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.
Stay True To The Word
We must disabuse our minds of the idea that God sits like a Judge on a throne and batters humanity into shape. …
We have to remember that an enthusiasm for humanity which ignores the Bible is sure to end in disaster. …
It is quite possible for the human mind to blot God out of its thinking entirely, and to work along the line of the elements which are the same in every man, and to band the whole of the human race into a solid atheistic community. …
When men depart from the Bible they call humanity “God” in differing terms; the use of the term “God” means nothing to them, God is simply the name given to the general tendencies which further men’s interests. This spirit is honeycombing everything, we find it coming into the way we talk of Christian experience; there is creeping in the idea that God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are simply meant to bless us, to further our interests. …
Watch the tendency abroad today; people want to get rid of Jesus Christ, they cannot prove that He did not live, or that He was not a remarkable Man; but they set to work to dissolve Him by analysis, to say He was not really God Incarnate. Jesus Christ always upsets the calculations of humanity; that is what made Voltaire say “Crucify the wretch, stamp Him and His crazy tale out,” because He was the stumbling block to all the reasonings of men. You cannot work Jesus Christ into any system of thinking. If you could keep Him out, everything could be explained. The world could be explained by evolution, but you cannot fit Jesus Christ into the theory of evolution. Jesus Christ is an annoyance to satan, a thorn in the side of the world at large, an absolute distress to sin in the individual.
From The Philosophy Of Sin
Oswald Chambers always penned wise words, but what makes his words so wise is that they are solidly rooted in Scripture.
In the above passages, Chambers warns us what happens when we forget the word of God as given to us in the Bible:
- We see God as harsh and unloving
- We make short-sighted decisions
- We build a community in our image
- We all have a different idea of who God is
- We make “God” fit into our own molds
- We water down who Jesus is
- We create new worldviews not consistent with God’s design
Bottom line: Stay in the Word. Make Bible reading a regular part of your life, so that you don’t get caught up in the churning waves of “popular” culture.
Craig T. Owens 
9 Quotes From “Light And Truth in the Gospels”
September 23, 2015 — Craig T. Owens“Man’s love of man is according to merit, on expectation of response; God’s love of man has no reference to deserving or to return. Man’s love of man is contracted, exclusive, and grudging; God’s love to man is as boundless as it is free. He forgives without condition; He loves without reserve; He blesses without measure or end.”
“God takes man as he is, simply a sinner, ‘without strength,’ and without goodness. He does not ask man to meet Him halfway between earth and heaven; He comes down all the way to earth in the Person of His Incarnate Son. He does not resort to half-measures, nor is He content with half-payment. He comes down to man in absolute and unconditional love; without terms or bargains; Himself paying the whole price, and thus leaving nothing for the sinner but to except the frank forgiveness which His boundless love has brought.”
“Our giving depends much on the state of our minds at the moment. When depressed, we have no pleasure in giving; we either refuse, or we give merely to get quit of the applicant. Darkness of mind shrivels us up, makes us selfish, neglectful of others. When full of joy, giving seems our element—our joy overflows in this way; we cannot help giving; we delight in applications; we seek opportunities of giving. So with the blessed God. Being altogether happy, His delight is to give; His perfect blessedness flows out in giving. We can never come wrongly to such an infinitely happy Being.”
“From Genesis to Revelation we hear His voice. It is the voice of love. ‘Come unto Me’ is the burden of the Old Testament as well as of the New. It is not merely that each chapter speaks of Jesus; but in each chapter Jesus speaks to us. And each verse, He is lying in wait for us.”
“Poor wanderer, you need not then try to cover your rags, or to hide your filth, or to try to make yourself more like what you were in order to attract your Father. It is just that which you are which excites His compassion. … God comes up to the sinner with the fullness of reconciliation in His heart. He does not stay to be entreated, or pleaded with, or persuaded. He hastens up to us, and embraces us in the fullness of His heart.”
“We poor prodigals must be gloriously clad! Not sack cloth, nor cast-off raiment, nor a servant’s dress; not Adam’s nor an angels’ righteousness; but something better than all—the robe of Jesus! … The prodigal is not to go in search of it. It must be brought out to him. On the spot; just where he is and as he is, bring it out, bring it to him. … It is not, ‘Give it to him, and let him put it on himself’; but, ‘Put it on.’ He has but to stand still and allow himself to be thus clothed and blessed. He does nothing. He does not need to do anything. Love does it all. The Father does it all.”
“What is the meaning of God sending His own Son, if less than salvation was intended; if less than Incarnation will do, less than blood, less than death, less than resurrection? Oh let us understand the greatness of God’s provision for us, and in that greatness, read at once our death and our life, our condemnation and our deliverance.”
“Yes; any time, any place, will do for Jesus. His grace is not circumscribed by temple walls, nor tied to ceremonies, nor limited to hours. Samaria, Jericho, Tyre, Jerusalem are all the same to Him. The temple, the highway, the hill-side, the sea-beach, the synagogue, the house, the boat, the graveyard, are all alike to Him and to His grace.”
“Over all Scripture the quickening, life-giving fragrance of His name is defused. Christ and life; life in Christ; Christ our life—these form the very essence, the sum and burden, of the Scriptures. ‘These are they that testify of Me.’”
Check out my review of Light And Truth by clicking here.
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