Week Fifty-Two Question: Are you “determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone”?

Are you “determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone”?

“God’s order has to work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him, and we begin to debate; then He produces a providential crisis where we have to decide – for or against, and from that point the “Great Divide” begins. If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to Him absolutely and irrevocably” - Chambers Jan. 1

My Response:

The last entry in the Oswald Chambers Project is here. Hard to believe it has been one year since we began our journey. The questions asked were difficult – sometimes feeling impossible to our feeble wills.

The New Year is upon us with all its challenges and its hopes. May God bless you with His grace and peace as you continue to ask questions and seek answers.

Father-God, I give You my utmost for Your highest. Grant me Your mercy, Your grace, and Your wisdom as I continue to seek Your face.

Week Fifty-One Question: What are you haunted by?

What are you haunted by?

“The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God (Psalm 25:12). The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God…So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time” – Chambers June 2

My Response:

Chambers continues: “To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy…In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease.”

Father-God, barricade me with Your love.

 

Week Fifty Question: Are you living the life now?

You have come to the place of entire reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus which brings you into perfect contact with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why shouldn’t you?

“If anything is a mystery to you and it is coming in between you and God, never look for the explanation in your intellect, look for it in your disposition, it is that which is wrong” - Chambers  May 28

My Response:

Chambers continues:

“When once your disposition is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, the understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will get to the place where there is no distance between the Father and His child because the Lord has made you one, and ‘in that day ye shall ask Me no question.’”

Father-God, transfigure my disposition until all I see is You and Your will.

Week Forty-nine Question:

Is there a thought in your heart about anyone which you would not like to be dragged into the light?

“Never blunt the sense of your Utmost for His Highest. Many have gone back because they are afraid of looking at things from God’s standpoint” - Chambers September 15

My Response:

Chambers continues: “The great crisis comes spiritually when a man has to emerge a bit father on than the creed he has accepted.”

Father-God, take me always farther on.

Week Forty-eight Question

Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? 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” – Chambers Jan. 20

My Response:

Chambers writes: “Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself…Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God – ‘I must do this thing or it will never be done’…Guard jealously your relationship to God…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.”

Father-God, I desire freshness and a deep sense of You in my life.

 

True North

Let me start by asking you a question: Have you ever gotten lost? I mean really lost?

You know the “we’re not in Kansas anymore” kind of lost? Before I phones and gps units, there was something called stopping to ask for directions.

Because I am speaking today to a room full of women, I am confident that you know what I’m talking about. The majority of us have at one time or another stopped to ask for directions if we get lost.

          I think there are degrees of lost. On the lowest level, we lose things. We lose our keys, our phones, the one elusive sock in the dryer. Losing things can be frustrating, but because they are just things, they can be replaced.

          The next level of lost is losing what I consider more abstract ideals. We can lose things like our tempers, lose our minds, lose time, lose control, and even lose hope. When those things are lost, it takes much more emotional effort to retrieve a sense of completeness or sense of safety.

          The top level of lost is when we lose our way. Losing our way is far worse because it not only denotes going in a direction other than the one we wanted to go in, but a shift in purpose and very often a shift in perspective. And the worst part of losing our way is it can happen without our being aware.

          As a Christian, the idea of being lost conjures up pictures of being outside of Christ, of being in a place of distress and aimless wandering, perhaps even of being headed for hell. We even talk about a world without Christ as being lost.

          God’s word tells us there is an absolute way to go. When Jesus said he was the way, he was saying that he was the direction, the way to get there. Where? To him. When Jesus said to come to him, he claimed he was the destination. He’s our purpose and our aim.

          As I was thinking and praying about this luncheon, I started thinking about destinations and directions. The Lord brought to mind the idea of true north. Just sort of popped into my head. I was intrigued. I wanted to know more. I’d heard of true north before, and I was certain there was great spiritual application and significance.

          But the more I thought about it, the more obscure it became. It seemed that whenever I thought I understood true north, I felt like I was further away from understanding than when I first began.

          It was sort of like those floaters you get in your eye. You know that little shadow-dot that whenever you try to look directly at it and identify the location, it moves? It’s there, but its exact location is not easily found and held on to. So understanding true north started to become like that for me: a conceptual floater just out of reach.

          So what is true north? Is it an abstract notion or is it more concrete? In the natural, there are two different norths - magnetic north and true north. True north is simply the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole. It is what it is. It’s a constant.

          Magnetic north, on the other hand, shifts; it is not a constant. But compasses, which we use to determine north, especially if we get lost in the woods, point to magnetic north, not true north.

          So why does it really matter which north you’re referring to? Isn’t north north? Well, in 2002 it was determined that the difference between the two was about 590 miles. That’s a pretty big difference. If you fix your sites on the wrong north you will end up somewhere else.

          So what about true north as being symbolic of something? You see, in the world, even though there is disagreement over what true north is exactly, the idea is similar but the definition is not. It depends on who you ask.

          If you asked David Rogers, he might ask you these questions: “What's your direction in life? How can you tell where you are going? How can you tell if you got there? Find your True North and define your heading.” He even has Six Steps to Define Your “True North.”  Sounds like questions your pastor would ask on a Sunday morning. I thought Rogers was going to tell me the mysteries of what true north really was. But because his frame of reference, his compass was aligned to his notion of true north, which is business and leadership, his definition of true north is “delivering double-digit returns to investors [and] providing the best customer service.”          Now if you did a google search of true north, which I must admit that I did, you can find books that might help point you to true north. One is Finding your True North by Michael Henderson. His true north is defining and discovering your personal values and enriching your life. In reality, you are your own true north. To me, it’s like claiming that magnetic north is actually true north. Because we are not constants and are always changing, it’s not wise to use yourself as a stand in for true north.

          So I think the first thing to do is determine what or who is your true north,  and discover what is the constant, sure fixed center that you look to. If we claim to be Christians, God is our true North. Jesus is our true north - the absolute, the ideal, our standard for what is real, what is true, what is constant. Most of us would agree on that.

          But once we accept God and his son, Jesus, as our true north, what comes next?

We need to fix our eyes, our sights, our bearings on the constancy of what we profess – fix our paths, our destinations, the goings in and goings out of our individual and collective journeys. We need to fix all these things on the true north of God’s nature, his will, his plans and the depth of his love and his heart.

          Hebrews 12:2says: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Fix means literally to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something; fix means to fasten, to attach, to join, to secure, and my favorite, to glue. We are to glue our eyes on Jesus

          When I was young, my mother used to tell me that my eyes were glued to that TV set. Ever try to talk to someone, like your husband when he is watching a movie? Nothing. He can’t hear you, he can’t see the dog getting into the garbage, and he certainly can’t see the kids running crazy. Why? Because all his attention is fixed on the screen. What does this mean for us? We need to fix our eyes on Jesus like a man who’s watching Braveheart.

          Once we agree that God is our true north, and we have fixed our eyes on Jesus, now what? I think once we have done those things then it seems logical to look at another area: those reasons we get off track. Throughout our lives we are bound to get lost at one time or another. Why is it important to consider this? We need to be aware. There is this legacy of “lostness” passed down to the human race from Adam and Eve. When they chose to disobey God, one of the things they chose was to realign themselves from the constant true north of God to the shifting magnetic north of the world. They were using the pull of the world to help them determine their course.

          Did you know that one of the literal meanings of the word sin in the Bible is simply to miss the mark? If you were shooting an arrow at the center circle on a target and it hit at about ¼ inch off to the left of the center, it would have missed its mark. Being off track doesn’t always mean that you have to be 1,000 miles away from your intended direction. You could be right next door. I think it’s the subtle veering off that’s more dangerous because unless you are spending time in God’s word and in his presence, you might not even notice until it’s too late. What do they say about putting a frog in water in a pan and slowly turning up the heat? The frog will adjust and won’t notice that he’s probably heading towards being the first course until it’s too late. I think we can be like the frog.

          Perhaps the question is not what true north is, but understanding how to stay on track and remain focused. As I was putting together this small teaching I kept coming up against a wall. About a week and a half ago, I was trying to work on it and got so frustrated, that I went into the bedroom and laid down next to my dog, Zuzu. As I laid there and spoke out my frustration to God, he immediately brought to my heart the problem: I had been trying to find something to teach on instead of trying to understand something that he had wanted me to know about me, about the condition of my walk. Not a topic to be taught, but an intimate, personal heart-lesson to be learned. Why did the Lord want me to study true north? It’s because if I was being honest, I would have to admit that this past year I had gotten off track – I had missed the mark, and lost my way. I wasn’t 1,000 miles away – I was right next door , but I had still missed the mark.

          So I’d like to share three things that can contribute to a loss of bearings and then three things to do if we find ourselves off track and off center of our true north. The Lord showed me there were certain situations and circumstances that would lend themselves to my getting off track. The first is unfamiliar territory. This is where we are in a place we have never been before, where we have no frame of reference. It can be a place where we have taken ourselves to or a place where the Lord has purposely brought us to. Unfamiliar territories can represent new experiences, new environments, or new relationships. We are going a way we have not gone before.

          A few years ago when we first moved to NY, I remember having difficulty driving. Driving wasn’t new to me, but where I was driving was new. Just behind my house, there is a maze of small streets that are winding, connecting, and taking you anywhere but where you want to go. I got lost back there once for about a half an hour. I was like a rat in a maze. Because my point of view was horizontal, and I was in unfamiliar territory I did not have the best point of reference. Being on unfamiliar streets caused me to lose my direction. I had gotten turned around and couldn’t get out. Five years later I still won’t venture behind my house into that development.

          Whenever we’re in unfamiliar territory, we need to be conscious of the tendency to lose sight of our true north. This past year has been one of the more difficult I’ve gone through because I’ve been brought to uncharted waters so to speak. I am facing things I have not had to face before. We need to recognize how unfamiliarity can cause us to lose sight. When we are in these unfamiliar places, we need to dig deeper into the Lord to stay connected and not get distracted or allow confusion to plot our course.

          Getting lost is not just a frustration. Being in unfamiliar territory can lead to dangerous situations and outcomes. We need to keep our spiritual wits about us. My son told me a story about when he graduated from college, and he worked for the census bureau. His territory was some of the deepest back roads in eastern VT. So one day, he went off with his list of names and addresses.

          He travelled for quite a while, going deeper and deeper into the woods looking for the last name on the list. It wasn’t long before he realized he was probably lost. The road got smaller, of course it was dirt and rutted, and it was starting to get late, which meant it was also getting dark.  He said as he came around a curve, he saw there was this small cabin.  At first he thought he had found the address he was looking for and had safely arrived at the destination.

          Then he saw it. There was a man in overalls standing on his porch with an old barking hunting dog and a shot gun. He said it was just like a scene out of deliverance. There was my son, young, dreadlocks past his shoulders, trying to decide if he should get out and either interview this man, ask for directions, or turn around quick and get out alive. He chose to leave.         

         

         Why did I tell you this? Because as Christians, we often find that we have gone down the wrong road and have come upon a waiting enemy. He might not be wearing overalls and carrying a shotgun, but he is not there to be our welcoming tour guide.1 Peter 5:8 says, “be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” We go down the road we think is right but if we have misread the directions, or worse, have no directions, we can end up in a place where we don’t want to be.

          Whenever you are in unfamiliar territory be alert, dig deep, and realign yourself to your true north in Christ.

          The next thing that can cause us to get off track are storms When the winds blows, the rain comes down in blinding sheets, when the elements are chaotic and wild, how we see, what we hear, what we feel can be affected and exaggerated. It’s easier to get lost in a storm than when the weather is calm and clear. We’ve all thought a lot about storms lately with everything that’s happened this past week.

          This past year, the Lord has been teaching me about storms. He has shown me that my tendency during a stormy trial was to put my head down and cry out for the storm to pass, “Lord, take this from me.” But I was missing the message God wanted to speak to me in the storm.

          There are different kinds of storms: storms of a fallen world, storms of our own making and storms sent by God to reveal His glory and his character. Chris Altrock from the True North church says, “at times we get pulled off-course. God is our True North, but heartache, anger, confusion, and the pursuit of other less-than ideal goals often cause us to veer west, east, or south of Him.” As we navigate through the storms of life’s trials, we can get off course, especially if we are not on solid ground.

          Storms at sea can be the most terrifying because there is no solid, higher ground. You are at the mercy of the shifting elements, and it can mean disaster. Because storms at sea represent5 trials that challenge our spiritual balance, I’d like to talk briefly about some natural dangers associated with storms at sea and how we can apply them to maintaining our spiritual true north bearings.

          The first danger if you are caught in a storm at sea? Capsizing: the boat that you are in is overturned by the storm. What is the spiritual application? Whose boat are you taking refuge from the storm in? What is the size of your boat, your faith? Are you your own refuge, your own boat? Or are you safely resting in the bow of Jesus, who calms the storm with just a word? What over turns us? What tosses us out of the boat? As Christians, we need to ask ourselves why we do what we do, and why we are where we are. We need to get into God’s presence and seek his face for our very survival. Ask yourself: What capsizes my faith?

          The next danger with a storm at sea is breaking apart. The waves of the storm can crash down on us with such intensity that we can’t bear the pressure, and we break apart. I’ve done my share of breaking apart over the years. What do we do if we find ourselves breaking apart? When the storm comes, hide yourself in the shadow of his wings. He is able to withstand the pressure of the storm. It is his love that is our shield. Remember, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Romans 8:35-39 tells us:

          Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (The MESSAGE)

          No storm can separate us or capsize our faith if we stay anchored to Jesus. We should not be fearful and hide our heads when the storms come. I’m not necessarily saying we should be storm chasers and go looking for the storm, but when they come, not if they come but when they come, we can stay on course, stay centered, stay fixed on our true north because we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.

          The next danger when in a storm at sea is flooding  - being overtaken by the very action of the storm. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the weight of a stormy trial? Imagine a boat that is flooding. The water is not only coming up over the bow in crashing waves, but because the boat is damaged, the water is coming in and rising. You are sinking and sinking fast.

          Ever felt like that in a trial? Lord, I’m going down. Beware of flooding - allowing the intensity of the storm to overtake you. If you are sinking because you have set sail in a boat of your own making and you are going down, call on his name and you will be saved. How many times do we refer to our salvation as when we were saved? There is a painting that shows a stormy sea. Up out of the waves a hand is reaching up from the depths. Another hand – the hand of God - is reaching down and taking hold of the sinking soul. Call out to God. He will rescue you.

          The last danger when there is a storm at sea is crew members being washed overboard during a storm. Have you lost friends and loved ones who were completely overtaken by the storms of life? I have. Those who have walked away from God because they perhaps blamed him for the storm or felt he didn’t rescue them the way they wanted? God has not forgotten them just because they have been washed away. He still sees them and still desires for them to take hold of his hand. It is still being offered, and there is still hope.

          Storms can either be the greatest obstacle or they can be the greatest opportunity. It all depends on not only whose boat you are in, but on whether or not you will put your trust in the one who can control the storm. 

          The last thing that can cause us to getting off track is a disruption of our inner compass. What is your inner compass, your method of determining direction? As Christians, our inner compass should the Word of God and the Spirit of God. But when we begin to lose our way and ignore God’s Word and His spirit, we are like a compass that has been demagnetized. In the natural, when that happens, the compass will show all directions, not just the opposite one.

What can demagnetize a compass? Things like disruption and randomization can cause a compass to not work properly. But what does that mean for us? Our inner compass, what guides us, what keeps us going toward spiritual true north, can be made ineffective when we begin to view life and circumstances as useless, random, and intrusive instead of seeing life through God’s eyes, through His perspective, through the “in all things God works together for our good” view.

          Our inner compass needs to be the eternal sureness of the Word and the living breathing intimacy of the Spirit. Samuel Rutherford wrote: “Your heart is not the compass that Christ sailth by.” My ways and my plans are like magnetic north. God’s are true north. Isaiah 55:9: says, “for as the heavens are lofty and exhaulted than the earth, so my ways my directions and purposes are loftier and more exhaulted than yours.”  Not as I will, not my true north, but your will, your true north, Lord (Matthew 26:39). Absolute true north, like absolute truth.

          Now that we know God is our true north, and we need to fix our eyes on Jesus to maintain a true heading, and are aware of the things that can get us off track,  the last thing I’d like to share is if we do find ourselves off track or downright lost, how we can get back.  

          An article in Boy’s Life magazine says, “You’re lost in the woods. That’s bad. You forgot your compass. That’s worse. But it’s not hopeless. There are several techniques you can use to find true north and get yourself reoriented. To stay on track.”  It actually says that. So I thought it would be interesting to see if the advice could apply to spiritually trying to find true north.

          The first is something called the Watch Trick. Now I’m not going to go into depth about what the actual methods are because that’s not really the point I am trying to make, so bear with me as I will attempt to make it applicable. Now the watch trick involves using your watch to align yourself with the sun and then through a variety of clever maneuvers, you can usually determine where north is.

          For us, using what you have brought along with you, what you are wearing can help you get back on track. As a Christian, what are you wearing that can help you find your direction? Consider what are we told to put on in scripture:

Romans 13:12: The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Ephesians 6:13: Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, when the storms come, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Colossians 3:10: put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

          What are you wearing? Are you still wearing your old man clothes?  What would be the result if you used those old creation coverings to help you determine the right way to go?

          The next thing Boy’s Life magazine suggests is using the Stick Trick: using creation to help you find your way. Basically, you need to find a stick that is about three feet long. Poke it in the ground so that it is standing straight up. Then place a rock at the end of the shadow cast by the stick. Wait about 15 minutes.

          What does this mean for us? Romans 1:20 says: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

          Look around you. Consider the things God has made. Jesus told his disciples to consider the lilies of the field, the sparrows. See the glory of God in his creation and by seeing God in his creation, allow God’s creative genius to declare his greatness, his plan, and his power.

         And last, Boy’s Life calls this the Oldest Trick in the Book: stay where you are and don’t move. It says: “if you have no watch, and the sun has gone down, stay put. Rescuers look near where you were last; if you wander, you’re less likely to be found.”

          If you are lost and you can’t find your way, don’t run. Stay put and the Shepherd will come out and search for you and he will bring you home. Your heavenly father will not leave you lost. Why? Because as it tells us in the psalms God is active in his love for us: he watches, he hears, he searches, he protects, he stills our hunger, he parts the heavens, he restores our souls, he gives us strength, and he turns our wailing into dancing. He will find you and bring you back from captivity.

          Allow God to be your true north, fix your eyes on Jesus, be on the alert for that which tries to distract you, and know how to get back if you veer off course. Romans 12:2: tells us to “not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”  This is important because the next verse tells us: “then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

          Do not allow your mind or your character to be conformed to the pattern of this world – do not exchange the constancy of God’s true north for the shifting magnetic north of the world.

          Renew, renovate, completely change your mind. Allow God to transfigure you – then you will be able to be confident of your true north.

          There is a line in the movie Prince Caspian based on C.S. Lewis’s book which says: “You have the chance to become the most noble contradiction in all of history.” How? Oswald Chambers tells us: “God expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.”  He asks: “Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transfigured by the indwelling life of the Son of God?”Am I allowing my old man, my magnetic north, to be realigned and transfigured?

          I want to leave you with a challenge: Are you willing to align yourself with God? Are you willing to trade the ashes of the world for the beauty and absolute truth of God?

 

 

 

 

 

Week Forty-six Question: Have You Heard God's Voice?

Has the voice of God come to you directly? Have I been preaching Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way?

“If I feel that I have done my duty and yet have hurt Him in doing it, I may be sure it was not my duty, because it has not fostered the meek and quiet spirit, but the spirit of self-satisfaction” - Chambers Jan. 29

My Response:

Have I recognized His voice among all the other voices that call out for my attention? When I serve my Lord, whose face does the world see?

God reaches out in love to a world that loves the sound of its own voice and the sight of its own face.

“The challenge God faces is rescuing a people who have no idea how captive they are; no real idea how desperate they are. We know we long for Eden, but we hesitate to give ourselves back to God in abandoned trust. We are captivated by the lies of our Enemy. But God has something up his sleeve” (Eldredge, John Epic 64).

Father-God, You are active in Your pursuit of me. Help me to stop running.

Week Forty-Five Question: intimate belief

Is Jesus educating you into a personal intimacy with Himself? What is your ordeal of doubt? Have you come, like Martha, to some overwhelming passage in your circumstances where your programme of belief is about to emerge into personal belief?

“To believe is to commit. In the programme of mental belief I commit myself, and abandon all that is not related to that commitment. In personal belief I commit myself morally to this way of confidence and refuse to compromise with any other; and in particular belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ, and determine in that thing to be dominated by the Lord alone” – Chambers November 6

My Response:

Amen. May it be so.

Week Forty-four Question

Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?

“The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him…The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him” – Chambers Jan. 18

My Response:

It really isn’t what I do but who I am. Jesus did what he did because of who he was. The law was the “do,” while the cross was the “be.”

Father-God, may the works that flow from my hands simply be an extension of my relationship with You.

Week Forty-two Question

Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? Do we expect God to answer prayer?

“If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on…prayer is not an exercise, it is the life” - Chambers May 26

My Response:

Do I view prayer as something I do or something I am? Spiritual communication is beyond the limitations and scope of human communication – not dependent on the sounds coming out of my mouth nor the non-verbal movements of my body.

The breath in my lungs – the taking in and out of life – and the blood coursing through my heart – the almost “matter-of-fact” pumping day in and day out without my exerting effort. The air and the blood, the spirit and the sacrifice, yielding up ceaseless, often wordless prayers to the One who ever hears.

Father-God, “You are the air I breathe.”  

 

 

Week Forty-One Question: What does God prize?

Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? How much kindness have I shown Him this past week? Have I been kind to His reputation in my life?

“There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes” - Chambers Jan. 21

My Response:

What does it mean to be kind to God’s reputation in my life? Do I even think about it? Or worse – do I even care about it? Could my lack of joy simply be related to a lapse in loyalty to what God desires for me – desires in me? Or am I just a fair-weather friend of God, viewing Him kindly only when my life is easy?

Father-God, Your will, not mine.

 

Week Forty Question

Am I putting God in the humiliating position of having treated me as a child of His while all the time I have been ignoring Him?

“We show how little we love God by preferring to listen to His servants only. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we do not desire that God Himself should speak to us.” - Chambers Feb. 12

My Response:

I’m reminded of a song my Michael Card titled The Final Word:

“You and me we use so very many clumsy words. The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard. When the Father’s wisdom wanted to communicate His love, He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the incarnation and then so was born the Son. His final Word was Jesus – He needed no other one. Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make the world divine. And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine."

God has spoken to us – He has given us the Word. Are we listening?

Father-God, I open my mind, my ears, my heart. Let Yours be the first voice I not just hear, but the first one I listen to.

 

Week Thirty-nine Question

Has the Lord ever asked you-“Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?”

“It is far easier to die than to lay down the life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling. We are not made for brilliant moments, but we have to walk in the light of them in ordinary ways. Stand loyal to your friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life: - Chambers June 16

My Response:

The once-and-for-all bodily dying is a one-time occurrence - it happens then it’s done. On the other hand, the purpose of the “day in and day out” dying to self can get lost in a sort of weary tedium of the soul.

I think it is the everyday small things that can wear away most grievously at our hearts. However, it is those very things which trains and ultimately strengthens us. Jer. 12:5 states: "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

It is perhaps the same as with the dancer who daily practices and learns each step so when the moment comes to perform on the stage, he or she is not only physically ready but emotionally ready as well.

So as we walk in the light of ordinary things, let us not become weary.

Father-God, never let me lose sight of You and forget it is Your honor that is “at stake in [my] bodily life.”

 

Week Thirty-eight Question

Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God’s service, fussy ideas about our bodies?

“There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone” - Chambers Jan. 13

My Response:

Getting alone with Jesus should trump getting together with, well, anyone. Could it be that we all too often cling to the dense busyness of our groups (not that groups are bad or wrong or unhelpful) instead of the single stillness of the One?

Where are my priorities? My desires? Could it be that the “fussiness” that distracts me comes because I have traded the stillness of the One for the busyness of the many?

Father-God, may I always answer the call to go deeper – to be alone with You.

Week Thirty-seven Question

Am I set on my own way for God? Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach?

“All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly” - Chambers Jan. 28

My Response:

To be one with God – not to have God as one of many.

Father-God, it is not my determination that produces godliness in me. It is Your grace, Your mercy, and Your righteousness.

 

 

 

 

 

Week Thirty-six Question

Are you willing to be offered for the work of the faithful-to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice for the faith of others? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister?

“…do you say-“I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice.” – Chambers Feb. 5

My Response:

As I reread this question, I couldn’t help but notice the date – February 5^th. Feb. 5^th, 1972 was the day I received Christ as my Lord and Savior. Hard to believe all that time has gone by – but isn’t that what everyone says? Where did the time go? As if time itself is to blame for its fleeting nature.

But the real question is am I as willing to be offered up for the work as I was those first days, months, years? Or have I instead chosen the scene of my own sacrifice?

It is good to reflect on the past sometimes – not to dwell there or long for its pull, but as the 70’s Christian band, Petra, used to sing: “Sometimes it’s good to look back down. We’ve come so far, we’ve gained such ground. But joy is not in where we’ve been. Joy is who’s waiting at the end” (from The Road to Zion).

Father-God, spend me as You will.

 

Week Thirty-five Question

Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? What is your faith up against right now?

“Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us” - Chambers August 29

My Response:

“Unutterable trust.” No doubts. There is a story about a tight-rope walker who drew crowds with his incredible feats. One day, crowds came to watch what they were certain was this man’s final performance – he had stretched a rope across a wide chasm, miles above the canyon’s jagged floor.

The crowds gasped with delight as the man repeatedly walked back and forth across the thin rope. They cheered as he did acrobatic tricks without so much as a falter.

The man addressed the crowd: “Now for my greatest trick. I will push this wheelbarrow across to the other side and return.” Everyone held their breath as the man carefully crossed to the other side and returned. “Bravo!” they shouted. “You are the greatest performer the world has ever seen!” exclaimed one man in the front. The rope-walker approached his admirer.

“So you believe I am the greatest?”

“Yes. I have seen with my own eyes what you can do” said the excited man.

“Well then. Do you believe I can put a man in this wheelbarrow and push him across, too?”

“Absolutely. I know you can.”

“So you trust that I will succeed?”

“Yes. With all my heart.”

“Good. Then get in.”

The crowd was silent as the realization hit the man – he was to be the one in the wheelbarrow. He was the one who had to put his complete trust and faith in the rope-walker’s ability. What should he do?

What would you do? Have you personally seen God in other’s lives and thought, “Yes. I believe He can do what He says.” Good.

Now God is asking you, “Get in.”

Father-God, I believe. Lord, help my unbelief.

 

 

 

 

 

Week Thirty-four Question

Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

“His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milk-sops. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome” – Chambers  July 7

My Response:

Am I an overcomer or am I a “milk-sop” - someone who retreats rather than charges? To live my “utmost for His highest” means that I need to live a fully hope-full life in Christ. Living in the Truth, not in my feelings.

          “Living hope means to live in the depths with God, to seek out His will, His heart, and His love. It means to live in the hope-full reality of God’s Truth, not in hope-less misleading circumstances.

What is the Truth? You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you; you are loved; you are provided for; you are rescued. The Truth is you are protected, redeemed, forgiven, restored, chosen, and you have been given beauty for ashes.

To live hope means to daily take a stand to remember not only who God is, but who you are in Christ.

To live hope means to speak the Word of God, the Word of life, His breath of life into situations that the world would consider hopeless. The bones are dry and dead, but the breath of God restores.

To live hope is to live in truth, to live in Christ because He is the truth that covers and revives us.

To live hope is to live daily in the promises of God, not in circumstances or worldly standards and judgments.

To live hope is to be attached and nourished and sustained by the very hand of God, to be cradled in His embrace, free to take flight like the eagles, to stand on the heights like the deer, and to dance like the angels.” – from The Human Hope Shift – Zilske

Father-God, when I rise up on the wings of Your strength and love, I will not faint or grow weary – that is the Truth.

Week Thirty-three Question:

Is the Son of God getting His chance in me? Is the direct simplicity of the life of God’s Son being worked out exactly as it was worked out in His historic life? Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied in your life or have you got a spiritual strut on? As we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christy that His life is being manifested moment by moment?

“Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God” - Chambers August 9

My Response:

“You say that you may not be living up to your beliefs, but by definition, this is impossible. We always live up or down to our beliefs. Beliefs are the rails which govern our lives. Our trains roll on them whether we like it or not. If your train is not rolling on the set of rails which you claim are yours, it’s because you have diverted your train to another set of rails-these are your true beliefs now, not the rails you left. Unless you first understand this, you can never find what you seek…It’s the greatest misconception in Christianity today. That what you once believed, you will always believe. That to profess is the same as to believe. That a profession made twenty years ago somehow trumps what you really believe today…To believe in Christ is to follow him. To be his apprentice with full intention of living as he lived…Casting all aside for the sake of the treasure” (139-140) from A Man Called Blessed by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright

Father-God, I ask that the direct simplicity of Jesus’ life be made manifest in my life. Transfigure me.

Are you rightly related to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your fellow-students – are you a “good child” there? Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there is something I have not paid for?

“I am a child of God only by regeneration, and as a child of God I am good only as I walk in the light. Prayer with most of us is turned into pious platitude, it is a matter of emotion, mystical communion with God. Spiritually we are all good at producing fogs.  We talk about prayer as if God heard us irrespective of the fact of our relationship to Him. Never say it is not God’s will to give you what you ask, don’t sit down and faint, but find out the reason, turn up the index.” – Chambers August 24

My Response:

What can I say? Lord, help me to “turn up the index.”

Week Thirty-one Question

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe God can come into me and make me holy?

“The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it must reveal that I am unholy; but it also awakens an intense craving. God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men; He did not to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He created them to be holy. The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between, through the Death of Jesus Christ” - Chambers September 1

My Response:

I remember the first time I read the words in 1 Peter 1:16: “Be holy because I am holy” (originally from Leviticus). Growing up as I did attending church every Sunday, holiness was a word used to describe God, Jesus and the Saints. But me? I was to be holy?

Not until I came into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and understood the meaning behind His sacrifice on the cross did I accept it was not what I did that made me holy – but what He did.

Do I have an intense craving for God’s holiness?

Week Thirty Question:

Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to hold it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord?

“When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time. I no longer pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but only to the Reality which produced the experiences. Never nourish an experience which has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result” - Chambers December 21

My Response:

There is a tendency to seek out, elevate and then immortalize the experiences we have. Even those we have with the Lord can displace Him as the center. If I say that something is real because I have had an experience is to teeter on the edge of existentialism.

Father-God, may I never replace or confuse You with the experience.