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.
Are Christ’s Teachings Nonsense?
Every Christian worker has to decide this question: Is Jesus Christ’s mind infallible, or is the modern Western mind infallible? The tendency abroad today is to think ourselves infallible, and the Bible a jumble up of the most extraordinary stuff, good stuff, but we cannot be expected to accept all its views. That means we believe ourselves to be more infallible than Jesus Christ.
We would repudiate this statement if made baldly, but we all act as if it were true, we all take for granted that Jesus Christ’s teachings are nonsense; we treat them with respect and reverence, but we do not do anything with them, we do not carry them out.
From The Highest Good
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” —Jesus
In the feeding of the vast multitude, Jesus had very little in the way of natural resources: five loaves of bread and two fish. He also had the skepticism of His closest followers.
But all three synoptic gospels record a very telling phrase—Jesus looked up to heaven.
Jesus didn’t look at what He didn’t have; He looked up to His Father in heaven.
Jesus took His eyes off the limited and put them on the Limitless.
Then Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Are you looking at your poverty, or the Provider?
Are you looking at your sickness, or the Healer?
Are you looking at the skeptics, or the Promise?
Are you looking at your confusion, or the All-Knowing?
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” —Jesus Christ, in Matthew 12:36
The King James Version uses the phrase idle words, which is a rather apt description. The root Greek word is the picture of a worker, but the prefix “a” with it means that the worker is either lazy or unemployed. Not only that but he couldn’t care less (“careless”) about his unemployed, unproductive state.
It’s lazy to use whatever word comes to mind, especially if it’s not the right word.
It takes hard work to say the right word at the right time.
It requires great care to leave the wrong word unspoken.
Just prior to the above quote from Jesus, His critics had just thrown out the line, “He casts out demons through the power of the devil.” They didn’t think about what they were saying, so Jesus said, “If you had thought that through before you said it, you would have realized that it makes no sense. That was an idle, unproductive, lazy thing to say.” In the meantime, who knows how many people heard that throw-away line and then turned away from Jesus (see Matthew 12:22-37).
Words have consequences. Idle, careless words may have eternal consequences. I’ll have to stand before God to explain my careless words some day.
“To be a mother is the greatest vocation in the world. No being has a position of such great power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations….” —Hannah Whitall Smith
A great example of this is a woman by the name of Rahab who lived in ancient Jericho. She was doing her best to provide for her family in a very unsavory way: she was a prostitute. Yet this is a woman who is commended for her faith in God (Hebrews 11:31) and her righteous actions (James 2:25).
I know many moms who work hard to provide for their families, sometimes taking jobs that are very difficult and pay a low wage. They still find the time to buy the groceries, fix the meals, do the laundry, help with homework, attend after-school functions, and a million other things. Even after all this they feel inadequate, like they are not quite measuring up to the “best mom” standard.
To those moms, I say this: Look at Rahab, and learn what she learned. Rahab tried to provide for her family too, but when she got to the point where she was completely desperate she turned her family over to God. By helping the young Jewish spies, she turned her back on her countrymen and lost any other options for help. She said, “I believe in God, and I’m willing to trust Him with my family completely” (see Joshua 2:1-13).
As a result, God’s faithfulness to her is something we still are blessed by today. In giving us the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew says this: Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David (Matthew 1:5-6). Rahab went all-in with God, and is now an indispensable part of the lineage of Jesus Christ!
Here’s the pattern for all moms to follow:
Concern for your family → Your utter reliance on God → The salvation of all in your family who will listen → A legacy of God’s provision and faithfulness
Moms, you have great power and you hold in your hands the destiny of nations, if you will just turn your concerns for your family over to God, and leave them in His loving hands.
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.
Moral Choices
Jesus Christ revealed what a normal man should be and in so doing showed how we may become all that God wants us to be. … But Jesus did not come to show us what a holy life was like: He came to make us holy by means of His death.
… When we partake of His life through the experience of regeneration we are put into a state of innocence towards God, and we then have to do what Jesus did, that is, transform that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices.
From Bringing Sons Unto Glory
There’s a song that says, “Now that we’ve found love, what are we going to do with it?” The Holy Spirit asks regenerated Christians the same thing: “Now that you’ve been declared innocent in God Almighty’s sight, how are you going to live?”
Every day you and I are faced with moral choices. Will we try to find the loopholes or the easy way out? Will we justify our ungodly choices? Or will we do what Jesus did and obey God fully?
Now that you’ve been declared innocent, what are you going to do with it?
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Yesterday morning I showed my congregation this verse: As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another… (1 Peter 4:10 KJV). I then asked them, “What do you think of when you see the word minister in this verse?” The first answer given was “pastor.” Others said things like “encourager” and “helper.”
Then I shared that the Greek word for minister is the word from which we get deacon. I then asked them what deacon made them think of. They answered “administrator” and “leader.”
But the closest definition to what we have today for that Greek word is waiter or waitress. The NIV tries to capture this thought when it translates the same verse: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others….
Serving is not something that comes naturally to most people, as typically we prefer to be served.
In biblical times, a disciple was always very devoted to his rabbi. The disciple would serve almost in the role of a servant to his rabbi.
Almost.
Even the rabbis didn’t requite their disciples to remove their sandals, because it was considered so menial and demeaning to the disciple. So foot washing was reserved for the lowliest of servants.
Then along comes Jesus who knows that God has placed all authority under Him (John 13:3), who uses His authority to take on the lowest of lowliest positions: a foot-washer. As He finishes washing, He says, “Now that you’ve seen Me do this, you need to do the same thing: Be the humblest of servants.”
In our culture, most people don’t need to have their feet washed when they come into your home or a restaurant, like they did in first century Israel. It is not the act that is important, but the attitude. Jesus stooped to wash His disciples’ feet. He made Himself lower than anyone else in the room. Jesus showed us that there was nothing beneath Him.
I’ve heard this before: “How do you know you have a servant’s attitude? When you don’t mind that someone treats you like a servant.”
But I think a better question might be: “Do I think anything (or anyone) is beneath me?” If I do, my attitude is not Christ-like (Philippians 2:5-7), nor is it Christ-blessable (John 13:17).
Jesus calls us to be servants—to be waiters and waitresses to others. This will show the love of Jesus like nothing else can.
Check out all of the other messages in our series Live Togetherby clicking here.
This morning we wrapped up our series called Life Together—where we looked at the one another phrases in the New Testament that related to the Church—with the thought of serving one another.
I think this 1-minute video from John Maxwell captures this thought about servanthood well…
From The Personalized Promise Bible we looked at this prayer that comes from the servanthood example of Jesus in John 13:13-17—
Jesus is my Mentor and the Lord of my life. He has left me an example of the greatest servitude the world has ever known. I will do as he did and wash the feet of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I will see the real good and benefit of others through humble service. With a tender heart of compassion, I will take the time to do good to those around me. Through this generosity of service and willingness to give of myself to others, no matter how humbling the service may be, I store up for myself favor upon favor, and blessing upon blessing.
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.
Smiling Complacency
The only way to get out of our smiling complacency about salvation and sanctification is to look at Jesus Christ for two minutes and then read Matthew 5:43-48 and see Who He tells us we are to be like, God Almighty, and every piece of smiling spiritual conceit will be knocked out of us for ever, and the one dominant note of the life will be Jesus Christ first, Jesus Christ second, Jesus Christ third, and our own whiteness nowhere. Never look to your own whiteness; look to Jesus and get power to live as He wants; look away for one second and it all goes wrong.
From The Highest Good
If I compare myself with myself, I look pretty good.
But if I compare myself with the righteous standard of God Almighty, I see who I truly am: a sinner in need of a Savior.
The only way to keep myself from feeling smug about how good I’m doing as a Christian is to keep my eyes on Jesus. I love how Chambers sums it up: Jesus Christ first, Jesus Christ second, Jesus Christ third, and our own whiteness nowhere.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We have become a numbed culture: we try to soften every blow, water down each negative report, ask only surface questions in the hopes that no one will really tell us how much they’re hurting, and then medicate away every symptom. But these symptoms are screaming to be noticed!
Dr. Paul Brand the renown hand surgeon and missionary to leprosy patients in India, wrote:
“Pain contributes daily to a normal person’s quality of life…. Every normal person limps occasionally. Sadly, leprosy patients do not limp. Their injured legs never get the rest needed for healing…. This inability to ‘hear’ pain can cause permanent damage because the body’s careful responses to danger will break down. … A body only possesses unity to the degree that it possesses pain…. We must develop a lower threshold of pain by listening, truly listening, to those who suffer. … The body protects poorly what it does not feel.” —Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey, In His Image
The Gospels often talk of the compassion of Jesus. His compassion led Him to teach the confused, feed the hungry, and heal the sick. The phrase usually used in the NKJV is descriptive: Jesus was moved with compassion. In other words His feelings moved Him to action.
The Old English way of describing compassion was to say someone was “moved in his bowels.” This is because when someone else is suffering it should be like a kick in my gut too.
Jesus gravitated toward the hurting, but in one story He told, Jesus related something different about His Father’s compassion. It’s the story we now call the story of the prodigal son. In this story Jesus said His Father watched the horizons every day to see if His wayward child would return. When He saw this child coming into view, God saw his slumped shoulders, He could detect his heavy heart and worn-out body. Then Jesus says something amazing, “The Father was moved with compassion and He RAN TO HIS SON!”
If our Heavenly Father runs TO another’s pain, what right do we have to ever run AWAY from it?
If we are to be God-honoring in our interaction with others, we need to—as Dr. Brand says—lower our threshold of pain. We need to feel what others feel, to feel it like a kick in our own gut, and then move toward the pain with help and healing and restoration.
Christians—if we are truly Christ-like—should be known as the most compassionate people of anyone.
So we need to always be asking: What am I doing to let this compassion be seen in my life?
Check out all of the other messages in our series Live Togetherby clicking here.
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.
A Glorious Opportunity
If you are a saint, you have a glorious opportunity of following the example of Jesus and being strong enough to decline to exercise your rights.
From Bringing Sons Unto Glory
He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. (Philippians 2:7)
“Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54)
“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
Saints, you have a glorious opportunity to go and live like Jesus.
