Posted on 01/11/2006 9:52:24 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, "Oh, I’m so unworthy." We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.
In 1910 Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen, who still resides in London (as of 1992).
In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.
My Utmost for His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and in this, the last decade of the century, remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic. [from the flyleaf of the book]
Absolutely no flaming! These daily threads are intended to be devotional in nature. If a particular day's offering says nothing to you, please just go on and wait for the next day. Consider these threads a DMZ of sorts, a place where a perpetual truce is in effect and a place where all other arguments and disagreements from other times and places are left behind.
I can attest from personal experience that reading from Chambers daily will almost certainly change - not one's faith - but one's perspective of his/her own faith, and open up new vistas in your spiritual life. If - when - this happens to a reader of these threads, and they choose to share what has happened within them - we are treading on hallowed ground. Be respectful.
- Religion Moderator
He is so faithful to conform us! He uses everything, every last little thing in us and around us and through us to draw us closer into Him in Christ the Word and Spirit and to teach us not only who we are apart from Him, but who we are In Him.
Amen! Thank you so much for your insights and praise!
GOODMORNING AND GRACE TO ALL BRETHREN!
"I have yet to speak on God's behalf."
- Job 36:2
We ought not to court publicity for our virtue, or notoriety for our zeal;
but, at the same time, it is a sin to be always seeking to hide that which
God has bestowed upon us for the good of others. A Christian is not to be
a village in a valley, but "a city set upon a hill;" he is not to be a
candle under a bushel, but a candle in a candlestick, giving light to all.
Retirement may be lovely in its season, and to hide one's self is
doubtless modest, but the hiding of Christ in us can never be justified,
and the keeping back of truth which is precious to ourselves is a sin
against others and an offence against God. If you are of a nervous
temperament and of retiring disposition, take care that you do not too
much indulge this trembling propensity, lest you should be useless to the
church. Seek in the name of him who was not ashamed of you to do some
little violence to your feelings, and tell to others what Christ has told
to you. If thou canst not speak with trumpet tongue, use the still small
voice. If the pulpit must not be thy tribune, if the press may not carry
on its wings thy words, yet say with Peter and John, "Silver and gold have
I none; but such as I have give I thee." By Sychar's well talk to the
Samaritan woman, if thou canst not on the mountain preach a sermon; utter
the praises of Jesus in the house, if not in the temple; in the field, if
not upon the exchange; in the midst of thine own household, if thou canst
not in the midst of the great family of man. From the hidden springs
within let sweetly flowing rivulets of testimony flow forth, giving drink
to every passer-by. Hide not thy talent; trade with it; and thou shalt
bring in good interest to thy Lord and Master. To speak for God will be
refreshing to ourselves, cheering to saints, useful to sinners, and
honouring to the Saviour.
Dumb children are an affliction to their parents.
Lord, unloose all thy children's tongue.
C.H.SPURGEON
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
Chambers' point is very much in keeping with one of the reasons I love Lutheran liturgy. Every Sunday I am reminded that I am a "poor miserable sinner," that I have sinned against God "in thought, word and deed," I express that I am "heartily sorry" for those sins, and receive absolution from Christ Jesus, who is my all-sufficient Redeemer and Lord. Apart from Him I am nothing. In Him my sins are made "white as snow." I am both sinner and saint. Thanks be to God!
Very little room there for self-deluded self-righteousness! Have a great day, A-G, Purp and all!!
Any that says NO I have never been alone with God.. are deluding themselves.. Cause they have, they just don't know it.. When they/we are alone, God is still there.. ANYWAY...
When God seems far away, Who moved?..
Or better, thinks they have moved out of the range of God..
Adam and Eve covering their nakedness were STILL naked to God.. ANYWAY...
Now there's a subject, nakedness.. Being naked in spirit is even more naked than being physically naked.. being naked in spirit makes all thoughts and intents of the heart naked.. Physical nakedness is merely a social gesture, as clothing is..
All our social and intellectual clothing don't fool God for a microsecond.. First, we fool OURSELVES, Second, we fool others.. The human condition is a masquerade, being born again starts the process of removing the disguise(s)..
Its when we are alone with God, often, that we see how silly disguises are.. We first remove them with God then maybe with others.. The human condition is a masquerade on many levels.. A Costume Ball.. Cinderella eat yer heart out.. our Prince is a KING, THE King.. and not a prince at all.. and the wicked sisters, are our mind, emotion and will..
Maranatha Jesus.. whom will wash our feet before trying on the gospel shoes.. ugh pumps..
Thank you so much for the beautiful Spurgeon devotion!
Your post reminded me of the time a lady remarked to me that she wouldn't like God "snooping" on her. I thought to myself, Jeepers, there is nothing in all of Creation He doesn't know about.
It occurs to me, hosepipe, that the only way God doesn't "know" a thing is if He chooses not to - as in when we lift Jesus up, the Father sees Jesus when He sees us - and willfully looks no further to see our litany of past sins.
Actually scripture says once forgiven, the sin is forgotten.. and is (thrown- metaphorically) far as east is from west.. Don't remember where, no matter, forgiven is forgiven..
The only ones obsessed with sin are those that have no idea the power of Jesus Blood and the timeless nature of it.. and the scope of its power.. Usually modern "Pharisees" obsessed with the written law.. missing the Spirit of the law.. Slaves to the letter of the law(rightfully so), and not freed by the Spirit of it by grace and mercy (them personally having neither).. Those are the people that had Jesus murdered by the Romans, and would again.. That today call themselves christians but are really Pharisees.. and they are many..
Sheep are being separated from the goats.. and thats as it should be..
But it should also strike fear in the hearts of many that we are forgiven as we forgive others. People walking around still harboring resentments are effectively asking God to do the same to them.
More; resentment i.e. lack of forgiveness.. makes SLAVES of the resenter.. the offended.. When the offense is done the guilty one has long forgotten it.. but the SLAVE of the offense is tortured by it.. Indeed, God is a genius.. he cut the Gordian Knot(i.e. Alexander the Great) of offense and sin.. Forgiveness is a Holy Thing.. because it is based in Gods forgiveness since God set the ground rules.. There is a time to forgive(which is usually) and a time to cease from forgiving.. When to stop forgiving.?. When your "brother" has offended you seventy times seven.. basically "never"..
WHY?... because lack of forgiveness ENslaves You, not him.. thats why.. Forgive "THEM/HIM" and be FREE... We then, are/can be SO FREE that we will be careful next time in dealing with "THEM/HIM"... so that we are not offended again.. for THEIR sakes(the 'sin' they committed), for we will forgive them again...
Slaves, indeed. Thank you so much for your meditations and insights!
Late, but it's been one of those days:
Forget
the pie crust promises
and santa claus wishes
passing itself off
as truth in the name
of what's holy.
In the darkness of confusion,
here, then, up on the ridge
where all men can see,
is the truth,
a burning torch,
where heaven
and earth meet,
cruciform,
embracing,
one
who is true God
and true man
offering all
for love.
Transformation, then,
is the gift
in the fire
of a God
who held nothing back for love.
Hold on to the wood,
rough hewn,
blood stained,
and look into those eyes,
and if you let them pierce your heart,
like the spear would pierce his,
you will be reborn,
reshaped
breath by breath
step by step
until you can be
truly his,
a lantern
shining in the darkness
filled with his light.
I don't mean to post a long excerpt but this from A.W.Tozer's classic "Pursuit of God" seems apropos:
"To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:
We taste Thee? O Thou Living Bread,
And long teast upon TThee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. "Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight"; and from there he rose to make the daring request, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.
David's life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. "That I may know Him," was the goal of his heart, and to this he sacrificed everything. "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ."
Hymnody is sweet with the longing after God, the God whom, while the singer seeks, he knows he has already found. "His track I see and I'll pursue," sang our fathers only a short generation ago, but that song is heard no more in the great congregation. How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting" Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no more seek Him. This is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy, and it is taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever believed otherwise. Thus the whole testimony of the worshipping, seeking, singing Church on that subject is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.
In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, "O God, show me thy glory." They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God
Tozer.!. Indeed... good post..
Thank you oh so very much for the beautiful meditation and exhortation!
Thank you so very much, blue-duncan! Beautiful.
How loving and lovely. Thank you.
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