Lest We Fall

Lately I have felt rather saddened by the displays of immorality that seem to hit the media every day. My heart goes out to all the families who have been negatively affected by the "Ashley Madison" scandal. Unfortunately it isn't only families involved who have been touched by this immoral misjudgment. It is the nation. I have been shaken by this piece of news, but I feel that the Lord has used it to help me examine my walk. The Lord has been re-crucified in the hearts of all of those who have chosen to trade what is pure and holy for a lie. This scandal is a blow to Christianity here in America. These individuals have not only deeply hurt their spouse, children, family, friends, and acquaintances, they have grieved the God of the universe. They have nearly forfeit their ability to minister truth in the future.

I could keep on going about how they have failed and how they've messed everything up for Christians here in America...well, I'm not going to. I'm going to talk about you and me. We are just like them. We are just as easily tempted. We leave the right hand of our crucified Christ for lesser things. We run to the small and useless things of this world to fulfill us. We look to everything but Christ even though we say that He is our greatest prize. Is He your highest joy? Do you chase after Him like you chase after education, friends, family, popularity, satisfaction, grades, relationships, times, money, and pleasure?

We are all like children playing in the mud. We are dirty and covered in grime...but we find satisfaction in it. Here we are making mud pies - ones we can't even really enjoy. We are this child who doesn't listen when his mother calls. He knows he should go, but he chooses to disregard her voice because he is too busy with what he finds to be important. One thing he doesn't think about is the delicious piece of freshly baked apple pie in on the table waiting for him. His mother made it for him because she knows how much he loves apple pie.

See? Are we not like this child? Unfortunately, because we don't listen we miss out on the Lord's wonderful gifts and trade them in for a short-lived pleasure that is worth just about as much as a soupy mud pie.

As I become sad about the scandals and the Christians who have turned aside for lesser things, may I be reminded that I am just as easily tempted. May I seek to keep my gaze on the Almighty. I pray that I would never see myself as a better person.

If we are going to compare we might as well say that we are worse sinners than the rest, for we are all guilty and unworthy. May the Lord bless His children and lift their eyes to Himself. Let our feet stand in the path of righteousness.

Let His beauty fascinate us. He is so worth our attention and praise! May we gaze on Him, lest we fall.

"...The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked with perish." Psalm 1

A little something to think upon

We are sinners and deserve death at best, but God chooses to bless and lead the lowly. He reaches into our hearts and shows us what His heart is like. He listens to our prayers and gives us exactly what we need and more.

I am in awe of the God I call Father!

Blessings all!!!

Morning Center Fund Raising

Friends and family,

 Did you know that for every 4 babies born in Memphis TN, 1 is aborted? That is 25%. Did you know that the baby's heart beat starts at just 18 days after conception? Every day little lives are being snuffed out. Shelby county (Memphis) holds one of the highest abortion rates in the state. In fact, there is only one county that has the messy stats that Shelby County does. Here is a link that will take you to a map of Tennessee where every county is categorized by it's abortion rates: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/usac/ab-usac2-TN.html

 My heart breaks for these women and children. Who is going to speak for the unborn? Who is going to take action? Why are so many standing and doing nothing? These stirrings sent me on my way looking for opportunities to get involved in the fight. The Lord led me to the Memphis Morning Center.

 As some of you may know, I have been volunteering at the Morning Center since the beginning of the year. You may ask, what's the Morning Center? Well, let me tell you. The Memphis Morning Center is a Christian pregnancy center offering free prenatal care to any pregnant woman who walks in the door. From the day a girl finds out she is pregnant until the day she gives birth, she isn't asked for a penny. The Morning Center is non-government funded and is affiliated with Samaritan Ministries. We receive most of our donations from individual donors. Though I have only been volunteering at Morning Center for a short time, I have seen the Lord bless many lives and save two babies from possible abortion. I have also been able to pray with ladies and share my faith in that way.

 Right now, The Morning Center is working on the ministry side. For the last year or so they have been focusing on how to serve the ladies medically. Now they are trying to hone in on the gospel side of things. As a volunteer who has contact with many of the patients I have been strategizing with our director and the volunteer coordinator on the best ways to share the gospel effectively. Right now, the MC is working in three locations. All locations are strategically planted in areas of town where low income families and high abortion and infant mortality rates are present. The location where they see the most patients is known for having higher infant mortality rates than most 3rd world countries.

The Morning Center is fund raising in hopes of opening two more locations in the greater Memphis area.

 If you are interested in becoming involved financially, please check out this link:
https://secure.morningcenter.org/np/clients/morningcenter/donation.jsp?campaign=21&

Any donation will help further the work of the Morning Center in Memphis.

For more information about the Memphis Morning Center, check out their website at www.memphismorningcenter.com.

If you are interested in the work of the Morning Center, please pass this on! Our goal is to reach as many people as possible!

This is what I get? Really?

All I needed was to go to the bathroom, and what do I get? Really? Is that whole entire roll of toilet tissue honestly sitting in the public Kroger toilet? It was obviouse that someone did this on purpose. The seat was up so that the large 12" or so wide roll could be placed in the toilet to soak and get nasty. The plastic tissue dispencer was pried open. 

Outside the single stall bathroom I met two Girl Scouts coming out of the bathroom. I looked at them and asked if it was vacant (I also thought it was strange for the two girls to come out together...as the bathroom has only one toilet). The younger of the two said that it was and so I went in. And there it was. I couldn't help but feel upset that someone (possibly these girls) would do something like that to me. I immediately started personalizing the situation. 

I guess I feel entitled. I feel like everyone should like me, and why wouldn't they? Right? Aren't I special? Don't I deserve better? Can't I be the one that everyone seems to adore? What's up with that look that woman gave me? Why did he just honk his horn at me? Why did that little girl tell me a lie?

Wow, this world is just so messed up isn't it?! No one seems to notice or care about me.

You know...that's okay! God has been working in my heart recently showing me these thoughts and feelings. He has been challenging me to think about things other than myself. I honestly don't deserve for anyone to like me. I don't even deserve to walk into a restroom that is to my liking! I have to always be reminding myself that this world isn't for me. Yes, I live here, but I am an alien here. I have a home waiting for me. I have a place where I will no longer feel estranged. Here on earth I am a servant and ambassador of Christ, nothing more and nothing less. What more could I ask for?

The Great Distraction

My church is going through a study called "Behold Your God". It has been really good so far. There have been a few things that really strike me. One of which raises the question how much Christians care about the person and character of Christ. How much do we study and seek to know the one we are trying to imitate? How often do we find it easier to talk about God and then we seem to get bashful when we start talking about Christ. Or maybe we find it easy to study Gods love, His holiness and all those attributes and somehow we clam up when it is time to study the person of Jesus Christ. Don't you feel this in your heart? Don't you have this odd feeling as if it has to be boring to study Jesus? 

I am ashamed to admit it, but I feel a twinge of this. I've got to ask myself how I can possibly be this way. How can I not want to study and know the one I claim to be following?

It's almost like me wanting all the good things that my husband can give me like his love, his protection, his provision, and his conversation, and me saying, "But I don't want you." Where really, I feel about him that all I want is him. I don't care if we have to go live in a shack, I want to be with him because I love him and I want him. All the stuff he brings with him is good and all, but it isn't what makes me like him so much. Shouldn't God be this way to us? Shouldn't Jesus be the one that we are so enthralled with? Shouldn't we long for him instead of what he can give us?

I feel like this nation is full of Christians who are named after a man they don't really know and don't really have a desire to know. They can watch Christian movies and read Christian romance novels, but they can't sit down and study scripture to figure out who this person they say they live for is. 

How many Christians do you know that have an obsession with their Creator? How many believers have you seen who are so distracted with Christ that the world is not their top priority? How many people who say they walk the narrow way actually do what is unnatural to the flesh and deny themselves the distractions of the world?

These questions are hard and they prick my heart because I realize how much I am unlike every one of these people. I see how distracted I am by everything around me. Somehow I have let The Greatest Prize fall to the bottom of my list. I have not made Him my Great Distraction when He should be. 

I am ever learning and ever posing these questions to myself and to the ones who need to hear them. Please do not hear judgment in my tone, but listen to a heart that beaks for those who don't have the truth and who don't have a grasp on The Greatest Prize. Christ is the one who should distract us. He is the one we should be allowing to infiltrate every part of our lives.

The Grey Days

Oh, the day is dreary my dear friends! It is cold, wet and rainy out. My bones are chilled and my chilly feet tell me that it is time to go home and curl up in bed. I don't wish to succumb to the grayness of the day, but it is ever so easy to let the cold of the day seep in and make me feel  as the day looks.

I know in my heart that it is a beautiful day that the Lord has made. I know that He sends rain when He sees fit. How can I say that He should act otherwise? How can I look out at His creation and call it less than perfect. Yes, it is not what it could be, it was certainly perfect before the fall...yet even now, it is beautiful.

No matter how gray the day, I should always be ready to look up and praise Him for His awesome goodness.

One Sacrifice of Christ is Sufficient

One Sacrifice of Christ Is Sufficient

10 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very ^[a]form of things, ^[b]can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? ³ But in ^[c]those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But a body You have prepared for Me;
⁶ In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.
⁷ “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
(In the scroll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Your will, O God.’”

⁸ After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹ then He ^[d]said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By ^[e]this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for ^[f]sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are ^[g]sanctified. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,”

He then says,

¹⁷ “And their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.”

¹⁸ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

I read this today in my time with the Lord. I had several chills go down my spine as I read this passage.

If you read the Old Testament, you will find that a priest offers sacrifices every day. There is one sacrifice that he offers once a year  on a specific day. This day was called The Day of Atonement. The High priest (Aaron, if you are reading in Leviticus 16), on this day would take a live goat and place both of his hands on it's head. He would then confess over all the sins of the sons of Israel. He would then have the goat driven into the wilderness where it would bear their sins of the people far away.

You see, this was done yearly, and it was only a small portion of what went on in or around the temple. There were daily sacrifices taking place to cover the transgressions of the people. Thousands of offerings were given, thousands of animal were slaughtered to bring atonement for the iniquities of the Israelites.

All the while, Christ and the Father were looking down, knowing that soon, they would be sending a sacrifice that would cover all, once and for all. This sacrifice was perfect, innocent, and blemish less. It would come as a child in a humble stall. It would walk as a man of sorrow. It would speak as one with authority. It would stand before the High Priests...and at the hands of a sinful and perverse generation would die. 

This sacrifice is Christ. The day He died, the last Day of Atonement faded into memory. He was the ultimate sacrifice. He was the Darling of heaven come to earth to die as if a thief or murderer. He came to fulfill the prophecies and to bring salvation to the lost, He was slain at the hands of those He came to redeem. He was mocked and whipped by the ones He chose to love.

Because of the perfect plan of God, the Son was crushed on our behalf. No more scapegoats where needed. The blood of lambs and bulls was worthless to the Lord after the death of Christ. His blood flowed forth covering all who would be called His own, from age to age. He died to save the nations and the generations both before us and those to come.

Who is this that I follow? Who is this that I serve? 

I serve the ALMIGHTY of Heaven! I serve the Lamb of God who was slain! I look to the One who rose from the grave on the third day and who ascended into heaven! I serve a mighty Savior who is coming back again...  

 

Sitting at my Window

I am sitting at my window...waiting...watching...hoping...praying...wanting something great to happen. Not really in the sense that most people would think of greatness, but in the sense of a small miracle. I just want to see the sun come out and smile at me. Or maybe watch as a happy old couple walk by holding hands. I want to hear birdsong and not the pattering of the rain. I want to see blue sky instead of gray.

I guess I want a lot of things...

The sun shouldn't have to shine in order to make me happy. I shouldn't have to see what I long to see or get what I want in order to be content, should I?

No.

When I sit at my window with a thousand thoughts swirling around in my head, I need to look through the gray and see the beauty behind it. I need to know the peace of God in the sound of the rain pattering down. Maybe He wants me to find joy there rather than in bird song. Maybe I need to look to the heavenly Son rather than the earthly sun that gets clouded over and drown out by the storms. Even in the storms I have a hope and a promise that Christ the Son of God will never stop shining. He is my light and my strength when I am weak.

 "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distress, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong"

 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I pray from the deepest, most feeling part of my heart asking that God would grant these words to be the words of truth that come from my lips. I want to be happy when all the world is crashing down around me. It isn't just about being happy either, it is about being completely satisfied and content in Christ, and in nothing else. 

Here I am, at my window looking out into the gray. Here He is, right next to me. He's got his arm around my shoulder and His pierced hand in his lap. 

My hand is folded in His and my head is laying on His shoulder...

I am right where I need to be. I am right where He wants me to be. I am being taken care of. I have nothing, absolutely nothing, to worry about. What more can I ask? What more do I need?

Nothing.

Naughty Mornings with a Smile

Despite the naughty scheming calf, two rascal pups, a sink full of bottles to wash, and soggy shoes, I am happy and somehow still smiling! God has given me the grace to get through this morning (trust me, I do have my bad mornings!) with a smile plastered to my face! It's a truly beautiful feeling.

 I stop in the bathroom to look at my hair...

Whew! Bad idea. Who in my family really notices when my hair is disheveled and I'm not wearing makeup anyways? No one (Not that I don't ever do my hair and makeup...). So, I have even more reason to smile! God loves me, my family loves me, and somebody (Christ) died so that I could be alive this amazing morning. How cool is that!?

   

That is awesome!

Smiles and laughter,

~ Rachel Rosebud

(This was a post from a long time ago...not sure how it got up here at the top...)

Barricade of the Mind

Have you ever stood and thought about something for way longer than you really needed to? Have you ever super hyper-analyzed something to the point that there seems to be nothing more to explore? Have you ever heard something and examined it from every humanly possible angle?

Why is it that logic is the basis of how we think about God? Why do we stuff Him into a box? Why do we place "limits" on what He can do?

I thought about it this morning as I traipsed around the field.

I take God and fit Him into my life, instead of letting Him take me and fit me into His life. I take His word and try to cram it into the walls of my finite mind. I think about possibilities and I say, "Well, that couldn't happen because of this, that, etc..." when truly, God can do anything.

I prayed, asking Christ to break the barriers of my mind and to work through the Spirit, not through any thought or bound of my own. I asked the Holy Spirit to break the chains that keep me from praying bold prayers and expecting great things from a great God. I asked for a trust, hope, joy, and peace, that fully leans on the faith that is my foundation, rather than leaning on what I think or find to be correct or believable. I asked that the Spirit would push aside all doubts and fears, allowing me to step forward and run hard after Christ. Sometimes when we think, we never act because (in our minds) it (whatever we are supposing to accomplish) is impossible. Only if we could act upon the prompting of the Spirit, and think about it later. Because we cannot comprehend God fully, we cannot comprehend His actions and abilities fully either.

There are so many ways I need to learn to let go and "free fall" into His arms. I know (deep down) that He will always be there. I also know that He is prompting, leading, and teaching me to lean on Him. Sometimes leaning on Him means letting go of me. 

If you are in a position where you are thinking through a big decision, say, to go to college or to stay at home, what college to go to, buy that car or not to buy that car, invest in this person or not to invest in this person, start a business venture or not, buy this house or that one, move miles away or stay where you are at, start a church or not to start a church, take this job or that one...and the list goes on.

I don't know what you are going through, I don't know what your thought process is. I don't know what you have analyzed and what you have not. I don't know how you have chosen to make this decision, but I do know that you could be over thinking it. Maybe "free-falling" is exactly what God wants you to do! Maybe Christ wants you to take a leap of faith and say, "Lord, I want to honor you. I believe this is what You have for me even though there are so many "what if's" and "maybe's". I know that I can place it on your shoulders." Please, don't jump if you feel God screaming "no"! Don't do something stupid like, "Well, I'm going to take this super risky business venture and possibly lose everything because maybe God is in it..." Do put some thought into it, but don't let your mind tell you that it is impossible, even if it seems that way. God can do anything. He wants you to place the trust in Him and He wants you to have faith outside of what logic would offer.

We all have this barrier in our minds that seems to separate what we see, what we believe, and what faith does. Consider asking God to break down this barricade of the mind. If we all stopped putting our God in a box, can you imagine what faith would begin to grow among us??

(I found this post way back in my drafts...I though it might be worthy of publishing)

Well that's it for our "Ten Days With Oswald Chambers"

It was so encouraging just posting those every day. I enjoy the deep and thoughtful style that Chambers brings to the table. I do not agree with everything he writes, but it is really a matter of eating the fish and leaving the bones.

Anywho, I better be off. I have a list of things that need to be done around here. I may pop in later to write a post, but I can't promise you anything.

Blessings,
Rachel

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "Faith or Experience?" - November 13th

"Faith or Experience?"

November 13th

By Oswald Chambers

"...the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Galatians 2:20  

We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little worlds of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, "I haven't had this experience or that experience"! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and proves--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 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.

It is because of our trusting in experiences that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. all of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "The Changed Life" - November 12th

"The Changed Life"

November 12th

By Oswald Chambers

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

2 Corinthians 5:17

What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is--has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above--you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.

What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13, or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.  

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "The Supreme Climb" - November 11th

"The Supreme Climb"

November 11th

By Oswald Chambers

"He said, 'Take now your son...'"

Genesis 22:2

God's command is "Take now," not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later--it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

   "So Abraham rose early in the morning...and went to the place of which God had told him" (22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not "confer with flesh and blood" (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to "confer with flesh and blood" or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings--anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, "I will only go to there, but no further." God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.

 

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "Fellowship in the Gospel" - November 10th

"Fellowship in the Gospel"

Novemver 10th

By Oswald Chambers

"...fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ..."

1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain  your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God's interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for his purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frostbitten."

   

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "Sacred Service" - November 9th

"Sacred Service"

November 9th

By Oswald Chambers

"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ..."

Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacred "go-between." He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker's life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "The Unrivaled Power of Prayer" - November 8th

"The Unrivaled Power of Prayer"

November 8th

By Oswald Chambers

"We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

Romans 8:26 

Be realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know that it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don't often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

"He", the Holy Spirit in you, "makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.

The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. "...your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit...: (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, "...He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple." (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer...But you have made it a 'den of thieves'" (Mark 11:17).

Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don't know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances" - November 7th

"The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances"

November 7th

By Oswald Chambers

"We know that all things work together for good to those who love God..."

Romans 2:28  

The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can't understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, "I'm going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that." All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don't ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the every day circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Hold Spirit's work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for him? I must do the human side of intercession--utilize the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercession can never be mine, and my intercession can never be yours, "...but the Spirit Himself makes intercession" in each of our lives (Romans8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and ruin.

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "Intimate Theology" - November 6th

"Intimate Theology"

November 6th

By Oswald Chambers

"Do you believe this?"

John 11:26

Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But--she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's theology has its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance--"Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ..." (11:27).

Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you--"Do you believe this?" Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.

To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.

Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, "Do you believe this?" I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.

  

Ten Days With Oswald Chambers - "Partaking of His Sufferings" - November 5th

"Partaking of His Sufferings"

November 5th

By Oswald Chambers

"...but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings...'

1 Peter 4:13  

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised be what comes your way. You say, "Oh, I can't deal with that person." Why can't you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way. 

The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered "according to the will of God" (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God's purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendancy has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God's orders through a shortcut of their own. God's way is always the way of suffering--the way of the "long road home."

Are we partakers of Christ's suffering? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through--we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize--"God has strengthened me and I didn't even know it!"