First Voice, Monday, November 11, 2013 My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) “The supreme climb” “Take now thy son . . .” Genesis 22:2. ________________________________________ My determination is to be my utmost for His Highest. ________________________________________ To be an Uncommon Believer….Let the “First Voice” You Hear in the Morning….Be the Voice of the LORD. ________________________________________ ISAIAH 50: 4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. ________________________________________ Run Today’s Race: “Have you never met the person whose religious life is so exact that you are terrified to come near him? Never have an exercise of religion which blots God clean out.”… Oswald Chambers ________________________________________ Christian Thinking I cannot soar into the heights you show, Nor dive into the deeps that you reveal; But it is much that high things are to know, That deep things are to feel. Jean Ingelow* The safe position in Christian thinking is to remember that there are deeper depths than we can fathom, higher heights than we can know; it keeps us reverent, keeps us from hardening off into a confined, cabined experience of our own. Thinking is not of first importance; life is of first importance. Neither in natural nor in spiritual life do we begin by thinking. Christian thinking means thinking on the basis of things, not thinking in pious terms. With many the experience is right, the life of God is there, but there has been no thinking on the basis of things, and when things hit, there is confusion. If we are going to think along Christian lines and know where to place our individual experiences, it is time we exercised ourselves intellectually as well as spiritually…. ….Oswald Chambers “Conformed To His Image” ….notes from lectures @ Bible Training College, London, 1911-1915. ________________________________________ My Utmost for His Highest: by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) ________________________________________ “The supreme climb” “Take now thy son . . .” Genesis 22:2. God’s command is—Take now, not presently. It is extraordinary how we debate! We know a thing is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it at once. To climb to the height God shows can never be done presently, it must be done now. The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually. “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, . . . and went unto the place of which God had told him” (v. 3). The wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not confer with flesh and blood. Beware when you want to confer with flesh and blood, i.e., your own sympathies, your own insight, anything that is not based on your personal relationship to God. These are the things that compete with and hinder obedience to God. Abraham did not choose the sacrifice. Always guard against self-chosen service for God; self-sacrifice may be a disease. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential order of God for you is a hard time of difficulty, go through with it, but never choose the scene of your martyrdom. God chose the crucible for Abraham, and Abraham made no demur; he went steadily through. If you are not living in touch with Him, it is easy to pass a crude verdict on God. You must go through the crucible before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because in the crucible you learn to know God better. God is working for His highest ends until His purpose and man’s purpose become one. ________________________________________ Prayer is not just an exercise routine God has us on; It’s our business, Our only business. Prayer is our holy occupation. Plain and simple: ________________________________________ OUR HOLY OCCUPATION REQUIRES PURPOSE: ________________________________________ “JESUS prayed, that they may be one, as We are; and when Paul urges us to put on the new man, he is urging on the most practical line that we put on in our actual life the habits that are in perfect accordance with this oneness with God, and that we do it all the time. Then there will come the simple satisfaction of knowing that God is answering the prayer of Jesus Christ. If you want to know what God is after in your life, read John 17. How close to God is Jesus Christ? I and My Father are One. That is what He asks for us, and the Father will not leave us alone until the prayer is answered. Are we hindering the power of God in our lives? Then never let us blame God.” “In what ways do I hinder unity among believers?” “In what ways do I hinder the power of God in my life?” ________________________________________ Chronological Reading- Thru the Bible in One Year: Today’s Scriptures: John 14-17. biblegateway/passage/?version=NKJV&search=john+14-17 ________________________________________ Prayers That Avail Much: November 11 “Lord Jesus, You said that to whom much is given, of him/her much will be required. I want to learn more and more about You, Lord, not just so I can share it with others, but so I will become like You. Gods Word is a mirror of You, Lord Jesus. I will study to show myself approved of You. Although I may never be a renowned teacher of Your Word, Lord, as I share one on one with others, I will speak Your truth. I will not appease the itching ears of those who want to be stroked rather than exhorted with Your Word, in Jesus Name. Amen.” Joshua 1: 8; Luke 12: 48; 2 Timothy 2: 15. Daily Confession: “My heart, eyes and ears are anchored into the truth of God’s Word.” ________________________________________ “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!”…James 5:16. ________________________________________ 2Timothy 2: 1-8; 2 Chronicles 7:14 ________________________________________ To submit prayer requests: E-Prayer’ (NHCC office: [email protected]) ________________________________________ Approved unto God including Facing Reality Oswald Chambers ________________________________________ The Worker 1 Corinthians 9:11-27 The Manner However things move, they do not change us. (a) The External Crush of Things (1 Corinthians 9:18-19) God buries His men in the midst of paltry things, no monuments are erected to them, they are ignored, not because they are unworthy but because they are in the place where they cannot be seen. Who could see Paul in Corinth? Paul only became marvellous after he had gone. All God’s men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. God puts His workers where He puts His Son. This is the age of the humiliation of the saints. Manner is the outcome of matter. Paul’s whole soul and mind and heart were taken up with the great matter of what Jesus Christ came to do, he never lost sight of that one thing (see l Corinthians 2:2). (b) The Ethical Character of Things (1 Corinthians 9:20-27) “I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22 rv). The worker who is not chosen by God says, “I am all things to all men, and nothing in particular to any man.” The stamp of the worker gripped by God is that, slowly and surely, one here and another there is being won for God. The worker chosen by God has to believe what God wishes him to believe, though it cost agony in the process; the worker who chooses to work for God may believe what he likes. It is the latter class who exploit the Bible. Here, in this College,* God can break or bend or mould, just as He chooses. You do not know why He is doing it; He is doing it for One purpose only, that He may be able to say, “This is My man, My woman.” Never choose to be a worker, but when once God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. God will do with you what He never did with you before the call came; He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way. To be continued…. -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Isaiah 40: 28: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” James 4: 8 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ En Agape, Pastor Jim Menke [email protected] New Hope Christian Center 2240 Baty Road Lima, Ohio 45807 [1]Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. October 22 To be ADDED to the “1st VOICE” mailing list… please e-mail: [email protected] and type SUBSCRIBE in the Subject Line. You will be ADDED A.S.A.P.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 10:39:09 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015