Drawing Near: Chambers

Showing posts with label Chambers. Show all posts

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Quotes for the week of 4/15/18

Words To Live By

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.
― John R.W. Stott (posted 4/15/18)

What a man is alone and on his knees before God, that he is, and no more.
― Robert Murray M'Cheyne (posted 4/14/18)

The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
― Oswald Chambers (posted 4/13/18)

You can shut Jesus up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
― C.S. Lewis (posted 4/12/18)

You don't realize God is all you need until God is all you have.
― Tim Keller (Posted 4/11/18)

How unspeakably wonderful to know that all our concerns are held in the hands that bled for us.
― John Newton (posted 4/10/18)

The point of irresistible grace is not that we can’t resist. We can, and we do. The point is that when God chooses, he overcomes our resistance and restores a submissive spirit. He creates. He says, “Let there be light!” He heals. He leads. He restores. He comforts.

― John Piper (posted 4/9/18)

Monday, December 14, 2015

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Recomended Posts v2

Three Ways Movies Are Searching For The Gospel - G Ortlund - 12/8/2015

O Come Again Emmanuel - Wax - 12/3/2015

Why Celebrate Advent? - Boswell - 11/29/2015

A Prayer For The First Sunday Of Advent - S Smith - 11/29/2015

Prepare Him Room - Bloom - 11/29/2015

Only One Black Friday - Tripp - 11/27/2015

A Prayer For Thanksgiving Day - S Smith - 11/26/2015

Alone With God - Chan - 11/24/2015

A Prayer For Marinating In The "In All Things Goodness Of Jesus - S Smith - 11/21/2015

It Is Finished - Chambers - 11/21/2015

We All Need Help - Piper - 11/19/2015

Four Reasons Why Some Preachers Get Better And Others Dont - York - 11/18/2015

A Prayer Of Lament - S Smith - 11/14/2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Do You Walk In White?

Today is an anniversary of sorts for me. In 1998, when I was first reading through My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, the devotional for Jan 15 hit me hard. (Honestly, many of devotional's entries hit me hard, but none quite like this one). On that morning 15 years ago, the Spirit helped me realize that I had not really died to myself. I was still trying to "do Christianity" instead of dying and letting what Jesus had already done be simply given to me. So, through Oswald Chambers, in the quiet of my kitchen, I had my "white funeral".

Below is a copy of my blog entry from Jan 15, 2011. In it there are a few references to the devotional itself, which I pray God may us to bring others to their last day.

To God Alone be the Glory

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Thirteen years ago when I read today's (Jan 15) My Utmost for His Highest entry by Oswald Chambers, I was cut to the heart. (full devotional here) I had been a Christian for 7 years, had served in various capacities and had even been to a few Promise Keeper events. Yet the challenge and conviction of what Chambers wrote haunted me.

You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death.

Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

So, by God's grace on Jan 15, 1998, I had my "white funeral". That was not the day of my conversion, but it was the day that through the Spirit I came to the end of my self. Is there effort involved in living the Christian life? Absolutely. But any effort I expend that further's the kingdom of Christ and brings glory to God is borne not by me but by the Holy Spirit.

Paul puts it in the form of a rhetorical question in Gal 3:3 "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The implied answer is No!

Let end with two more quotes from Chambers:

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream.

Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

To God Alone be the Glory.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Our faith needs the right Object

I've wrestled to articulate what Oswald Chambers says quite succinctly, yet quite eloquently regrading our faith. He captures at least two strong threads about faith that are continually weaving through my mind. The first is that our faith must terminate on Jesus, not on facts about Him or things that get us to Him or even on our faith in Him. The second is that because our faith is so often in these secondary things, we lose the the majesty and the power of what our faith should really produce. Feel free to read the whole devotional at Faith or Experience. I have provided some lengthy excerpts below.

Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit. Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!

We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.

To God Alone be the Glory

Monday, June 27, 2011

Justice - Seeking it; Giving it

"The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on a mission for Jesus Christ, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, “Don’t worry about whether or not you are being treated justly.” Looking for justice is actually a sign that we have been diverted from our devotion to Him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it." - Oswald Chambers

One of the hardest aspects of walking with Christ is the whole idea of giving up our rights. It is amazing how ingrained it is in us to think the we deserve something, whatever the situation. And perhaps in worldly, earthly terms we do. But in Christ's economy, all of the rights belong to the King. So what's "fair" or what's "just" take on new meanings and have higher, broader goals.On top of that, as we straddle the fence between this fallen world, with all of its short comings, and the coming new world, with all of its perfections, we must not get confused in our expectations. We must not expect perfect justice to be executed here. Strive for it? Yes. Grieve over its lack? Yes. Expect that it will fully and completely present itself? No.

As we operate by Jesus' upside-down, inside-out principles, we must remember we are swimming upstream. Everything in this present age is warring against what Christ has called us to believe and to do. Yet we must believe it and do it. Thus the difficulty. Yet Jesus has promised to be with us and Holy Spirit is with us. And both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interceding for us right now. So we can believe the unbelievable gospel and live out the un-doable life of a disciple of Christ.

To God Alone be the Glory

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I'm no saint

What follows is a challenging excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. You can read the full devotional here.

I don't know if much commentary is necessary, except to say I find myself oscillating between a kite-like view of sanctification (God will do whatever He wants with me and He knows what's best) and a Pharisaic view of sanctification (I need to do this and this and this and...). The truth is in the middle, but the reality is that there should be movement toward the goal and God, by His grace, will make it happen as we work it out.

"For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one."

To God Alone be the Glory

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Layers and Facets of Prayer

"The smoke of the incense , with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel" Rev 8:5

I am always pursuing a better, fuller, richer understanding of prayer.Some of my previous blog entries have touched on it, but I was compelled to write this post because today I ran across both the intriguing picture of prayer in Rev 8 and devotional on prayer by Oswald Chambers.

The picture from Revelation of our prayers being incense rising before the throne of God has two immediate implications. First, our prayers are delivered directly to God. The angels in this heavily symbol-laden book appear to be delivery agents, not interpreters or intermediaries. Second, our prayers are delivered directly to God. I know this sounds like a repeat, but here the emphasis is on prayers going somewhere no one on heaven or earth or under the earth is allowed to go. Isn't that part of John's weeping in chap 5? No one can take the scroll or open its seals. No one is worthy to even approach God, let alone open the scroll of all of redemptive history. Left in that state, not only our prayers, but our very lives would be lost.

But praise be to God the Lion / Lamb has been slain and has been victorious. He is now worthy to stand in God's presence and open the seals of the scroll. And now, by extension and by inclusion, our prayers also are presented into the very presence of God.

The layer of prayer laid down by Chambers is no less awesome. "Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint." He goes on to ask "Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer?" The challenge / reminder from Chambers is this: prayer is not a wish list from me to God; something for Him to approve or disapprove. And it is not simply a conversation with God (although it is that). Prayer is our very connection with God. Like the nervous system or the circulatory system, prayer keeps us spiritually alive. Is this the source of our life? Absolutely not! Our Sovereign God and Resurrected Savior are the source; the life-blood, as it were. But prayer is our connection, the transport mechanism, and without it we would not have Life. Read My Utmost here.

To God Alone be the Glory

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Do Our Lives Add Up?

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 1 Th 2:11-12

I'm reading a book which has as one of its underlying premises that Christianity must be changed / reformed / returned to its original state since most people who call themselves Christians don't live what they profess, or at least what the label "Christian" implies. Without going into a critique of the book (visible vs invisible Church, the effects of indwelling sin, Christ's sovereign power to build His church) I was tweaked by a small choice of words that I read in My Utmost for His Highest today. Chambers, in comparing mountain top (i.e. deeply spiritual) experiences to a believer's everyday life, he said "Their lives don't add up". And while its conclusions may be misguided, the book I mentioned earlier observes a very similar thing. Sadly, the lives of many Christians don't add up.

At this point I am tempted to throw out some verses. 1 Th 2:11-12 is above. Eph 4, Rom 12, Mt 5, Isa 58 also come to mind. But I will leave it up to you, at the Spirit's prompting, to reflect on these and other passages. Because I would maintain that the entire New Testament and probably most of the Old Testament doesn't make sense if we are not "all in". Read the book of Acts. Whether its Peter or Paul, what they endure for the gospel is incoherent if they simply viewed the faith as some add on to their already pretty good lives. Look at the urgency and passion in the epistles, Words like urge and anguish, unceassing and constant, confident and assured are littered across the pages. Clearly the expectation was (and is) that anyone who would follow Christ would really follow Him. Remember what a disciple was back in Jesus' day. A disciple was some one who left whatever profession they were in to follow someone (usually a rabbi) for a period of time and immerse themselves in his life and teaching so that at the end of the training they would be just like their teacher. Sound familiar?

So the bottom-line is simply this: Do our lives add up? I am confident that the Holy Spirit will gladly answer that question for you and for me. And, He will provide the means for each of us to move from where we are to where God wants us to be.

To God Alone be the Glory

Sunday, April 3, 2011

If You Had Known.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" Mt 23:37

"Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." Lk 19:42

“If you had known . . . .” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut-doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future. - Oswald Chambers My Utmost For His Highest April 3

I am a firm believer in the sovereignty of God. It is a non-negotiable for me. I am also a firm believer in the responsibility of mankind. A contradiction? Perhaps in our minds, but without these two realities both being true, the Bible is incoherent and all we get from our theologies are caricatures.

Take the destruction of Jerusalem. Who's to blame? The citizens, since they rejected Christ and the prophets that proceeded him? Or God since Jesus even says the way out is now hidden from them? If you pick the people you make them the final arbiters of their fate and God is simply a hand wringing judge, hoping His people do the right thing. However, if you pick God, then the people are mere pawns and God is a mean orge without and real grace or mercy. But what if it is both? God, through Christ extending his hand saying "Turn, turn. I don't delight in the death of the wicked" and yet also saying "if you reject me, I will reject you" And the people saying "I do believe, help my unbelief" and "Be merciful to me, a sinner", and "we have no god but Caesar" and "we have Abraham as our father".

But what about us? What difference does this make today, in 2011? Two thoughts:

1) God is still (and always) sovereign. Earthquake in Japan? Turmoil in the Middle East? Political and societal disarray in America? God is still (and always) sovereign over it all. Are His purposes easy to fathom? No. Are His motives easy to fathom? Yes. (See Rom 8)

2) Man is still (and always) responsible. This might be the harder pill to swallow, because if God is sovereign in a black and white sense, then I'm off the hook. But I'm not. I must believe. I must put to death the work of the flesh. I must put on the new self. I must share my faith. I must preach the gospel. I must keep myself in the love of Christ. All of this, of course in the context of Phil 2:12-13.

So today, live your life with fear and trembling, but also with joy and hope. We each messed up yesterday and yesterday is gone. Confess what needs to be confessed and know that as believers our sins are forgiven in Christ. And now move into the new day, ready to serve the One who has called us, redeemed us, empowered us, prepared the path for us and will always be with us.

To God Alone be the Glory

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:12-13

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Speaking the Truth in Love

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" - Eph 4:15

"When you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ...You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it." Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest

Its funny how context matters.

In reading Ephesians 4, Paul's one main point is that we need to live in a manner worthy of the calling we have received. A substantial part of that living is done within the church. So, we unify around truth, have have men who are gifted to teach us and challenge us, and we grow up to become more and more like Christ. This is so we will not be tossed by every false doctrine, but be locked in on Christ and can do our part within the church so that it may be built up in love.

With that as background, what does Paul mean by "speaking the truth in love"? It would seem to me, that while it may be wise to always speak truth and to always speak lovingly, Eph 4:15 is not a blanket rule on how to have a conversation. Paul is very specific. Our love saturated truth speaking has a goal, to grow us up into Christ. This verse is here because this sort of truth speaking is either a) hard to do or b) hard to do lovingly or c) hard do to lovingly so that we grow up in Christ.

Please note Paul is not saying "be quiet". That would be the wrong application. Rather, he is saying: 1) know the truth, 2) love the truth, 3) speak the truth that you love, 4) always know, love and speak so that others will grow closer to Christ. Easy? No. Worth it? Yes!

To God Alone be the Glory

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Crushed into Submission; Words set on Fire

From the March 10th My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

"Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message."

"There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost."

"Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to “set your words on fire” for His glory."

I would only add: "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor 2:16)

To God Alone be the Glory

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

First, a testimony to God, then His gift via Oswald Chambers.

In an effort to present here what God wants presented here, I have begun to pray, even before opening my Bible or reading any blogs or devotionals, "Father, bring to mind and resonate in my heart, the thoughts and words You want expressed today". I share this because this morning I was antsy to get to this blog. So after my time in the Bible and reading one devotional, I fired up my browser to write...my words. Yet, (dramatic pause) once the browser launched I thought "maybe a quick read of My Utmost before the blog". And there God laid out the words and the thoughts and the heart of what He wanted to be shared via this blog today.

To God Alone be the Glory.

Today's full My Utmost for His Highest devotional can be found here.

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

How many of us are willing to spend every bit of our nervous, mental, moral, and spiritual energy for Jesus Christ? That is what God means when He uses the word witness. But it takes time, so be patient with yourself. Why has God left us on the earth? Is it simply to be saved and sanctified? No, it is to be at work in service to Him. Am I willing to be broken bread and poured-out wine for Him? Am I willing to be of no value to this age or this life except for one purpose and one alone— to be used to disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. My life of service to God is the way I say “thank you” to Him for His inexpressibly wonderful salvation.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

White Funeral

Thirteen years ago when I read today's (Jan 15) My Utmost for His Highest entry by Oswald Chambers, I was cut to the heart. (full devotional here) I had been a Christian for 7 years, had served in various capacities and had even been to a few Promise Keeper events. Yet the challenge and conviction of what Chambers wrote haunted me.

You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death.

Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream.

Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

To God Alone be the Glory.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A New Year - The Same Savior

A lot of blogs (too many?) are using these days to help us set (or reset) some of our priorities going into the new year. While this is not a bad exercise, its probably something we should be doing more than once a year. And, my concern personally is that it is easier to focus on what Bible reading plan or devotional book or prayer time we will have in the new year than it is to focus on the One all of those items point us toward. To that end, I would like to share an excerpt from the Jan 1 entry of My Utmost for His Highest.

"When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone."

The entire entry can be found here: let-us-keep-to-the-point

On an unrelated note, John Piper has returned from his sabbatical. His first blog can be found here: john-pipers-report-on-his-leave-of-absence Here is one quote I think is worth highlighting: "Eleven days after I return to ministry, I turn 65. One could look at this two ways: 1) it’s the age most people retire, or 2) it’s the age Winston Churchill became Prime Minister and led England and the Western World to victory over Hitler’s aggression. I find Churchill much more inspiring than retirement." Oh to have a heart like that!

To God Alone be the Glory!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Impartial Power of God

We trample the blood of the Son of God underfoot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of Christ, which He has provided for us.

No matter who or what we are, God restores us to right standing with Himself only by means of the death of Jesus Christ. God does this, not because Jesus pleads with Him to do so but because He died. It cannot be earned, just accepted. All the pleading for salvation which deliberately ignores the Cross of Christ is useless. It is knocking at a door other than the one which Jesus has already opened. We protest by saying, “But I don’t want to come that way. It is too humiliating to be received as a sinner.” God’s response, through Peter, is, “. . . there is no other name . . . by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What at first appears to be heartlessness on God’s part is actually the true expression of His heart. There is unlimited entrance His way. “In Him we have redemption through His blood . . .” (Ephesians 1:7). -- My Utmost (12/8)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Centrality of the Cross

A followup / addendum to my previous post. SDG

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." - 1 Cor 2:2

"In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" - Eph 1:7

"He (Christ) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." - Heb 9:12

"You were ransomed...with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." - 1 Pet 1:18-19

"Christ crucified is the burden of our preaching and the substance of our belief, from first to last. At no time in the saint's life does he cease to need the cross" - Horatius Bonar

"The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limited miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be" - Oswald Chambers

"Herein is love, which led the Redeemer to lay down His life for His enemies! It is not enough, however, to admire the spectacle of the innocent bleeding for the guilty; we must make sure of our interest in it. The special purpose of the Messiah's death was the salvation of His church." - C.H. Spurgeon

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Prayer – A Holy Occupation

From “Prayer – A Holy Occupation” by Oswald Chambers

Prayer requires Boldness
Prayer requires Childlikeness
Prayer requires Communion
Prayer requires Concentration
Prayer requires Desire
Prayer requires Discipline
Prayer requires Faith
Prayer requires Honesty
Prayer requires Intimacy
Prayer requires Obedience
Prayer requires Patience
Prayer requires Power
Prayer requires Purpose
Prayer requires Silence
Prayer requires Simplicity
Prayer requires Wonder
Prayer requires Work
Prayer requires Worship

Drawing Near

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Quotes for the week of 4/15/18

Monday, December 14, 2015

Recommended Posts - v3

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Recomended Posts v2

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Recommended Posts

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Do You Walk In White?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Our faith needs the right Object

Monday, June 27, 2011

Justice - Seeking it; Giving it

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I'm no saint

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Layers and Facets of Prayer

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Do Our Lives Add Up?

Sunday, April 3, 2011

If You Had Known.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Speaking the Truth in Love

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Crushed into Submission; Words set on Fire

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

White Funeral

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A New Year - The Same Savior

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Impartial Power of God

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Centrality of the Cross

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Prayer – A Holy Occupation