Thursdays With Oswald— Publicly Holy

November 3, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Publicly Holy

     Try and develop a holy life in private, and you find it cannot be done. Individuals can only live the true life when they are dependent on one another. …

     In the early Middle Ages people had the idea that Christianity meant living a holy life apart from the world and its sociability, apart from its work and citizenship. That type of holiness is foreign to the New Testament; it cannot be reconciled with the records of the life of Jesus. The people of His day called Him “the Friend of publicans and sinners” because He spent so much time with them.

From Biblical Ethics

Jesus never told us to stay, but to go.

He didn’t tell us to separate, but to season and shine.

We cannot influence people from a distance. We must live and work and interact where they are.

Jesus taught us: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Jesus prayed for us: “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. … As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. (John 17:15, 18)

I must be around people who need to see The Light.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Not To Tell Us, But To Make Us

October 27, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Not To Tell Us, But To Make Us

     Our righteousness has to be in excess of the righteousness of the man whose external conduct is blameless according to the law—what does that produce? despair straightaway. When we hear Jesus say “Blessed are the pure in heart,” our answer, if we are awake is, “My God, how am I going to be pure in heart? If ever I am to be blameless down to the deepest recesses of my intentions, You must do something mighty in me.” That is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do. He did not come to tell us to be holy, but to make us holy.

From Biblical Ethics

Does it ever bother you that Jesus tells us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”? It bothers me, because it sounds too hard, even unrealistic. Okay, let’s be honest: It sounds impossible!

It is impossible if I try to be perfectly righteous on my own. But the death and resurrection of Jesus paid for my atonement—my “at one-ment” with God. And Jesus has also asked the Father to send me the Holy Spirit. He is sanctifying me — making me into a holy, perfectly righteous saint in the eyes of my Heavenly Father.

I can’t do it.

But I can surrender and let Him do it.

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Thursdays With Oswald—You Must Say, “You Must”

October 20, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

You Must Say, “You Must”

     If we do not fit ourselves by practice when there is no crisis, we shall find that our nature will fail us when the crisis comes. The grace of God never fails, but we may fail the grace of God. Unless our nervous system is made the ally of the new life from God it becomes a humiliation to us, and we sit down under a tyranny of nerves. Once we receive the Holy Spirit we must sit down to nothing. … When your nervous system, which has been ruled by the wrong disposition, is inclined to say “I can’t,” you must say, “You must,” and to your amazement you find you can!

From Biblical Ethics

The time to learn how to do the God-honoring thing is when there is no crisis in my life. That’s my training time, to prepare me for when the heat is on. The apostle Paul learned this too. As a result of his training, he learned to tell himself, “You must,” in every circumstance:

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can [I must!] do everything through Him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Don’t waste your non-crisis times. Learn from them how God wants to help you in the midst of your crisis.

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Thursdays With Oswald—God’s Silence

October 13, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

God’s Silence

     Has God trusted you with His silence—a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany [John 11:1-6]! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible—with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him—He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes.

From My Utmost For His Highest

Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? Wow! I need to think about this one for awhile…

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Thursdays With Oswald—The Mountain & The Valley

October 6, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

The Mountain And The Valley

    It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life—those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

     …The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.

     …The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God—that is where our faithfulness is revealed.

From My Utmost For His Highest

God gives me mountaintop experiences to prepare me to live for Him in the valley experiences. So I must never doubt in the valley what God revealed to me on the mountain. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

It is true: it is in the valley that I have to live for the glory of God. Otherwise, my experience on the mountaintop was meaningless.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Judging A Life

September 29, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Judging A Life

     God holds us responsible for the way we judge a young [Christian] life; if we judge it by the standards by which we would judge a mature life, we will be grossly unjust. … Be as merciless as God can make you towards the vices of a mature life, but be very gentle and patient with the defects of a growing life.

From Biblical Ethics

It’s a delicate balance that requires true discernment from the Holy Spirit. The ‘defects’ that we see in those who are new in the Christian walk need gentle correction, but the ‘vices’ of those who should know better by now need to be dealt with forcefully.

I see both the gentle and forceful in Paul’s words to the Corinthian church:

Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

My prayer: God, help me to be perfectly balanced and directed by You. I don’t want to be too forceful with the young, nor too gentle with the mature. I want to see everyone growing in their relationship with You.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Unblameable In The Sight Of God

September 22, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Unblameable In The Sight Of God

     If the ‘Oughts’ of the Old Testament were difficult to obey, Our Lord’s teaching is unfathomably more difficult. … Jesus Christ does not simply say, ‘Thou shalt not do certain things’; He demands that we have such a condition of the heart that we never even think of doing them, every thought and imagination of heart and mind is to be unblameable in the sight of God.

     …The purity God demands is impossible unless we can be re-made from within, and that is what Jesus Christ undertakes to do through the Atonement. … It is not a question of applying Jesus Christ’s principles to our actual life first of all, but of applying them to our relationship to Himself, then as we keep our souls open in relation to Him our conscience will decide how we are to act of that relationship.

From Biblical Ethics

I want every part of my life to be unblameable in the sight of God. I have to keep the eyes of my heart fixed on Jesus.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

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Thursdays With Oswald—Stop Doing That!

September 15, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Stop Doing That!

     Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. … We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory.

From My Utmost For His Highest

I’m usually pretty good at making To-Do lists. But how am I at making Don’t-Do lists?

I need find those things that are holding me back, and deliberately destroy them—totally neglect them, and let them die from starvation. Doing has a certain power in my spiritual growth, but not doing can have an equal power as well.

“The average human being in any line of work could double his productive [or spiritual] capacity overnight if he began right now to do all the things he knows he should do, and to stop doing all the things he knows he should not do.” —Elmer G. Letterman

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Thursdays With Oswald—Beautiful Grapes

September 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Beautiful Grapes

     If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us—and we cannot measure that at all.

From My Utmost For His Highest

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Holy Spirit wants to bring to maturity ALL of these fruit in my life. Not so that I can pat myself on my back and say, “Look at how fruitful I am!” But so that God may squeeze me out where He needs me.

So I’m pondering…

  • Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to develop this fruit in me?
  • When I am fruitful, am I allowing God to squeeze me? Or do I run from it?
  • What good is to be a Christian without bearing fruit?
  • What good is it to have the fruit but not let God squeeze it?

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Thursdays With Oswald—Don’t Live In The Past

September 1, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

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 Live In The Past

     The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life.

From My Utmost For His Highest

“I remember when…”

“Wasn’t it wonderful when God…”

“That retreat / missions trip / revival service was so meaningful…”

Although they were wonderful and meaningful, I cannot live on these past experiences. If what took place in the past still seems like the most wonderful thing that God ever did in my life, I haven’t grown very much.

God’s mercies are new every morning. And my experiences with him should be new every morning too. In fact, they shouldn’t even become one-time experiences with God, but daily encounters with Him.

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