Quote from Forum Archives on February 6, 2003, 8:13 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

Oswald Chambers always touches something in me when he writes and
interprets scripture. The title itself is revealing. What if I
ask that as a question to myself: "Am I ready to be offered?"
What in the world am I setting myself up for?

Do you ever fear that when you offer yourself to God, you may be
giving up something that you're not really ready to give up, or
that you may have to go somewhere that you're not really eager
and ready to go?

Well, I'll be honest with you today. I believe that whatever God
has planned for me is ALWAYS the best, but even in spite of
knowing and believing that, I still struggle with completely
surrendering myself, no matter what it may entail. The unknown
can be pretty scary and disconcerting, can't it?

I've had some wonderful experiences with God in my life, but I've
also had some very rocky journeys along the way. I do wonder,
however, if it was I, not God, who put the journey down a rocky
path, simply because, in effect, I either said, "No" to whatever
God was asking me to do or that I ignored, or in some other way
did not really follow where God was leading or responding to what
God was asking.

I have to ask myself such things, over and over again. You may
not be in exactly the same place, but I'd guess that most people
struggle with truly giving God first place in everything. Many
of us love God, yet if we continually inspected ourselves, deep
within, would we, or would we not, uncover areas that we have not
truly surrendered to God.

I find such places more often than I'm comfortable admitting.
Will you make the personal conviction to examine yourself for
even the remote possibility that such things may also exist for
you, too? I believe that God is incredibly patient, and I am
convinced that He will help any of us who will admit that we need
His help, even in the process of surrendering self to Him. God
knows our hearts. One who admits a need is far more likely to be
nurtured and healed, don't you think?

Let's read what Oswald Chambers has to say, and take some steps,
even leaps, of faith, even today.

Dear Lord,

This message carries with it both hope and conviction. I realize
how ignorant I am concerning the things You intend. Oh, I know
some things about Your Word, and I serve You as I can, yet I
sense that You want something much deeper than that. Help me,
Lord, for I need You. Help my friends, too. Reveal the
ignorance that is within us, but don't leave us there. Help us,
so that we may be completely Yours, not just Yours in name or
when it seems convenient. I confess, I need You at all times.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

-//-----------------------------------------------------------------
/ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST -- www.heartlight.org/
--/------------------------------------------------------------------
February 6, 2003

ARE YOU READY TO BE OFFERED?

I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

2 Timothy 4:6
www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=2ti+4:6&sr=1

"I am ready to be offered." It is a transaction of will, not of
sentiment. Tell God you are ready to be offered; then let the
consequences be what they may, there is no strand of complaint now,
no matter what God chooses. God puts you through the crisis in
private, no one person can help an other. Externally the life may be
the same; the difference is in will. Go through the crisis in will,
then when it comes externally there will he no thought of the cost.
If you do not transact in will with God along this line, you will end
in awakening sympathy for yourself.

"Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."
The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for
one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not
started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You
do not destroy it, God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of
the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the
fire begins. After this way of fire, there is nothing that oppresses
or depresses. When the crisis arises, you realize that things cannot
touch you as they used to do. What is your way of fire?

Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to
be all you ever dreamed He would be.

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST - by Oswald Chambers //
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www.heartlight.org/devotionals/my_utmost /

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

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