Word for Today, Tue, 20 Sep 2005: Building Hope
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
When I want to find a brief, to the point, accurate, hard hitting
devotional message that gets right to the heart of spiritual
matters, I can think of few authors who can write more concisely
than Oswald Chambers. Even his life was short and concise. He
lived a brief life, teaching in London, the United States, Japan,
then taught Australian and New Zealand troops during World War I
before becoming ill. Chambers was a student of Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, another great theologian.
I like Spurgeon's writing, too, but it's difficult to find
anything more direct than Chambers when it comes to devotional
materials.
In today's message, we read part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. We are reminded that
the object of our faith is Jesus Christ Himself, and that
becoming God-like is really the same as being Christ-like, for
Christ gave up all ambition to instead do and be exactly what His
Father called Him to do and be.
My question is this: Are we ready to do the same? We ought not
be hasty is saying either yes or no. Clearly, to do precisely
what God calls us to do will be costly, so it really bears
serious consideration. However, to say no also bears serious
consideration. To say no to God is walking away from our purpose
in life. We can never be satisfied unless we are living our God
ordained purpose, which is to live for Him.
Will God allow us to live another way? Of course. People do it
all the time. What will it mean, though? Well, to live contrary
to God's will means that we are living in disobedience to Him.
At the very least, to live in disobedience to Him will rob us of
the joy of living for Him. Complete disobedience, entirely
turning away from God will cost us a Christless eternity, since
we choose to reject the offer for Christ to save us from our
sin.
So let's count the cost, but then let's pay the right price and
surrender our own ambitions to the will of our God. His burden
is reasonable and light.
In this life, we will have struggles, no doubt about it.
However, because of Jesus Christ, we have the eternal hope of
living with Him forever. It will require turning away from our
selfishness and to the One who saves us and leads us in a life of
abandon - to Him.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
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/ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST -- http://www.heartlight.org/
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September 20, 2005
THE DIVINE RULE OF LIFE
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven
is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=mt+5:48&sr=1
Our Lord's exhortation in these verses is to be generous in our
behaviour to all men. In the spiritual life beware of walking
according to natural affinities. Everyone has natural affinities;
some people we like and others we do not like. We must never let
those likes and dislikes rule in our Christian life. "If we walk
in the light as God is in the light," God will give us communion
with people for whom we have no natural affinity.
The Example Our Lord gives us is not that of a good man, or even
of a good Christian, but of God Himself. "Be ye therefore perfect
even as your Father in heaven is perfect," show to the other man
what God has shown to you; and God will give us ample
opportunities in actual life to prove whether we are perfect as
our Father in heaven is perfect. To be a disciple means that we
deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in other
people. "That ye love one another; as I have loved you..."
The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but
God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within,
you will exhibit Divine characteristics in your life, not good
human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's
life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a
Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the
grace of God, and the experience of this works out in the
practical details of life, not in times of communion with
God. When we come in contact with things that create a buzz, we
find to our amazement that we have power to keep wonderfully
poised in the centre of it all.
MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST - by Oswald Chambers //
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http://www.heartlight.org/devotionals/my_utmost /
This devotional is copyright Oswald Chambers Publications,
< http://www.oswaldchambers.co.uk >.
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Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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