This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
Don’t Try To Be Humble
Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 18:4)
If humility were put up as an ideal it would serve only to increase pride. Humility is not an ideal, it is the unconscious result of the life being rightly related to God and centered in Him. …
If we are born again and obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall unconsciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it. Our eye is not consciously on our service, but on our Savior.
Humility is so very fragile. If you look at your humility, you cannot help feeling pride at how humble you are. And—poof!—your humility disappears.
Oswald Chambers says in essence, “Don’t try to be humble. Don’t look at your humility. Just keep your eyes on Jesus, and serve only Him.” By doing so, you cannot help but live humbly.
“If we are born again and obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall unconsciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it.”
I know I’ve read this verse before, but today it just seemed to leap off the page…
Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.(Hebrews 2:11)
Did you catch that word BOTH? This places me in the same category as God Himself!
I am the one made holy because Jesus died in my place. Jesus paid the price for the forgiveness of my sins, and for the righteousness of God to be given to me!
Then notice it doesn’t say we are being made holy, but madeholy. It is finished.
Now Jesus is pleased to call us His brothers and sisters!
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!
When I read something like this, an important question comes to mind: How should I now live?
Confidently—because I am accepted into God’s family.
Humbly—because I didn’t pay the price, but Jesus paid it on my behalf.
Thankfully—because there is no greater gift I could ever receive.
Christmas is a time of celebration, peace on earth, and goodwill toward men! But have you ever stopped to wonder why the celebration? Yes, it’s the time we celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth, and the advent of His ministry on earth. But what’s the real good news about that?
In the Christmas stories recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, there is a recurring phrase—
FEAR NOT!
Fear paralyzes. Fear blinds. Fear immobilizes. Fear exaggerates all that is wrong. Fear obscures all that is right.
Before Jesus comes into our lives, we are slaves to fear. Before Jesus comes into our lives, we aren’t truly alive.
So let the good news of Christmas ring out again—FEAR NOT!
We will be talking about the good news of this Christmas message each Sunday leading up to Christmas. I hope you can join me at Calvary Assembly of God as we learn more about the fear-busting, joyful news that Jesus can set you free.
If you missed any of the messages in this series, check them out here:
Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. (Titus 3:1 NLT)
According to this verse I don’t see a conflict between the Church and the State.
God calls us as Christians to arrange ourselves properly under the government hierarchy. Submission is not blind followership; submission is obeying all moral laws.
God also calls us to show proper respect to the governing officials, and to be ready to lend a hand to them when we can.
The Church is not in competition with the government. Both the governments of men and the Church are instituted by God. There is a proper role for both. There are some things that should be left to the government, and other things that should be left to the Church, and still other things that both should attend to together.
We need wisdom to know which institution should handle which item. In the meantime, may we Christians always be submissive, obedient, respect, and ready to help.
I loved being in church yesterday morning. I always enjoy being with my church family, but yesterday was extra special, as I got to sit back and watch our young leaders glorify God with their talents.
Our Impact! youth group is so appropriately named because our youth leaders are not only making an impact on our students, but they are teaching them to make an impact in their schools, homes, and workplaces. Yesterday they made an impact on me!
I have the privilege of leading worship alongside many of our young musicians and singers each Sunday, but there is something special about watching them worship God and lead others in worship of Him. Rich led us in an original song which he composed, and the message of God’s love through that song was so moving.
Then Josh, our youth pastor, challenged me to look at obstacles in a different light. He wove together the thoughts about the paralytic’s friends who didn’t let anything stop them from getting their friend to Jesus (Mark 2:1-5), with the simple truth that our faith-in-action can be as simple as giving a drink of water to a thirsty person (James 2:14-18 and Matthew 25:34-40).
Here are three thoughts I tweeted real-time during Josh’s message, and these thoughts are still working on me—
Where's our "sweat effort" in reaching those who need to meet Jesus? @schram77
As I take Jesus to others, I don’t want to let obstacles become roadblocks; instead, I want to see those obstacles as opportunities for God to do something amazing through me. This will not only build my faith, it will win others to Christ, and it will glorify God!
If you live in the Cedar Springs area and have students that are in 6th grade or older, I encourage you to get them to Impact! each Wednesday evening.
How do you feel this morning? Are you still feeling good from your day yesterday? I sure hope you are!
Did you know those good feelings are more from your thoughts than they are from anything else? Check out this insight from Jon Gordon—
“Research shows that grateful people are happier and more likely to maintain good friendships. A state of gratitude, according to research by the Institute of HeartMath, also improves the heart’s rhythmic functioning, which helps us to reduce stress, think more clearly under pressure and heal physically. It’s actually physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time. When you are grateful you flood your body and brain with emotions and endorphins that uplift and energize you rather than the stress hormones that drain you.”
Thanksgiving Day is a good place to start. It’s a good day to begin to flex your gratitude muscles.
But don’t stop there!
Allow those thankful feelings from Thanksgiving Day to expand into multiple thanksgiving dayS.
But don’t stop there!
Let multiple thanksgiving dayS expand into a habit of daily thanksgiving.
But don’t stop there!
Let the habit of daily thanksgiving become a lifestyle of givingthanksgiving—a lifestyle that is always God-focused, Christ-centered, and Spirit-led in constant thanks for everything!
Givingthanksgiving looks like this…
Always giving thanks to God the Father foreverything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20)
Do not be anxious about anything, but ineverything, by prayer and petition, withthanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
For everythingGod created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. (1 Timothy 4:4)
Let’s not limit ourselves to only one day of giving thanks, but a lifestyle of givingthanksgiving every single day!
Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, Amplified Bible)
How about saying “No” to temptations? Perhaps this thought will help.
For the grace of God…teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. (Titus 2:11-12)
How does grace teach me to say, “No”?
The more I realize how much it cost Jesus to extend grace to me, the more I will realize what I can do to show gratitude for this amazing gift. I show my appreciation for this inestimable gift by saying “No” to ungodliness, AND saying “Yes” to godliness.
Saying “Yes” to my sinful passions is like a slap in the face of God. It’s saying that what I want to indulge in is somehow more valuable than Christ’s death on the Cross.
To live a self-controlled, upright, godly life is the bare minimum I can do to show my gratitude to my Savior! Grace is not a license to live as I want to live. Grace teaches me to say “No” to anything that would offend Jesus Christ.
George Whitefield said, “Think of the love of Jesus and let that love constrain you to keep near unto Him.” Which reminds me of a stanza of an old song—
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Have you ever noticed how quickly we label people? We tend to give them a label based on their education, their socio-economic status, their race, their age, their job, even their choice of vocabulary.
We may not verbally express these labels, but we think them. And we will always treat people as we label them! In fact, it’s impossible to treat someone differently than you think about them.
What sort of label does God use? Well, He says that He knit you together in your mother’s womb; that He saw all of the days of your life before you were even a twinkle in your father’s eye; He knows the number of hairs on your head; He knows the thoughts in your head; He knows what you’re going to say before you say it. And then there’s this beautiful thought—
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
The label God puts on you:
My one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable, invaluable masterpiece!
When you are givingthanksgiving for people (that means you are always thankful for people), you will begin to see them as God’s masterpieces too!
Everyone you meet is God’s gift. He gave them to humanity to do the good works which He prepared in advance for them to do. You are surrounded by gifted people!
If you don’t see people this way—or if you tend to label them with less-than-flattering tags—perhaps you should begin to pray for them. Try a prayer like this:
I thank my God for you; in fact, I always thank God for you. And every time I thank God for you, I pray for you, night and day. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And this is also my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. So I urge you to join me in offering requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for everyone.(This prayer is taken from Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Colossians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philippians 1:3-11; 1 Timothy 2:1)
Don’t just express your thanks for people on Thanksgiving Day, but be givingthanksgiving all the time. Remember: everyone you meet is a gifted person because everyone you meet is God’s one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable, invaluable masterpiece.
Don’t Try To Be Humble
Craig T. Owens 