Untroubled Relationship
29 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Oswald Chambers Tags: Baptism with the Holy Spirit, God, holyspirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Lord, Pentecost
In that day you will ask in My name . . . for the Father Himself loves you . . . —John 16:26-27
“. . . whatever you ask the Father in My name . . .” (John 16:23). “That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship—”. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).
“. . . He will give you” (John 16:23). Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers. What a great challenge and invitation—to pray in His name! Through the resurrection and ascension power of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit He has sent, we can be lifted into such a relationship. Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name—in His nature. This is a gift granted to us through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said, “. . . whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested and proved by His own statements.
http://utmost.org/untroubled-relationship/
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Unquestion Revelation
28 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Oswald Chambers Tags: Christ, God, God the Father, Holy Spirit, Jesu, John, Life of Jesus in the New Testament, Lord
In that day you will ask Me nothing —John 16:23
“In that day” there may be any number of things still hidden to your understanding, but they will not come between your heart and God. “In that day you will ask Me nothing”— you will not need to ask, because you will be certain that God will reveal things in accordance with His will. The faith and peace of John 14:1 has become the real attitude of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature— that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”
http://utmost.org/unquestion-revelation/
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The Delight of Despair
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Oswald Chambers Tags: Christ, Christianity, God, Hope, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Lord Jesus
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead —Revelation 1:17
“He laid His right hand on me . . .” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells . . .” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
How Science Helps Religion
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in O Christian.com Tags: Christ, God, Jesu, John, Lord Jesus Christ, Peter, Peter Bell, Roman
And the earth helped the woman–Rev 12:16
One hears a great deal from many different quarters of the conflict of science and religion. It might be well if we heard a little more of the various ways in which science has helped faith. Of this help in the realm of applied science one scarcely needs to speak. It was science which built those mighty Roman highways which, at the Advent, carried the Gospel everywhere. And how railways and steamships and cars and planes have been the servants of missionary work is a familiar fact in all Christendom. To the scientific concept of the printing press the debt of the Gospel is incalculable. It has scattered the tidings of the Savior to the remotest corners of the world. And if our missionaries can live and labor now in regions that were once the white man’s grave, we owe it to the activities of science. Such facts are familiar to us all, and there is little need to dwell on them. In the evangelization of the world, applied science has been a powerful helper. But there are other and perhaps deeper ways, more vital than such applications in which, in the language of St. John, the earth has helped the woman.
Jesus Had a Scientific Mind
To begin with, modern science has taught us that it is our duty to look facts in the face, never to come to them with preconceptions, never to shut our eyes to anything. In that respect, I venture to suggest that our blessed Lord had a scientific mind. He never came to things with preconceptions; He never shut His eyes to anything. He saw the vultures gathering by the carcass as well as the chickens gathering to their mother. He saw the tiny sparrow falling dead as well as the sparrow happy in its nesting. No man can have the mind of Christ who has not the courage to have the eyes of Christ. He rejected the traditions of men and saw things for Himself. And is not that the method of all modern science by which it has found the wonder of the world–to reject the traditions of the fathers and see things for itself?. Science has done that with nature, and doing it has won her victories. The world has proved itself a thousand times more marvelous than the traditions of the fathers ever dreamed. Jesus did that with men and women, with the Magdalene, with Peter, with Zaccheus, and in a deep sense, we are saved by being seen.
Science and Jesus Teach Surrender
That thought of method may be pushed a little further, and I do so in the words of Huxley. “It seems to me,” said Huxley, “that science teaches in the clearest manner the truth embedded in the Christian thought of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before the fact as a little child (the very word is Christ’s), be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever end nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.” Now tell me, what is the essence of religion, I mean on the side of the response of man? Is it not summed up in this single word, entire surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ? As evangelical preachers constantly proclaim, it is not enough merely to admire Him. It is not enough, gazing on His beauty, to call Him the Altogether Lovely. You must trust Him, become a little child, yield yourself to Him in full surrender, if peace and power and liberty and knowledge are ever to possess the soul. Now when the preacher proclaims that, there are those who say, “I don’t believe it. I’m captain of my soul and master of my fate. I am free. I am going to stand upon my feet.” Then comes the scientist (our supposed enemy) and says, “Friend, you’re in the wrong, the preacher’s right. The only way to peace and power and knowledge is the childlike way of full surrender.” So the earth helps the woman. So science corroborates our faith. The scientist finds that he is more than conqueror, in precisely the same way as the believer. And yet men talk, till one is sick of it, of the conflict between science and religion.
Faith Is Basic to Everything
Lastly, science helps religion by the new majesty that it has given to faith. That may seem a daring thing to say: let me explain my meaning. A Christian is a man who lives by faith–as a simple matter of fact we all do that. You cannot mail a letter without faith; without faith you cannot board a train. But a Christian is a man who takes that faith which runs like a thread of gold through all our life and centers it on the Lord Jesus Christ for time and for eternity. Now there are not a few who hold that science is the enemy of faith; that the more you expand the realm of exact knowledge, the more you contract the realm of faith. Whereas the truth is, the more that knowledge grows in a universe which thrills with the Divine, the more does faith become imperative and wonderful. Things do not grow less mysterious, they grow more mysterious as knowledge widens. To Peter Bell the primrose is a weed: to Tennyson the wallcress is a microcosm. The faith of a Lord Kelvin (as I who was his student know) is a thousand times larger and more wonderful than the faith of the untutored savage. When I think of the presuppositions on which the chemist builds, of the postulates demanded by the physicist, of the invisibilities that science reaches when she resolves matter into energy, I feel that science is founded upon faith as truly as the life of the believer. So my hope is that in coming days science and religion will be at peace again. Like righteousness and peace in the old psalm, the dawn is breaking when they will kiss each other. Then with blended voices, they will lift their common praise to Him, Whose we are, and Whom we serve.
http://devotionals.ochristian.com/george-h-morrison-devotional-sermons-devotional.shtml
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The Explanation For Our Difficulties
22 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Oswald Chambers Tags: God, God the Father, Gospel of Matthew, Jesu, Jesus Christ, John, Prayer, That they all may be one
. . . that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . . —John 17:21
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “. . . that they all may be one . . . .”
Join the Revolution
19 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Joe Stowell Tags: Charlie, Charlie Brown, Cruise ship, Deckchair, Jesus, John, Lucy, Peanuts
“I am the way…” John 14:6
In one of my all-time favorite Peanuts cartoons, Charlie Brown is standing on the deck of a cruise ship with a rather disheartened look on his face clutching his unfolded deck chair. Lucy, who always seems to have it all together, has already unfolded her deck chair and is waxing eloquently about life. She says to Charlie that some people set the deck chairs of life to look at all that has gone by, others set their deck chairs to look at all that is in the here and now, and that still others position their chairs to look at all that is ahead. To which Charlie responds, “I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded.”
My guess is that we’ve all had days when we feel more like Charlie Brown than Lucy. Down deep inside—sometimes way down deep inside—there is this nagging feeling that we don’t quite have life figured out. That when we are really honest with ourselves, life isn’t all we thought it would be. Shouldn’t there be something more than the endless to-do lists? And, why does the pressure to perform and prosper make us feel like the proverbial donkey chasing the carrot dangling forever in front of us? And why is it that when we take life by the throat and pull off a smashing success, it quickly morphs into a mere memory as life trudges on?
Want something more—something different? Then pack up your bags and enlist yourself as a Person of the Way. Join the revolution! The revolution headed by the world’s greatest revolutionary, Jesus. I’m not sure what you think about when the thought of Jesus crosses your mind, but my guess is that the word revolutionary rarely surfaces. Yet that is exactly who He is! Missing the point that Jesus came to spark a revolution in this upside-down world—a revolution to take upside-down people and turn them right side up—is to miss the very heart of why He came and to miss the point of life as it is intended to be.
Jesus’ arrival on our planet was an invasion from another world to overthrow the ruthless regime of King Beelzebub and to set earthbound captives free. But the revolution doesn’t stop there. It’s about freeing us sin slaves from the grip of hell in every aspect of our lives. It’s about setting up a whole new way of thinking and living, about giving freed captives a life of purpose and significance. And I don’t mean that it is a revolution whose end game is to get you to go to church more, to keep more rules, or to get busy doing more jobs for God. We already have too many who are on that bandwagon yet have no clue about the revolution. This revolution is about changing the way we think, act, and react and then raising the torch and taking the way into every aspect of our lives—into every encounter, every relationship, every responsibility, and every commodity we own.
If you see yourself as a follower of Jesus, but you still think about your money like everyone else; react to your offenders like everyone else; think about your career like everyone else; live with “you” at the center of your universe like everyone else; think about sex like everyone else; find life to be an endless string of random unfulfilling events like everyone else, then one thing is clear: You have missed the revolution.
YOUR JOURNEY…
- In what ways can you say that Jesus has revolutionized your life? Be specific!
- Do you still think about your money, career, sex, and relationships like everyone else? What would the revolution look like in these areas if you were a “Person of the Way”?
- Plan to do one revolutionary thing today for Jesus.
Living Simply— Yet Focused
18 May 2012 1 Comment
in Oswald Chambers Tags: Christianity, Father God, God, Jesu, Jesus Christ, John, Matthew 6:26, Religion and Spirituality
Look at the birds of the air . . . . Consider the lilies of the field . . . —Matthew 6:26, 28
The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and “the lilies of the field”— simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.
If you want to be of use to God, maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him, and He will make use of you every minute you live— yet you will be unaware, on the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him.
http://utmost.org/living-simply%E2%80%94-yet-focused/
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Harbingers of Hope by Dee Dee Wike
11 May 2012 1 Comment
in Devotional Christian Tags: Epistle to the Philippians, Epistle to the Romans, First Epistle of John, God, John, John 3:16, Psalm 139, Psalms
How does one stay positive in a negative world? Is it possible to find hope in the midst of heartbreak or make sense out of that which we are not meant to understand? Where are the happy endings we read about in fairy tales?
During my quiet time this morning I prayed for many friends who are suffering with cancer. Why are so many people sick? Just in my church, people are coming down with difficult to diagnose illnesses which are depleting their strength and energy and baffling their health care providers. Others are simply so discouraged that they cannot function. Any sense of purpose they might have has been overshadowed by the constant distractions of dealing with job and financial stress, relational conflict, and the physical and emotional drain they feel as a result.
Sometimes the unthinkable happens to innocent victims. The woman and three girls pictured here were recently abducted from their home by a family friend. That “friend” murdered the mom and older sister before hiding out with the younger two. Although the two younger daughters were found alive and the kidnapper is no longer a threat, these girls have lived through a nightmare that has forever changed them. Please pray for Alexandria, Kyliyah, and their dad as they put back together the shattered pieces of their lives and bury their loved ones.
Even the little stresses of life — broken appliances, flat tires, unruly children — can come at us from a dozen different directions and leave us feeling battered and bruised. The molehills become mountains which we are ill-equipped to climb. How can we live joyfully when we would rather crawl in bed, pull the cover over our heads, and sleep through the unpleasantness of it all? How can we offer hope to others when we have so little of it ourselves?
The answer is simple really. One word. God’s Word. As we read the Bible, God reveals himself to us. He reveals his promises for peace (Isaiah 26:3), provision (Philippians 4:19), healing (James 5:16), salvation (Romans 10:13), protection (Proverbs 2:8), and deliverance (Psalm 3:8), giving us hope in the bleakest of circumstances. As God reveals himself to us, we see that he truly is loving (1 John 3:1), all-powerful (Mark 1:7), all-knowing (Psalm 139), capable of doing immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). We learn that God loves us so much that he gave everything, sacrificing the very life of his only Son so that we could live free from the death penalty our sins deserve (John 3:16). Because of God’s promises, we have hope — the assurance that he will never leave us or forsake us (Joshua 1:5), that he will supply all our needs (Matthew 6:33-34), that he will save those who call upon his name (Acts 4:12), that he will forgive us when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9), that he has a plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11), that he is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28), and that he is preparing a place for those of us who have received his free gift of salvation (John 14:2-3), in heaven where there are no more tears and no more suffering (Revelation 21:4).
If you don’t have hope, read God’s Word and ask God to reveal himself to you. If you know God, then stand on the promises of his Word in every circumstance of life. Pray that God will use you to make a difference in the lives of those around you. That is a prayer that God will answer because he knows we need more harbingers of hope!
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Here Am I
08 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Our Daily Bread Tags: First Epistle of John, Gary, Gary Indiana, God, Jesu, John, Leslie, Religion and Spirituality
In the courtroom while waiting for his case to come before the judge, Gary heard story after sad story of people who were losing their homes. Many went through the procedure as if it were familiar to them. But one woman named Leslie seemed bewildered. Gary sensed that she didn’t know what to do or where to turn.
He tried to silence the quiet voice inside him that was urging him to help, but he couldn’t. He thought of many reasons not to get involved. First, engaging strangers in conversation is not one of his strengths; second, he was afraid of being misunderstood. But he thought that the prompting was from God, and he didn’t want to risk being disobedient.
When Gary saw Leslie leaving the courthouse, he spoke to her. “Ma’am,” he said, “I heard your testimony inside the courtroom, and I believe God wants me to help you.”
At first Leslie was suspicious, but Gary assured her of his sincerity. He made some phone calls and got her connected with people in a local church who provided the help she needed to keep her house.
God has called us to active duty (1 John 3:18). When we sense His prompting to help someone, we should be willing to say, “I believe God wants me to help you.”
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A Parent’s Pain
05 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Joe Stowell Tags: Christ, First Epistle of John, God, Jesus, John, Mary, Sin, Stuart Townend
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
I’ll never forget meeting Nathan and Connie. With five sons, they loved the Lord and were busy going about His work. Suddenly, their world was decimated by an unthinkable tragedy. The three oldest boys were driving home from Wal-Mart when a drunk driver crossed the centerline, hitting them head-on. All three were killed as a result of the accident—snatched away in a cruel, horrible moment.
Connie told me that though the accident had happened three years ago, the pain was still fresh. “To this day, it’s wrenching,” she said. But then she continued, “I’ve often wondered if that’s how Mary felt when she looked at the excruciating and publicly humiliating death of Jesus as He hung on the cross.”
It’s a sobering thought. We have sung of the cross, put it on our steeples and on chains around our necks. But if we are not careful, we grow accustomed to the thought of the cross, forgetting the very real pain, real sorrow, and loss that it represents. And while we think of Mary’s agony and the torment of the cross for Jesus, I wonder if the pain wasn’t deepest in the heart of God. Think of the heartache for the One who willingly sent His only Son! No one knew more deeply what the crushing weight and torture of the sins of the world—your sins and my sins—would be like as they were embedded into the soul of the Savior. Think of how God must have felt in that moment.
The apostle John knew full well what that moment looked like. He was there at the foot of the cross, and from Christ’s words on the cross it seems apparent that he was an eyewitness to the grief of Mary (John 19:26). Years later he would describe this moment as the supreme expression of love. “This is love,” John writes, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
The marvel is not that we would love God or choose to offer our lives to Him. It is that He would choose to love us and offer His only Son on our behalf! He willingly endured that pain to bring us back into relationship with Him. This alone—even if God never did anything else for us—should stimulate our hearts to live in grateful love and adoration toward Him for the rest of our lives. The thought of this indescribable love should constantly remind us that we, though undeserving and unlovable in His sight, have been blessed beyond measure and loved like no one else could love us!
I love the words to the hymn penned by Stuart Townend (who clearly has not grown accustomed to impact of the cross):
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Holy One, bring many sons to glory.
Keeping the cross in mind with all of its heavy, yet joyful, implications may just be the most important thing we do in life!
YOUR JOURNEY…
- Take a few minutes to read John 19, then turn back to 1 John 4:17-21. How do you think John’s experience as an eyewitness of the crucifixion affected his instruction in his epistle?
- One of John’s key instructions in the book of 1 John is that, because God loved us, we must love each other. In what ways can you better love others today because of God’s love for you?
- Perhaps you are experiencing some pain as a parent—a son or daughter who is not walking with Christ, a rift in a relationship with one of your children, a child’s extended illness, or the tragic loss of a child. Please know that you can bring that pain openly and honestly before the Father, who experienced it firsthand, and receive grace and help in your time of need.
