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.
Contemptible Unbelief
“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). All power is given—unto whom? To the Being who lived a humble, obscure life in Nazareth; the One who says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If all power is given to Jesus Christ, what right have I to insult Him by worrying? If we will let these words of Jesus come into our heart, we shall soon see how contemptible our unbelief is.
… Will I say skeptically, “What does Jesus Christ know about my circumstances? Is His power and understanding sufficient to manage things for me?” To talk like that is the way to realize the size of our unbelief, and to see why Jesus Christ was so stern in condemning it.
From Bringing Sons Unto Glory
I love the phrase from the old hymn—
Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain we bear All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!When I think how All-powerful and All-loving He is, I begin to see how utterly contemptible is my unbelief and my unwillingness to take everything to Him. If all power is given to Jesus Christ, what right have I to insult Him by worrying?
Plastic Donuts is a fresh look at the biblical concepts of tithing and giving offerings. You can read my full book review by clicking here. These are some of the quotes that caught my eye—
“What I didn’t realize was that my lifestyle had frozen my giving at the 10 percent level. When it came to my finances, my lifestyle had all the influence. The issue is not about my needing to sacrifice my lifestyle. The issue is about my giving a gift that is connected to my heart.”
“In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provided instructions on giving, praying, and fasting. For each, He focused on the heart standard but did not provide an amount standard (see Matthew 6:1-18).”
“David praised God seven times a day. Daniel prayed to God three times a day. Moses fasted from food and water twice, for forty days straight. Daniel fasted twenty-one days from rich foods and wine. Where did these faith heroes get their standards? They determined them. It’s human nature to seek something that is concrete, an inviolable guideline, clear marching orders. … But let’s be honest. Are we looking for a rule to follow so we can check it off the list? Or does a strict rule help to soothe a sense of guilt and confusion? It’s always easier to follow rules than to follow a living God. The absence of rules can cause tension in determining the amount of our gifts. Shouldn’t there at least be a minimum? If not, suddenly it’s wide open. Multiple options appear.”
“God is not looking for the same gift from all His children. He wants a personal gift.”
“You may not think you have the ability to give. But if you pay attention, you’ll be surprised at just what abilities you really do have.”
“Tapping your true giving ability will require countercultural lifestyle choices—such as debt-free living or a reduction in your spending.”
“If you want to grow your faith, grow your gratitude. To grow your gratitude, take time to count your blessings.”
“No matter what your ability or inability, God can be pleased with your gift.”
“Could it be that a giving lifestyle apart from love and obedience to God is simply philanthropy?”
“In the end, it is the condition of the giver’s heart that makes the gift pleasing to God.”
It Is Finished was an amazingly confronting and encouraging book. You can read my full book review by clicking here, but below are some of the quotes from David Wilkerson that especially caught my attention…
“Jesus was speaking as co-signer of the covenant. He said, ‘Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are’ (John 17:11). He was saying to the Father, ‘We agreed that I could bring into Our covenant everyone who trusts in Me. Now, Father, I ask You to bring these beloved ones under the same covenant promises You made to Me.”
“The covenant, cut before the world was formed, has in it the sworn oath of almighty God to save and deliver His people from the power and dominion of satan. Faith in Christ brings us into God’s covenant oath to keep us as faithfully as He kept His own Son.”
“This is an ongoing problem with many Christians. We look to the Holy Spirit as some kind of booster shot to empower or energize our human will. We expect Him to build up our supply of grit and determination, so we can stand up to temptation the next time it comes. We cry, ‘Make me strong, Lord! Give me an iron will, so I can withstand all sin.’ But God knows this would only make our flesh stronger, enabling it to boast. … Scripture says the Spirit of God actually ‘subdues’ our sins and turns us from them: ‘He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast our sins into the depths of the sea’ (Micah 7:19). Think of it! Not I, but my God, will subdue and conquer all my sins, by the inner working of the Holy Spirit.”
“God’s Spirit will accomplish in us what our flesh never has been able to do. How? By indwelling us. The New Covenant is all about the Holy Spirit coming to live and work in us, by promise in answer to faith.”
“It is vital for every follower of Jesus not to judge God’s New Covenant promises according to past experiences.”
“God says, ‘There is one work the Spirit must perform in you before any of these others. He is going to put in you the true fear of God concerning sin. He will implant in you a profound awe of My holiness so you will not depart from My commands. Otherwise, your sin will always lead you away from Me.’ Very simply, the Holy Spirit changes the way we look at our sin. … So He shows us how deeply it grieves and provokes Him.”
“Many flesh-driven Christians try to shake off the guilt that God’s convicting arrows produce. They do not want to feel the dread of their sin, so they constantly claim the verse, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). But they neglect to read the last part of this verse: ‘who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.’ If you continue in sin, you are walking in the flesh—and you have no claim on God’s promise of ‘no condemnation.’ The guilt we feel under Holy Spirit conviction is actually a work of God’s grace. It is meant to expose the deceitfulness of sin in us.”
“Ask the Holy Spirit to accomplish in you the precedent work of instilling godly fear in you, to keep your heart open and accepting of God’s Word. When you do, the Spirit promises to give you a soft heart, one that is pliable in His hand. … The implantation of godly fear by the Holy Spirit is designed to produce obedience through surrender, rather than through discipline.”
“God the Father gave His Son, Jesus, access to all of His own riches and wealth. In other words, He invested in Him all the wisdom, knowledge, power and glory of Heaven. And by being made wealthy in all these things, Jesus became the only One worthy to be co-signer of the covenant. ‘By so much more Jesus has become a surety [guarantor, sponsor, co-signer] of a better covenant’ (Hebrews 7:22). Could there be any greater mercy than this? God so loved us that He made His Son rich beyond all comprehension. Then He made Him both our kinsman and our co-signer. He has become the person responsible to settle all our debts. He pays when we cannot.”
“In this covenant, God pledges to do the following four things:
“A stronghold is an accusation planted firmly in your mind. satan establishes strongholds in God’s people by implanting in their minds falsehoods and misconceptions, especially regarding God’s nature.”
“The only weapon that scares the devil and his armies is the same one that scared him in the wilderness temptation of Jesus. That weapon is the truth of the New Covenant—the living Word of God. Only the Lord’s truth can set us free.”
“This is the doctrine of God’s preventing goodness: He has anticipated all our struggles—all our battles with sin, flesh and the devil—and in His mercy and goodness, He has paid our debt before it can even come due. Through the covenant, He has prepaid for all our failures and relapses. His covenant oath assures us of His preventing goodness in our lives.”
“In God’s eyes, our problem is not sin, it is trust. Jesus settled our sin problem once and for all at Calvary. He does not constantly harp on us now, barking, ‘What have you done this time?’ or ‘Now you’ve gone too far,’ or ‘This time you’ve crossed the line.’ No, never! Our Lord’s attitude toward us is just the opposite. His Spirit is constantly wooing us, reminding us of the Father’s lovingkindness—even in the midst of failure.”
David Wilkerson was a gentle man (yes, I did intend for that to be two words). The best definition I’ve heard of gentleness is “strength under control,” and that certainly describes Rev. Wilkerson’s words in It Is Finished: Finding Lasting Victory Over Sin.
Pastor Wilkerson’s words carry all of the weight and authority of an Old Testament prophet crying out, “This is what God says!” But his message is delivered with the lovingkindness of a gentle shepherd. Rev. Wilkerson is hard on those things that keep Christians at a distance from God, but loving on those at-a-distance Christians.
It Is Finished is a series of eleven sermons delivered by Pastor Wilkerson just prior to his death. They deliver a powerful message of God’s redemptive love from a man who was constantly learning what that love really meant. He shares his own personal struggles with feeling accepted by God’s love, and then presents a hope-filled message for all of us to accept the Holy Spirit’s invitation to enter into greater intimacy with our loving Heavenly Father.
These sermons are easy to read and will lift your spirits to new heights in God. I recommend this book to all Christians, but especially to those who struggle with feeling accepted by God.
I am a Chosen Books book reviewer.
“Never has a teacher taken such trouble with his scholars as Jesus Christ will with those who preach His Word. He will spare no pain; no time will be too limited or too long for Him. In the love that took Him to the Cross, He wants to fellowship and converse with us, fashion us, sanctify us, and make us fit for His holy service. Will we not commit ourselves entirely to the love that gave up all for us and look upon it as our greatest joy to have daily fellowship with Him? All you who long for blessing in your ministry, He calls you to abide in Him. Let it be the greatest delight of your life to spend time with God; it will be the surest preparation for fruitful service.” —Andrew Murray
I suggested last week that John Piper’s book Love To The Uttermost is an excellent resource to help guide you through the Holy Week with some fresh insights (you can read my review of this book by clicking here). Here are a few of the fresh insights that stood out to me.
“Luke 12:32 is a verse about the nature of God. It’s a verse about what kind of heart God has. It’s a verse about what makes God glad—not merely about what God will do or what He has to do, but what He delights to do, what He loves to do, and what He takes pleasure in doing. ‘Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ … This is what the word means: God’s joy, His desire, His want and wish and hope and pleasure and gladness and delight, is to give the kingdom to His flock.”
“Jesus was not accidentally entangled in a web of injustice. The saving benefits of His death for sinners were not an afterthought. God planned it all out of infinite love to sinners like us, and He appointed a time. Jesus, who was the very embodiment of His Father’s love for sinners, saw that the time had come and set His face to fulfill His mission: to die in Jerusalem for our sake. ‘No one takes my life from Me,’ Jesus said, ‘I lay it down of my own accord’ (John 10:18).”
“First, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by what it costs him. Second, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by how little we deserve it. Third, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by the greatness of the benefits we receive in being loved. Fourth, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by the freedom with which they love us.”
“[God] does not need us. If we stay away He is not impoverished. He does not need us in order to be happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. But He magnifies His mercy by giving us free access through His Son, in spite of our sin, to the one Reality that can satisfy us completely and forever, namely, Himself.”
“The resurrection of Jesus is given to us as the confirmation or evidence that He was indeed free in laying down His life. And so the resurrection is Christ’s testimony to the freedom of His love. … Of all the great things that Easter means, it also means this: it is a mighty ‘I meant it!’ behind Christ’s death. I meant it! I was free. You see how free I am? You see how much power and authority I have? I was able to avoid it. I have power to take up My life out of the grave. And could I not, then, have devastated My enemies and escaped the Cross? My resurrection is a shout over My love for My sheep: It was free! It was free! I chose it. I embraced it. I was not caught. I was not cornered. Nothing can constrain Me to do what I do not choose to do. I had power to take My life from death. And I have taken My life from death. How much more, then, could I have kept My life from death! I am alive to show you that I really loved you. I freely loved you. Nobody forced Me to it. And I am now alive to spend eternity loving you with omnipotent resurrection love forever and ever. Come to Me, all you sinners who need a Savior. And I will forgive you and accept you and love you with all My heart forevermore.”
As I am preparing both a Good Friday message and an Easter message, I am immersed in the details of Christ’s passion for us. There are so many thoughts swirling through my head about the amazing, unequaled, undeserved, overflowing love that Jesus has for us.
See from His head, His hands, His feet / Sorrow and love flow mingled down! / Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, / Or thorns compose so rich a crown? (Isaac Watts, When I Survey The Wondrous Cross)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
That Christ should join so freely in the scheme / Although it meant His death on Calvary / Did ever human tongue find nobler theme / Than love divine that ransomed me?
Such love, such wondrous love / Such love, such wondrous love / That God should love a sinner such as I / How wonderful is love like this!
That for a willful outcast such as I / The Father planned, the Savior bled and died / Redemption for a worthless slave to buy / Who long had law and grace defied (C.Bishop, Such Love)
Because of the joy awaiting Him, Jesus endured the Cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. (Hebrews 12:2)
I hope this week you will reflect on God’s amazing grace, Christ’s great love, and the Holy Spirit’s persistent drawing of your heart. Jesus died for us so that we could be brought into a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father!
If you are in the Cedar Springs area, please join me in celebrating with our churches our combined Good Friday service, or our Easter morning breakfast drama called Conspiracy!
As we approach Easter, we approach one of the most pivotal times in the greatest story ever told: They story of Jesus Christ’s victory over satan and death! Each year I look forward to allowing the Holy Spirit to show me something new about this amazing story. A great resource this year is going to be Love To The Uttermost by John Piper.
This is a FREE ebook from Desiring God which will guide you through Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday. For each of the eight days of this week Pastor Piper gives us a new angle to explore in Christ’s love that led Him to the Cross, and overcame the grave. Each day’s reading will only take you a few minutes, but the central truth shared will give you something to meditate upon all day.
I read through this entire book quickly in order to write this review, but now I’m looking forward to re-reading it beginning on Palm Sunday!
You can download this FREE ebook by clicking here.
I promise you that you will discover something fresh and exciting about our Savior’s love each day that you read Love To The Uttermost.
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.
Our Father
Think for one minute, have you behaved today as though God were your Father or have you to hang your head in absolute shame before Him for the miserable, mean, unworthy thoughts you have had about your life?
It all springs from one thing, you have lost hold of the idea that God is your Father. Some of us are such fussy, busy people, refusing to look up and realize the tremendous revelation in Jesus Christ’s words—“Your heavenly Father knows what you need….”
From He Shall Glorify Me
What an amazing thought that when Jesus taught us to pray, He said we could address Almighty God with the affectionate title of “Our Father.” In his book Who Do You Think You Are?, Mark Driscoll points out:
“In the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, God is referred to only as Father roughly fourteen times—and each time it’s impersonally, in reference to the nation of Israel, not to individuals. Everything radically changed with Jesus. He spoke of God as Father more than sixty times in the New Testament.”
Your heavenly Father loves you more than you can possibly imagine! Let that truth sink in. Don’t give in to the thoughts that your life is not very valuable, or even that God doesn’t like you very much.
God loves you as if you were the only person on earth to love! And He sent Jesus to earth to make it possible for you to be adopted into His family, to call Him Father. Even more than that, to call Him “Daddy God” (see Romans 8:15-17).
Live in your heavenly Father’s love today.
Craig T. Owens 