, and Jesus is teaching that growth in spiritual life does not depend on our watching it, but on concentration on our Father in Heaven. Our heavenly Father knows the circumstances that we are in, and if we keep concentrated on Him we will grow spiritually as the lilies.

The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold us.

If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.

It was absolutely wonderful to be able to go to church today. I was in a different church almost everyday in Italy, but only got to attend mass once. I didn’t understand a word of the Italian service but the singing was beautiful. I’m glad to be back where I can understand what’s being said in church and able to sing along; I really missed it.

Today’s stuff won’t come from my dailies; I need to catch up with my reading. Instead they’ll be recaps of the wonderful messages that I heard this morning in college worship and during the main service. They’re things I’ve heard before, but truth is truth and needs to be proclaimed so here goes.

Rule #1: I’m not now, never was, and never will be perfect while I still live in this fleshly body and world.

Rule #2: God loves me anyway and will work with and through me.

We are told not to unevenly yoke ourselves with other people in this life but he was willing to yoke himself with us. That means that he walks at our pace one step at a time and supports us when we stumble and fall flat on our faces. Because he walks with us, he knows our troubles intimately and is still willing to share our burdens. In fact, he tells us to let him handle the burdens for us; how amazing is that?

We cannot attain righteousness; we cannot be good enough. When you start to think that your life is pretty good in comparison to the rest of life and man, then you have fallen in to a self righteousness that is sin. God does not compare us to each other, why do we insist on doing so? God sees the heart of each individual person, their failings, desires, hopes dreams and even nightmares. He treats us as individuals; we need to realize that each and every one of us is wonderfully unique and incomparable especially when it comes to spirituality.

Being religious is nothing more than practicing a counterfeit Christianity. I would rather live in a hole and know my Lord than live in the most beautiful house, go to the most beautiful church (and I’ve seen quite a few), and go through the empty motions of an empty religion. Life is about relationships and so is Christianity.

Christian life does not come out of a book or a duty to pray at a certain time everyday. Ever heard of “pray constantly” and “walk humbly with your God”? Those are supposed to be continual things throughout your day no matter whether you’re in church on Sunday morning or walking around in a grocery store on Thursday evening. Worship is our response to God’s presence and he shows up anywhere and at any time. Rejoice and be glad always! We have a living Lord who loves.

We need to peel off the layers of quick spiritual fixes that we’ve applied to cover up our dirty surfaces. Let the healer cut deep, remove the gangrene that’s eating away at you and rekindle a love of life and neighbor in your heart. Let’s be religious people in recovery together; let’s stop trying to fill our own cups and drink from the overflowing cup of Christ. Only his cup is sufficient for everything.

Commit yourself to truth and you will never be the same again.

Just a couple of thoughts and prayers from yesterday…

Pentecost was the feast of the first fruits harvest. Now I might be completely behind but it had never clicked in my mind before just how important that day was and I am not referring to the numerical facts that it was seven weeks after Christ’s death or other such significant calculations. I was either completely oblivious or not paying attention close enough when all my previous teachers mentioned that Pentecost was the feast of first fruits. I find it absolutely amazing that God poured himself out on the people during this particular feast day, which normally lasted only one day; two at the very most. I am hearing from many different sources that we are in a time of harvest and the reapers are few. There is such a large harvest waiting for the picking but I think we need a new outpouring of God so that we can see it and come back to him with our own first fruits harvest. Lord, rain down your spirit on our stagnating society, Renew our minds, hearts and souls so that we will be able to see the harvest and be willing to reap it.

Also, I would just like to remind you that because we have Jesus, we have the power of the spirit. Quit trying to shift the responsibility and figuring out who would be the best person for the job; in our weakness he is strong. He doesn’t want our strength he wants our obedience and trust. Furthermore, do not offer up false humility by focusing on what you once were and what you could not attain without God. He is with you! Go out and do something and give Him all the glory!

I thought that this was a wonderful analogy for consecration that came up in one of my dailies. The author was speaking to a physician at a large hospital.

Suppose, in going your rounds among your patients, you should meet with one man who entreated you earnestly to take his case under your especial care in order to cure him, but who should at the same time refuse to tell you all his symptoms or take all your prescribed remedies, and should say to you, “I am quite willing to follow your directions as to certain things, because they commend themselves to my mind as good, but in other matters I prefer judging for myself, and following my own directions.” What would you do in such a case?

Do!…I could do nothing for him unless he would put his whole case into my hands without any reserves, and would obey my directions implicitly.

It is necessary, then, for doctors to be obeyed if they are to have any chance to cure the patient?

Implicitly obeyed!

And that is consecration. God must have the whole case put into his hands without any reserves.

This came from my Christian Women Dailie. I thought that it was a good reminder.

Getting married or raising children does not completely fulfill woman. Having a career does not produce peace. Neither prestige nor power brings purpose. Money can’t make a happy atmosphere at the breakfast table.

What is the purpose of it all? I believe a woman is just spinning her wheels until she is fulfilled by the Ultimate, God Himself. He is the only one who can get it all together. He is the only one who can keep it there. He is the only one who can make you complete – total. He is the only one who can give you a good attitude all the time. And best of all, He offers you a possibility of a life of no regrets.

It’s so comforting to remember where my true strength lies, especially now that life has gotten a little bit more complicated. God is so good, and it is good to be reminded when I start to lose my focus. If my focus stays on him, everything else falls into place and I can excel. Lord, help me to keep my focus where it needs to be, not on school, not on work, not on my engagement and upcoming wedding, but on you for you are the only thing worthy of my complete focus.

Yesterday’s daily from My Utmost for His Highest was a particular blessing to me and I thought I would share the whole thing.

And he…wondered that there was no intercessor. – Isaiah 59:16

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together; the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God – “I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s thrown and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ.

Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

“But there is no one interceding properly” – then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.