Word for Today, Sat, 04 Aug 2007: The Brave Friendship of God
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
At http://www.ewordtoday.com you can become familiar with the Bible
and read passages each day, which is one of the most useful things you
can do. You can read them in a variety of translations, and you can
also examine a great number of daily devotional messages.
Below I have included the Saturday edition of Oswald Chambers' My
Utmost for His Highest, one of my favorite daily devotional messages
to provide thought provoking comments to go along with scripture.
There are many other daily devotional messages also available from
ewordtoday.com, which makes it very easy to find and select what you
choose to read.
The suggested Bible passage comes from Psalm 91:1-16. In Utmost,
Oswald comments on a short clip in the Gospel of Luke and 1 Corinthians.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
August 4, 2007
The Brave Friendship of God
He took the twelve aside... Luke 18:31
Oh, the bravery of God in trusting us! Do you say, "But He has been
unwise to choose me, because there is nothing good in me and I have no
value"? That is exactly why He chose you. As long as you think that
you are of value to Him He cannot choose you, because you have
purposes of your own to serve. But if you will allow Him to take you
to the end of your own self-sufficiency, then He can choose you to go
with Him "to Jerusalem" ( Luke 18:31 ). And that will mean the
fulfillment of purposes which He does not discuss with you.
We tend to say that because a person has natural ability, he will make
a good Christian. It is not a matter of our equipment, but a matter of
our poverty; not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into
us; not a matter of natural virtues, of strength of character, of
knowledge, or of experience all of that is of no avail in this
concern. The only thing of value is being taken into the compelling
purpose of God and being made His friends (see 1 Corinthians
1:26-31). Gods friendship is with people who know their poverty. He
can accomplish nothing with the person who thinks that he is of use to
God. As Christians we are not here for our own purpose at all we are
here for the purpose of God, and the two are not the same. We do not
know what Gods compelling purpose is, but whatever happens, we must
maintain our relationship with Him. We must never allow anything to
damage our relationship with God, but if something does damage it, we
must take the time to make it right again. The most important aspect
of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we
maintain and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that
relationship. That is all God asks us to give our attention to, and it
is the one thing that is continually under attack.
--
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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