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—
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 Hard Word
Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word?—if you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear. … Our Lord has a perfect understanding that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible heartbreak is that some of us prevent its bearing fruit in actual life. …
Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus. It is a terrible thing to see how we keep Jesus Christ waiting. … We twist His words and debate about their meaning, we discuss His teachings and expound His Gospel, and all the time we leave Him absolutely alone because at the center of our heart there is the gnawing grip of one of His hard sayings that keeps us sorrowful, and He waits until we come and lay it all down.
All the time in between has been utterly wasted as far as Jesus Christ is concerned, no matter how active we have been, or how much we have been a blessing to others, because none of it has sprung from devotion to Him but from devotion to an idea….
Not a question of saying, “Lord, I will do it,” but of doing it. There must be the reckless committal of everything to Him with no regard for the consequences.
Jesus, when you speak a word to my heart—no matter how hard it seems—may I quickly obey what You have spoken. May I never waste time trying to figure it out, water it down, or soften a hard word, but may I be recklessly obedient to You.
I am reminded again that my stressful feelings come because things are not going according to my plans. This can only mean one thing: Somehow I have let myself believe that I am in control of all my circumstances!
Enough!It’s time to once and for all give my concerns to the only One who can handle them.
“‘Come unto Me,’ says Jesus, ‘and I will give you rest.’ Do Jesus Christ’s words apply to me? Does He really know my circumstances? Fretting is sinful if you are a child of God. Get back to God and tell Him with shame that you have been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, ‘Lord, I take Thee into my calculation as the biggest factor now!’” —Oswald Chambers
Sola Christo means that it is by Christ’s work alone are we saved. We must get this firmly in our minds, and be aware of anything which reduces Christ, augments Christ, or replaces Christ.
I don’t believe in studying cults (the counterfeit). Instead, I study the Real, the Authentic, the One and Only. I want to know Jesus so well, that I can easily spot a counterfeit.
“There are two things that kill the soul: despair and false hope.” —Augustine
Have you ever been around those who are despairing? They only see darkness; they only feel heaviness; they cannot perceive a way out.
How about those with false hope? They may see a light, but they’re not sure it’s real; the relief they feel is only temporary; nothing seems lasting or sure.
Despair and false hope crush the soul to death.
The word encourage means to inspire with courage … to give someone reason to hope … to breathe true life into their soul.
Political unrest doesn’t disturb the one grounded in real Hope. Economic turmoil doesn’t shake the one who knows the Provider. Social instability doesn’t cause anxiety for the one who knows the Prince of Peace. Death doesn’t crush the one who knows the Resurrected Lord.
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. … Therefore encourage each other with these words.
…But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. … Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when He returns, we can live with Him forever. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 18; 5:8, 10-11)
The good news—the hope-filled news—is Jesus is alive!
A relationship with Him is life!
A life full of hope!
A life full of promise!
A life full of Him that’s unending throughout eternity!
Do you know this hope? Are you sharing this hope with others?
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.
I Hope I Am Insane!
Insanity simply means that a man is differently related to affairs from the majority of other men and is sometimes dangerous. Paul was charged with madness (Acts 26:24-25), and the same charge was brought against Jesus Christ—“For they said, He is beside Himself.”
Have you ever noticed the wisdom of the charge? Both Jesus Christ and Paul were unquestionably mad, according to the standard of the wisdom of this world; they were related to affairs differently from the majority of other men, consequently, for the sake of self-preservation, they must be got rid of. Our Lord was crucified, and Paul was beheaded. When we are imbued with Jesus Christ’s Spirit and are related to life as He was, we shall find that we are considered just as mad according to the standard of this world.
The teachings of Jesus are not only counter-cultural, but they are also are 180-degrees out-of-sync with worldly wisdom. I don’t want to be worldly wise; I want to be called insane by the “wise” men of this world!
Later in this same chapter Oswald Chambers writes:
Read the expositions of the Sermon on the Mount today and you will find some of the cleverest dialectics that have ever been written. The writers try to prove that Jesus is not mad according to the standards of this world; but He is mad, absolutely mad, and there is no apology needed for saying it. Either the modern attitude to things must alter, or it must pronounce Jesus Christ mad.
Holy Spirit, may I never live my life by the “sane” beliefs and practices of this world’s culture, but may I be imbued with Jesus Christ’s Spirit and related to life as He was.
Of all the other sola statements that came out of the Reformation, sola scriptura has to be one of the most foundational. Without a firm understanding of the truthfulness of God’s Word, all other doctrinal statements are without authority. Sola scriptura means that we use the Bible as our authoritative guide for everything in our lives.
Jesus confronted the religious leaders for their misuse and abuse of Scripture. The Sadducees had a tendency to ignore the parts of Scripture which didn’t fit their “theology.” The Pharisees, on the other hand, would over-exaggerate some Scriptures which would leave other passages dwarfed or forgotten.
In Matthew 23, Jesus took on both of these incorrect approaches. What I love is that Jesus didn’t share His opinion, He didn’t argue with them, He didn’t try to convince them to accept His viewpoint. Jesus just took them back to Scripture.
You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God (23:29).
When Jesus said, “You are in error,” the verb tense is the passive voice. This means it was something done to them, not something they did. These religious leaders were not purposely straying from Scripture, but by listening to men instead of God they allowed themselves to be lead astray.
That’s why this insight from Luke is so powerful:
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)
This is great counsel for all of us. We should all listen to pastors and teachers, or read authors, through the filter of Scripture. We need to make sure we aren’t passively straying, and we do this by examining the Scripture.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Do you remember when you got your first job that came with your name on a business card? What about when you were promoted to an office with your name on the door? Even better: what if you became so influential that your name is now on the stationary, or even becomes a part of the organization’s official name?!?
Look at you! You’ve arrived!
At least that’s how a lot of people see it. The more their name is plastered all over something, the more powerful they feel.
On Sunday evenings our Next Level Bible study is looking at the Book of James. In the first week of our study, we barely got past the first word: James. Who was this guy that has his name attached to a book in the Bible?
James was the half-brother of Jesus. In fact, since his name is listed first, he probably was the next oldest sibling after Jesus. Isn’t this the carpenter’s Son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? (Matthew 13:55).
Since Joseph (the earthly father of Jesus) is not mentioned again in the New Testament, many feel he died while Jesus was a teenager. As a result, after Jesus began His public ministry, the head-of-the-household responsibilities would have passed to James.
James met with Jesus one-on-one after His resurrection. Then [Jesus] appeared to James, then to all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:7).
James was recognized by others as the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars… (Galatians 2:9). He was also the chairman of the Council in Acts 15, and his decision was the final decision at that meeting.
From all appearances, it looks as though James has arrived! He’s got his name in all the right places, and is one of the most influential people in the early Church.
Yet look at how James referred to himself: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1).
If James thought he had “arrived,” it was only to arrive as a servant. His name may have been on the business card, or the church door, or the church letterhead. But he was only there to serve!
History gives us two other names for this great man: James The Just and Old Camel Knees (because of how much time he spent kneeling in prayer, and kneeling in service to Jesus and His followers).
If I ever “arrive,” I pray that like James I’ve only arrived to serve!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Aristotle had an insightful quote that was almost accurate—
“Anybody can become angry—that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”
I agree with most of this, but I would argue that it’s not within anybody’s power to express their anger in the right way.
The Bible says that our challenge is to not sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). But most anger is selfishly provoked. That means, I’m angry because I have been offended, or my “rights” have been violated, or someone injured me.
If my anger has been selfishly provoked, how can I be expected to express my anger in any other fashion but selfishly?!
Instead of me trying to manage my anger, I need to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice. There is one important question the Spirit asks us (which comes from Jonah 4:9)—
Do you do well to be angry?
Is it good for me to be angry with this? or should I let this go?
Is my anger righteously provoked? or is it selfishly provoked?
God’s Spirit within you is never silent. He will either confirm that your anger is righteously provoked (as it was with Jesus in John 2:13-17), or it’s selfishly provoked (as it was with Jonah). That’s why you must ask yourself that question and allow the Holy Spirit to help you answer it: Do I do well to be angry?
If you answer “yes,” and the Holy Spirit confirms this in your heart, then He will help you to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way (as Aristotle said).
And if you answer “no,” the Holy Spirit is the only one who can help put out the flames of your anger in a healthy way.
So don’t try to manage your temper. Listen to the Holy Spirit asking you, “Do you do well to be angry?” And let Him guide you from there.
If you want to check out the other messages in our series called Ticked Off!you may click here.
Do you have a hard time saying “No”?
Craig T. Owens 