Quote from Forum Archives on June 6, 2003, 7:56 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

Today's message is about working out our salvation. It is NOT
about EARNING your salvation. Any of you who have a proper
understanding of the Christian faith realize that it is God who
offers to us the gift of salvation and the choice to accept it.
Are you with me on this?

Oswald Chambers understands the role of prayer and reading the
Bible. We read the Bible to see God's spoken word to us. We
pray to respond to God, based on what we read in His Word.

Dear Lord,

Please help us to read Your Word, think about it, pray about it,
apply it and act on it in our daily lives - throughout the day,
each and every day. I ask these things with great humility,
helpless on my own. In Jesus' Name and for His sake, I come. I
know that there is room for change. I open my life, even the
hidden closets, to You, Lord, that You may accomplish Your good
and perfect will in my life. Please hear my prayers and work
out Your way in all of our lives in a way we can clearly see, so
that we may know Your ways among us and continue to praise You
every day. Amen.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

____________________________________________________________
June 6

"Work Out" What God "Works in" You
. . . work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works
in you . . .
--Philippians 2:12-13

Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature
that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do.
When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience,
the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our
will always agrees with God. Yet you say, "But I don't know if
my will is in agreement with God." Look to Jesus and you will
find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with
Him every time. What causes you to say "I will not obey" is
something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is
perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with
God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.

The will is the essential element in God's creation of human
beings-- sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In
someone who has been born again, the source of the will is
Almighty God. ". . . for it is God who works in you both to will
and to do for His good pleasure." With focused attention and
great care, you have to "work out" what God "works in" you--not
work to accomplish or earn "your own salvation," but work it out
so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with
determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect
redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an
opposing will up against God's will--God's will is your will.
Your natural choices will be in accordance with God's will, and
living this life will be as natural as breathing. Stubbornness
is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking
its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness
is to blow it up with "dynamite," and the "dynamite" is
obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not
only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.

Today's message from My Utmost for His Highest Daily Devotional
is provided by RBC Ministries, courtesy of their Web site at
www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/. Refer to this site for
further information.

Oswald Chambers was born in Scotland and spent much of his
boyhood there. His ministry of teaching and teaching took him
for a time to the United States and Japan. The last six years of
his life were spent as principal of the Bible Training College
in London, and as a chaplain to the British Commonwealth troops
in Egypt during World War I. After his death, the books which
bear his name were compiled by his wife from her own verbatim
shorthand notes of his talks.

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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