That Good Part

Oswald Chambers is on a roll...more from "My Utmost For His Highest" . . . the simplicity that is in Christ —2 Corinthians 11:3 Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your "arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you ( 2 Corinthians 10:5 ). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see n...

From "My Utmost For His Highest" I have finished the work which You have given Me to do —John 17:4 True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again. Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest" ( Matthew 11:28 ). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will— "Come to Me." And it is a voluntary coming. Surrender for Devotion. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . . " (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here i...

For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9. I know that I have saved, justified, by grace through faith, not by works. I could never do enough to be declared righteous and earn a place in God’s favor by my good deeds to others and being a moral person. No human could, that is the whole point of the concept of a savior. If we could save ourselves we wouldn’t need someone’s help, but clearly, we find throughout our lives that we need a savior. I remember the old Saturday Night Live sketch performed by Al Franken, who declared in a mirror “I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and doggone it, people like me!” When we contemplate even the most basic idea of success in this life, let alone eternal life, we run from the fact that we aren’t smart enough, good enough and who cares if people like us? So we affirm ourselves with positive self talk, we give back in an attempt to undo wh...

I was up sick for a good part of the night. The day is half gone, and I haven’t left my bed. I have not dedicated the down time to devotional time in the Word, intercessory prayer or profitable reading. I’ve just been sitting here. Yet, there is peace in the clear presence of God. I told a friend that I am fond of bumper sticker theology, that some of my most profound moments of insight and practical application came from something on the back of someone’s car. The particular wisdom I shared with her came from a sticker that read, “I’m Not In Your Hurry.” Her situation has nothing to do with traffic on the road, but traffic across the desks of her coworker and herself. It’s hard to learn the distinction between reacting, which is usually in the flesh, and responding, which should be in the Spirit. That is fodder for another post. Anyway, my big word of wisdom to her was this bumper sticker -“I’m Not In Your Hurry”. I don’t have some big God-Bomb revelation to impart today. Simply this...

More on God's timing from "Streams in the Desert" "Blessed are all they that wait for him" (Isa 30:18). We hear a great deal about waiting on God. There is, however, another side. When we wait on God, He is waiting till we are ready; when we wait for God, we are waiting till He is ready. There are some people who say, and many more who believe, that as soon as we meet all the conditions, God will answer our prayers. They say that God lives in an eternal now; with Him there is no past nor future; and that if we could fulfill all that He requires in the way of obedience to His will, immediately our needs would be supplied, our desires fulfilled, our prayers answered. There is much truth in this belief, and yet it expresses only one side of the truth. While God lives in an eternal now, yet He works out His purposes in time. A petition presented before God is like a seed dropped in the ground. Forces above and beyond our control must work upon it, till the true frui...

I was once asked "How do I surrender something that I don't know I'm holding on to?" The issue was victory, why they didn't have it and how they could get it. I initially empathized with their struggle, until I realized two lines of faulty thinking. 1) Victory should be according to my definition . Victory in the life of a believer is defined and directed by God. I think it's a lack of trials, God's definition is that it's my growth into Christ likeness because of the trials. I think it's when I'm ready for it, God knows every thing that needs to be accomplished to bring me to the end of my own understanding and trust in Him. 2) Victory feels like victory . We think we have attained victory when we feel strong, when we feel like winners, when we feel like we think a good Christian feels. It should be effortless, a mighty work of God and I should feel like it happened. But while it sounds like a plaque on the wall, faith is not feelings. John Ma...

From Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25) All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the Word of the Lord is of a very different character, for it shall endure forever. We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God? We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God; as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify as ever it was in its first days of wonder-working. We have an unchanging gospel which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it. Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoi...