Quote from Forum Archives on October 24, 2003, 9:51 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

We've been discussing attitudes in the majority of the recent
collection of messages. In today's message, we'll take a
somewhat different look at attitudes by examining our complete
abandon and obedience to Jesus Christ. Our primary purpose in
life is to return to Him the love that He first demonstrated to
us, being in very nature God, yet giving up every right and
privilege in order to serve us - and save us! Imagine that, the
God of this world, loving us enough to become one of us,
suffering and dying, to fully identify with His own creation!

Can you imagine the gratitude of the apostle Paul? You see, Paul
(back when he was called Saul, did love God, and was a Pharisee
in every possible way - in the very legal sense. He did all the
"right" things. When he heard of Jesus Christ, he sought to
destroy anyone claiming to be God because his interpretation of
the Law was that only Messiah Himself would come to seek and save
the lost, and restore the kingdom to Israel. Little did Saul
know, but that Jesus Christ WAS - and IS - that man - Messiah,
the Savior, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

It took a blinding encounter on the road to Damascus for Paul to
really "see the light". Will it take a blinding light for us to
see Jesus Christ as He really is, or will we believe His Word,
and gain the proper perspective?

Precious Lord, please help each of us to cling to You, confess
and repent of judgmental attitudes, to restore ourselves with an
attitude of love toward You that spills out and overflows to
others.

Yours in Christ,
Brian

October 24

The Proper Perspective

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in
Christ... 2 Corinthians 2:14

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as
near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest.
Be careful that you vigorously maintain God's
perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little
by little. Don't think on a finite level. No outside
power can touch the proper perspective.

The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only
one purpose - to be captives marching in the procession of
Christ's triumphs. We are not on display in God's showcase - we
are here to exhibit only one thing - the "captivity [of our
lives] to the obedience of Christ" ( 2 Corinthians 10:5 ). How
small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that
say, "I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus," or, "I have
to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for
Him." But Paul said, in essence, "I am in the procession of a
conqueror, and it doesn't matter what the difficulties are, for
I am always led in triumph." Is this idea being worked out
practically in us? Paul's secret joy was that God took him as a
blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive - and
that became his purpose. It was Paul's joy to be a captive of
the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It
is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the
victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is
always His victory, and "we are more than conquerors through
Him..." ( Romans 8:37 ).

"We are to God the fragrance of Christ..." (2 Corinthians 2:15).
We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever
we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

Oswald Chambers was born in Scotland and spent much of his
boyhood there. His ministry of teaching and preaching 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.

Message taken from www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/

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

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