Sunday November 24th, 2013 “1st Voice” ________________________________________ My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) “Direction of aspiration” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, . . . so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” Psalm 123:2. ________________________________________ 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: “The afflictions after sanctification are not meant to purify us, but to make us broken bread in the Hands of our Lord to nourish others. Many Christian workers are like Ephraim, “a cake not turned”; they are faddists and cranks, and when they are given out for distribution they produce indigestion instead of giving nourishment.”… Oswald Chambers ________________________________________ My Utmost for His Highest: by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) ________________________________________ “Direction of aspiration” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, . . . so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” Psalm 123:2. This verse is a description of entire reliance upon God. Just as the eyes of the servant are riveted on his master, so our eyes are up unto God and our knowledge of His countenance is gained (cf. Isaiah 53:1. R.V.). Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination, when we begin to say—‘I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.’ We have to realize that no effort can be too high. For instance, you came to a crisis when you made a stand for God and had the witness of the Spirit that all was right, but the weeks have gone by, and the years maybe, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion, ‘Well, after all, was I not a bit too pretentious? Was I not taking a stand a bit too high?’ Your rational friends come and say—‘Don’t be a fool, we knew when you talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a passing impulse, you can’t keep up the strain, God does not expect you to.’ And you say— ‘Well, I suppose I was expecting too much.’ It sounds humble to say it, but it means that reliance on God has gone and reliance on worldly opinion has come in. The danger is lest, no longer relying on God, you ignore the lifting up of your eyes to Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden halt, will you realize how you have been losing out. Whenever there is a leakage, remedy it immediately. Recognize that something has been coming between you and God, and get it readjusted at once.[1] ________________________________________ 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 SILENCE: ________________________________________ “In what ways do I complicate my prayer life unnecessarily?” ________________________________________ Chronological Reading- Thru the Bible in One Year: Today’s Scriptures: Galatians 1-3. biblegateway/passage/?version=NKJV&search=gal+1-3 ________________________________________ Prayers That Avail Much: November 24 “Heavenly Father, You have indicated in Your Word that it is good and pleasant to You for Your Body of believers to dwell together in unity. Then, as we come together in groups of two or more in Your name, Lord Jesus, You said You would be in our midst. You also said that anything we agree upon that is in line with Your will, it will be done for us by our Father God! In the name of Jesus, cleanse me and purify me so I will be a contributor to the unity of the entire Body of Christ. Amen.” Psalm 133:1•3, AMP; Matthew 18:19,20. Daily Confession “Nothing is impossible to me as I walk in one accord with the Body of Christ.” ________________________________________ “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 Origin of Our Salvation 2 Peter 1:16 Revelation is not primarily in my soul, but in a fact which is in the chain of history. In preaching the Gospel remember that salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is the gateway through which salvation comes into our conscious life, the evidence of a right relationship to Jesus Christ. Never preach experience, preach the great thought of God that lies behind. People stagnate because they never get beyond the image of their experiences into the life of God which transcends all experience. Jesus Christ Himself is the Revelation, and all our experiences must be traced back to Him and kept there. The Supernaturalness of Our Salvation (Ephesians 1:7; John 3:7-8) The Gospel is a gift to our poverty, not a triumph of our resource. Beware of a false spirituality that is not based on the rugged facts of our religion. One rugged fact is the forgiveness of sins—“we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness is the Divine miracle of grace. Have we ever contemplated the amazing fact that God through the Death of Jesus Christ forgives us for every wrong we have ever done, not because we are sorry, but out of His sheer mercy? God’s forgiveness is only natural in the supernatural domain. Another rugged fact is the need for new birth—“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again,” that is, you must be invaded by the Spirit of God by means of a supernatural recreation. Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind. Beware of the tendency to water down the supernatural in religion. The Essence of Our Salvation (Ephesians 4:13-16) Man’s extremity elicits the central resources of God the Saviour. Personality sometimes hinders the Gospel, people are swept off their feet not by the truth presented but by the tremendous force of the personality that presents it. Personality is used by God to emphasise a neglected truth, but the Toms, Dicks and Harrys are the ones used to spread a knowledge of salvation amongst men. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That is the only standard for the preacher of the Gospel. John the Baptist is stating the truth that we have no right as preachers on the ground of our personality, but only because of the message we proclaim. We have to bring an Absolute Christ to the needs of men, not to their conditions. So many preach the human aspect of Christ, His sympathy for the bereaved and the suffering and sin-stained, and men listen whilst Christ is brought down to their conditions; but a preacher has to bring the Gospel of God to men’s needs, and to do this he has to uncover their need and men resent this—“I don’t want to accept the verdict on myself that Jesus Christ brings; I don’t believe I am so sinful as He reveals.” A man never believes what Jesus Christ says about the human heart until the Holy Ghost gives him the startling revelation of the truth of His diagnosis (see Mark 7:20-23). Paul was never appealed to fundamentally by the distresses of men, he was appealed to only by the Cross of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). There are any number of people who awaken sympathy for the conditions of men and speak of the tragedy of human life to the one who presents the tragedy of Redemption, a broken-hearted God. As a preacher, never remember the conditions of men, remember only the rugged facts of our salvation, and never attempt to guard them. 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. 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Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 13:21:57 +0000
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