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Daily Reflections with Oswald Chambers [April 18, 2013]
My Utmost for His Highest (The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers;1992) ^ | 1935/1992 | Oswald Chambers

Posted on 04/18/2013 4:07:44 AM PDT by Vision

Readiness

"God called to him . . . . And he said, ’Here I am’"

—Exodus 3:4

When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, and we give no answer. Moses’ reply to God revealed that he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. Yet the man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who receives the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea that some great opportunity or something sensational will be coming our way, and when it does come we are quick to cry out, “Here I am.” Whenever we sense that Jesus Christ is rising up to take authority over some great task, we are there, but we are not ready for some obscure duty.

Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready. Whenever any duty presents itself, we hear God’s voice as our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with the total readiness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us just as His Father did with Him. He can put us wherever He wants, in pleasant duties or in menial ones, because our union with Him is the same as His union with the Father. “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).

Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready— he is ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready once God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the person who is ready, and it is on fire with the presence of God Himself.


TOPICS: Ecumenism; General Discusssion; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: prayer; reflection; selfexamination
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was born July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Converted in his teen years under the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he studied art and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh before answering a call from God to the Christian ministry. He then studied theology at Dunoon College. From 1906-1910 he conducted an itinerant Bible-teaching ministry in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

In 1910, Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen.

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 troops from Australia and New Zealand as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.

Although Oswald Chambers wrote only one book, Baffled to Fight Better, more than thirty titles bear his name. With this one exception, published works were compiled by Mrs. Chambers, a court stenographer, from her verbatim shorthand notes of his messages taken during their seven years of marriage. For half a century following her husband's death she labored to give his words to the world.

My Utmost For His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic.

1 posted on 04/18/2013 4:07:44 AM PDT by Vision
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Come to these threads as you are; leave with what you have discovered.

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

2 posted on 04/18/2013 4:07:58 AM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Religion Moderator; 185JHP; 1lawlady; abigail2; al_c; Alamo-Girl; AlguyA; alpha-8-25-02; ...
Daily Reflections with Oswald Chambers Ping!

"Readiness"
3 posted on 04/18/2013 4:08:22 AM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Vision

Chambers bump! Thanks for the threads and pings, Vision.


4 posted on 04/18/2013 5:41:58 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (Don't be afraid to see what you see. -- Ronald Reagan)
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To: prairiebreeze

Sure


5 posted on 04/18/2013 6:03:11 AM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Vision
Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference.

Indeed. Thank you for this beautiful devotion!
6 posted on 04/18/2013 7:58:47 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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