Word for Today, Tue, 20 Jan 2009: Are You Fresh For Everything?
Quote from Forum Archives on January 20, 2009, 8:13 pmPosted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,This message comes from the well known devotional series, "My Utmost For His Highest", transcribed from lessons originally taught by the late Oswald Chambers, made available by http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi
Copyright information is provided at the foot of the message.This message discusses the once popular phrase about being "born again". This discussion is all about God and our relationship to Him through His Holy Spirit.
I find it interesting that eastern countries and eastern religions tend to have fewer problems understanding and believing about the existence and power of "spirits", whether they be the one true Holy Spirit of God, spiritual angels sent by God, or the other side, the dark spiritual forces of evil, led by Satan and his legion of demons - fallen angels.
A true believer of Jesus Christ believes that Jesus Christ is God's true Son, born of flesh to a virgin girl named Mary, who had yet to be married or with a man, raised in an ordinary family in the Jewish tradition, but a family grounded in the belief that "Messiah" would come.
Both Mary and Joseph, engaged to be Mary's husband, were told about the birth of Jesus Christ and who He was. They believed, and by faith, they acted, but they did not understand all that much.
I ask you this: Do we need to understand all that much to believe by faith? All it amounts to is that we hear the Word of God and take Him at His Word. We do not need to know that much, but God does reveal plenty in the Bible, a large collection of letters and written historical accounts from the time of Creation to the time perhaps fifty years or so after the death of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is a work written by the hands and the words of men and women, but divinely and directly inspired by God's Word, spoken to them and then put into a form that could be shared through the ages.
Men could corrupt that Word, and many have tried to do just that, and they have tried to destroy it as well. Yet, since it is God's Word, it persists through History - His Story. I believe that "History" means the story of Jesus - the events of Creation, foretelling his coming - you can read it right in Genesis if you read it through the right set of lens - right through the last words in Revelation - the last two verses in the Bible say this: "20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
Are You Fresh For Everything? — Tue January 20
Verse
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
— joh 3:3
Thought
Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots!
Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself. We do not know where it begins, it is hidden away in the depths of our personal life. Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginning; a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God - "I must do this thing or it will never be done." That is the first sign of staleness. Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit; obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light.
Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one" - nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don't pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.
Being born of the Spirit means much more than we generally take it to mean. It gives us a new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything by the perennial supply of the life of God.
Taken from My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. (c) l935 by Dodd Mead & Co., renewed (c) 1963 by the Oswald Chambers Publications Assn., Ltd., and is used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, Ohio. All rights reserved.
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
This message comes from the well known devotional series, "My Utmost For His Highest", transcribed from lessons originally taught by the late Oswald Chambers, made available by http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi
Copyright information is provided at the foot of the message.
This message discusses the once popular phrase about being "born again". This discussion is all about God and our relationship to Him through His Holy Spirit.
I find it interesting that eastern countries and eastern religions tend to have fewer problems understanding and believing about the existence and power of "spirits", whether they be the one true Holy Spirit of God, spiritual angels sent by God, or the other side, the dark spiritual forces of evil, led by Satan and his legion of demons - fallen angels.
A true believer of Jesus Christ believes that Jesus Christ is God's true Son, born of flesh to a virgin girl named Mary, who had yet to be married or with a man, raised in an ordinary family in the Jewish tradition, but a family grounded in the belief that "Messiah" would come.
Both Mary and Joseph, engaged to be Mary's husband, were told about the birth of Jesus Christ and who He was. They believed, and by faith, they acted, but they did not understand all that much.
I ask you this: Do we need to understand all that much to believe by faith? All it amounts to is that we hear the Word of God and take Him at His Word. We do not need to know that much, but God does reveal plenty in the Bible, a large collection of letters and written historical accounts from the time of Creation to the time perhaps fifty years or so after the death of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is a work written by the hands and the words of men and women, but divinely and directly inspired by God's Word, spoken to them and then put into a form that could be shared through the ages.
Men could corrupt that Word, and many have tried to do just that, and they have tried to destroy it as well. Yet, since it is God's Word, it persists through History - His Story. I believe that "History" means the story of Jesus - the events of Creation, foretelling his coming - you can read it right in Genesis if you read it through the right set of lens - right through the last words in Revelation - the last two verses in the Bible say this: "20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
Are You Fresh For Everything? — Tue January 20
Verse
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
— joh 3:3
Thought
Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots!
Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself. We do not know where it begins, it is hidden away in the depths of our personal life. Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginning; a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God - "I must do this thing or it will never be done." That is the first sign of staleness. Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit; obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light.
Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one" - nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don't pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.
Being born of the Spirit means much more than we generally take it to mean. It gives us a new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything by the perennial supply of the life of God.
Taken from My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. (c) l935 by Dodd Mead & Co., renewed (c) 1963 by the Oswald Chambers Publications Assn., Ltd., and is used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, Ohio. All rights reserved.