Thursdays With Oswald—Christ Exhibited In Me

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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.

Christ Exhibited In Me 

     The inspiration of God does not patch up my natural virtues; He re-makes the whole of my being until we find that every virtue we possess is His alone. God does not come in and patch up our good works, He puts in the Spirit that was characteristic of Jesus; it is His patience, His love, and His tenderness and gentleness that are exhibited through us. … When God alters a man’s heart and plants His Spirit within, his actions have the inspiration of God behind them; if they have not, they may have the inspiration of satan. 

From Biblical Psychology

This passage reminds me of a story told about Francis of Assisi. While he was hoeing his garden, someone asked him, “What would you do if you knew you would die at the end of the day today?” Francis thoughtfully replied, “I’d finish hoeing this garden.”

Francis’ view should be ours as well: Every thought, every word, every action is directed by the Spirit of Christ in me. What I am doing now, I’m doing because the Holy Spirit inspired me to do it.

It’s encouraging to know that Christ can be exhibited in everything I think, say, and do. But it’s also very sobering to realize that I need to be constantly tuned in to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

I never want to be out-of-step with the Holy Spirit, but I want all my thoughts, words, and actions to be Christ exhibited in me.

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My Great Desire

From Oswald Chambers—

I want to ask a very personal question—How much do you want to be delivered from? You say, “I want to be delivered from wrong-doing”—then you don’t need to come to Jesus Christ. “I want to walk in the right way according to the judgment of men”—then you don’t need Jesus Christ. But some heart cries out—“I want, God knows I want, that Jesus Christ should do in me all He said He would do.”

How many of us “want” like that?

God grant that this “want” may increase until it swamps every other desire of heart and life.

Do you want, more than you want your food, more than you want your sleep, more than you want anything under heaven, or in heaven, that Jesus Christ might so identify you with Himself that you are His first and last and forever?

God grant that the great longing desire of your heart may begin to awaken as it has never done, not only the desire for the forgiveness of sins, but for identification with Jesus Himself until you say, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

I want Jesus more than anything! I want Him to have all of me!

God, grant that the great desire of my heart may begin to awaken as it have never done before!

Thursdays With Oswald—Melt My Prejudices

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.

Melt My Prejudices

     Until the Holy Spirit comes in we see only along the line of our prejudices. When we let the Holy Spirit come in, He will blow away the lines of our prejudices with His dynamic power, and we can begin to “go” in God’s light. 

     A darkened heart is a terrible thing, because a darkened heart may make a man peaceful. A man says—“My heart is not bad, I am not convicted of sin; all this talk about being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit is so much absurdity.” The natural heart needs the Gospel of Jesus, but it does not want it, it will fight against it, and it takes the convicting Spirit of God to make men and women know they need to experience a radical work of grace in their hearts. …

     The only way to alter the hardened heart is to melt it, and the only power that can melt it is the fire of the Holy Ghost. 

From Biblical Psychology

It’s scary to think that my darkened heart can make me numb to the convicting of the Holy Spirit. All the more reason that I need to pray the prayers of the psalmist:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:10-11)

O, Holy Spirit, melt my prejudices! Keep my heart tender before You!

31 Quotes From “Disciples Indeed”

When I read an Oswald Chamber book, I feel like I could highlight every line on every page! So for Disciples Indeed (you can read my full review by clicking here), I did my very best to narrow it down to my 31 favorite quotes.

“Truth is a Person, not a proposition; if I pin my faith to a logical creed I will be disloyal to the Lord Jesus.”

“If we understood what happens when we use the Word of God, we would use it oftener.”

“Everything the devil does, God over-reaches to serve His own purpose.”

“We continually want to present our understanding of how God has worked in our own experience, consequently we confuse people. Present Jesus Christ, lift Him up, and the Holy Spirit will do in them what He has done in you.”

“Spiritual famine and dearth, if it does not start from sin, starts from dwelling entirely on the experience God gave me instead of on God who gave me the experience. …Whenever I put my experience of life, or my intelligence, or anything other than dependence on God, as the ground of understanding the will of God I rob Him of glory.”

“There is nothing so still and gentle as the checks of the Holy Spirit if they are yielded to, emancipation is the result; but let them be trifled with, and there will come a hardening of the life away from God. Don’t quench the Spirit.”

“The only sign that a particular gift is from the Ascended Christ is that it edifies the Church. Much of our Christian work today is built on what the Apostle pleads it should not be built, viz., the excellencies of the natural virtues.”

“My conscience makes me know what I ought to do, but it does not empower me to do it.”

“In the moral realm if you don’t do things quickly you will never do them. Never postpone a moral decision. Second thoughts on moral matters are always deflections.”

“You often find people in the world are more desirable, easier to get on with, than people in the Kingdom. There is frequently a stubbornness, a self-opinionativeness, in Christians not exhibited by people in the world. If there is to be another Revival it will be through the readjustment of those of us on the inside who call ourselves Christians.”

“The greatest test of Christianity is the wear and tear of daily life, it is like the shining silver, the more it is rubbed the brighter it grows.”

“We have to do more than we are built to do naturally; we have to do all the Almighty builds us to do.”

“Beware of the people who tell you life is simple. Life is such a mass of complications that no man is safe apart from God. Coming to Jesus does not simplify life, it simplifies my relationship to God.”

“God’s idea is that individual Christians should become identified with His purpose for the world. When Christianity becomes over-organized and denominational it is incapable of fulfilling our Lord’s commission; it doesn’t ‘feed His sheep,’ it can’t.”

“When you pray, what conception have you in your mind—your need, or Jesus Christ’s omnipotence?”

“Prayer is the vital breath of the Christian; not the thing that makes him alive, but the evidence that he is alive.”

“By intercessory prayer we can hold off satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them.”

“The greatest answer to prayer is that I am brought into a perfect understanding with God, and that alters my view of actual things.”

“See that you do not use the trick of prayer to cover up what you know you ought to do.”

“The work we do in preparation is meant to get our minds into such order that they are at the service of God for His inspiration. Conscious inspiration is mercifully rare or we would make inspiration our god.”

“Spiritual insight is in accordance with the development of heart purity.”

“Spiritual sloth must be the greatest grief to the Holy Ghost.”

“It is quite true so say ‘I can’t live a holy life’; but you can decide to let Jesus make you holy. ‘I can’t do away with my past’; but you can decide to let Jesus do away with it.”

“If I make personal holiness a cause instead of an effect I become shallow, no matter how profound I seem. It means I am far more concerned about being speckless than about being real; far more concerned about keeping my garments white than about being devoted to Jesus Christ.”

“Freedom is the ability not to insist on my rights, but to see that God gets His.”

“Beware of saying, ‘I haven’t time to read the Bible, or to pray’; say rather, ‘I haven’t disciplined myself to do these things.’”

“Weighing the pros and cons for and against a statement of Jesus Christ’s means that for the time being I refuse to obey Him.”

“If my testimony makes anyone wish to emulate me, it is a mistaken testimony, it is not a witness to Jesus. The Holy Spirit will only witness to a testimony when Jesus Christ is exalted higher than the testimony.”

“As you go on with God He will give you thoughts that are bit too big for you.”

“How many people have you made homesick for God?”

“Christian service is not our work; loyalty to Jesus is our work.”

Thursdays With Oswald—Don’t Love People Too Highly

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 Love People Too Highly

     The natural man does not like God’s commands; he will not have them, he covers them over and ignores them. Jesus said the first commandment is: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” [Mark 12:29-31]. Men put the second commandment first: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The great cry today is “love for mankind.” The cry of Jesus is “love for God first,” and this love, the highest love, the supreme, passionate devotion of the life, springs from the inner center. 

From Biblical Psychology 

I can only love my wife as I understand how Jesus loves me.

I can only love my kids as I understand how my Heavenly Father loves me.

I can only learn to love my friends as I learn how the Holy Spirit reveals God’s love to me.

If I want to love others better, I must learn to love God more fully: with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength.

Don’t try to love people more than you love God, because it cannot be done.

Pornography Robs A Man Of His Humanness

Last week I shared some thoughts from Oswald Chambers on dealing with temptation.

In our internet age, where pornography is so easily accessible, this is a temptation that way too many people battle so often. This is a temptation that you can defeat, but you cannot defeat it on your own!

Here are some very insightful thoughts from Ed Welch, a Christian counselor, that may help you be victorious in your battle with pornography—

Thursdays With Oswald—Temptation

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.

Temptation 

     The old Puritan idea that the devil tempts men had this remarkable effect, it produced the man of iron who fought; the modern idea of blaming his heredity or his circumstance produces the man who succumbs at once. … 

     When we say a thing is “satanic” we mean something abominable according to our standards: the Bible mean something remarkably subtle and wise. … The Holy Spirit is the only One who can detect the temptations of satan, neither our common sense nor our human wisdom can detect them as temptations. …

     satan does not tempt to gross sins, the one thing he tempts to is putting myself as master instead of God. …How are we to face the tempter? By prayer? No. With the Word of God? No. Face the tempter with Jesus Christ, and He will apply the Word of God to you, and the temptation will cease. “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). The moments of severest temptation are the moments of His divinest help. 

From Disciples Indeed 

There’s not much to add to Oswald Chambers’ words, except this: Beware of your pride which says, “I am above temptation.” The Bible says,

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12).

And one more thought: Beware of your pride which says, “I can defeat temptation on my own!” In order to defeat temptation you need (a) God’s Word to fortify you, (b) the Holy Spirit to apply that Word; (c) Christ’s nature to stand up to the tempter; and (d) iron-sharp friends who will hold you up and hold you accountable.

You will be tempted.

You can defeat temptation.

You cannot defeat temptation on your own.

Disciples Indeed (book review)

If you’ve been keeping track of my reading habits, you will know how much I appreciate the wisdom of Oswald Chambers. If you are not as familiar with his works, a great book for pastors and ministry leaders to get initiated into his wisdom is Disciples Indeed.

One reason that My Utmost For His Highest has been so popular (I believe) is the singular thought that Chambers presents each day. In Disciples Indeed you are taken into Chambers’ classroom at the Bible Training College in London, where he is instructing those preparing themselves for full-time vocational ministry. His teaching style was not to weigh his students down with lengthy lectures, but to give these students a place to think more deeply about the things of God.

Disciples Indeed is made up of nearly two dozen lectures. Each lecture presents a single thought in a series of small paragraphs, some of them only a single sentence in length. Chambers’ style of teaching in bullet-point fashion was intended to present profound truths upon which the student could meditate at length. Each chapter appears short on the pages of the book, but there is so much in each lecture for us to ponder.

I highly recommend Disciples Indeed to all “Christian workers” (as Oswald Chambers called his students) who have answered God’s call on their lives to step into a role of teacher, pastor, evangelist, youth leader, or the like. I am confident that your biblical thinking will be greatly enhanced by “sitting in” on these lectures.

Need Power?

In many ways, Labor Day marks the beginning of a “new year.” The summer fun is behind us, a new school year is starting, and everyone is settling back into their normal routine.

Undoubtedly many people begin this part of their “new year” with the same excitement as New Year’s Day, with a renewed passion to accomplish greater things. Perhaps you are thinking about some new habits for this “new year.” Or maybe you are taking a deep breath before you have to dive in to all that awaits you in the next few months.

In any case, the greatest and best thing we can do to prepare ourselves is prayer.

I always start January with a week of prayer, so I want to begin this “new year” with a week of prayer as well. So we will be having a special prayer focus September 4-7. The church will be open each evening from 5:30-6:30pm, but I encourage you to pray with us wherever you are during that week.

Here are some great quotes on the power we can gain in prayer:

“Prayer does not equip us for greater works—prayer is the greater work.” —Oswald Chambers 

Prayer provides the powerto do what we love to do, but can’t do without God’s help.” —John Piper 

“The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits…. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life we acquire energy by the hallowed labor of prayer. …Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer cannot do!” —Charles Spurgeon

Thursdays With Oswald—Mirror

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.

Mirror

    It is a wonderful thing that God can cleanse and purify the thinking of our hearts. That is why our Lord says, “Of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45). The Bible says that words are born in the heart, not in the head. …

     Jesus Christ said He always spoke as His Father wished Him to. Did His Father write out the words and tell Him to learn them by heart? No, the mainspring of the heart of Jesus Christ was the mainspring of the heart of God the Father, consequently the words Jesus Christ spoke were the exact expression of God’s thoughts. In our Lord the tongue was in its right place; He never spoke from His head, but always from His heart. 

From Biblical Psychology

Have you ever noticed how friends begin to talk like each other? They laugh at the punchline without the joke being told any longer, because they know it so well.

Or how about married couples who can finish each other’s sentences, because they are so in tune with each other.

Biblical scholars have pointed out the similarity of the writing styles of Luke and the Apostle Paul, probably due to the huge amount of time they spent with each other.

We begin to mirror those with whom we spend the most time.

Jesus Christ had His heart filled with God’s presence, so His words mirrored the thoughts of His Father (John 12:49).

What about me? Whom do I mirror? My vocabulary will tell me who fascinates me most, who has my attention, and who has my heart.

I pray that more and more my words reveal that I mirror my Savior Jesus Christ. May my heart be fascinated and attentive to Him, and then may I never speak from my head, but always from my heart.