Word for Today, Wed, 25 Aug 2004: Obedient Sacrifice For Our Friend
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Today's devotional message comes from Oswald Chambers. Remember
yesterday, when we discussed taking a personal audit? Well, here
we are! Oswald gives us something meaty to examine. Are we
prepared to abandon ourselves to Jesus Christ, or have we
occasionally given of ourselves to Him, only to later retract
whatever gifts of service and gratitude we offered to Him?
Let's ask ourselves, in the personal and quietness of our own
hearts whether or not we are genuinely devoted to Christ. What
if that meant giving up some secret favorite thing? Would we do
it - willingly? Would we hide it, would we say, "Oh, that's
really no big deal..."?
My suspicion is that most of us, perhaps even all of us, love God
at some level. We acknowledge that there is a God. Most of us
probably also acknowledge that there was a man named Jesus
Christ. Fewer of us, but probably still quite a few, will say
that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died and rose again
because He loved God, was obedient to God, and that God
demonstrated His love to us by sending His Son, first to teach us
the true nature of God, then to die to offer Himself as the One
true and pure sacrifice that God would accept as full payment for
our sins.
If you believe all of that, GREAT! That means that you have been
saved by your faith.
But now what? Does it stop there, or are we going to act
consistently with what we say we believe? Real sacrifice and
friendship require true trust and obedience, to the point of
abandoning whatever we have held close in the past. Now there is
the real test of faith and obedience. How many of us are still
there?
Yours in Christ,
Brian
____________________________________________________________
August 25
Sacrifice and Friendship
I have called you friends...
--John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender
in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most
difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying,
"I'll surrender if... !" Or we approach it by saying, "I suppose
I have to devote my life to God." We will never find the joy of
self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to
Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate
goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend
(see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives,
our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the
thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because
sacrifice is the Holy Spirit's ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He
perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, "I delight to do Your will, O
my God..." He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with
overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute
submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am
looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in
my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused
on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident
in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love
before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is
through the rejection that results from having built the love on
natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord
Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional--
for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing
imaginable.
"I have called you friends..." Our friendship with Jesus is
based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance
or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is
a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted 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.
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/
=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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