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).