Tag Archives: Oswald Chambers

March 26
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23, NKJV)

Perhaps the only state worse than wrong doing is wrong being.

We need to guard against becoming comfortable with a lifestyle that is contrary to God’s will and way.  This is what the Bible calls “sin.”

Oswald Chambers eloquently describes the peril of a conscience that is no longer troubled by wrong-doing: “One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it.  It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll.  No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin.”

Stay close to God through obedience to His scriptures, and through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, and gathering with other members of the family of God for worship and fellowship.  If you persist in these things, you will develop a heart that is sensitive to what pleases God — and what does not.  This is the sure path to life, peace, and joy.  – Luther

Tagged , , ,
March 25
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

Good Friday

Today’s words of encouragement comes special for the remembrance of Good Friday, and is taken from today’s reflection by Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest”:

“. . . who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree . . .”  (1 Peter 2:24)

“The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

“The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8).  The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating ‘God was manifested in the flesh. . .’ from . . . ‘He made Him. . . to be sin for us. . .’ (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

“The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

“The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.”

Tagged , , , ,
February 23
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

“Then he said to the man, ‘Hold out your hand.’  So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one!”  (Matthew 12:13, NLT)

Oswald Chambers reminds us: “God does not give us overcoming life — He gives us life as we overcome.”

The first task in our partnership with God is obedience.  Too often, we say to God, “Show me, and I will go,” when God is saying to us, “Go, and I will show you.”  To do the latter is to live by faith in God.  To do the former is to live by common sight and human insight alone.

Today’s scripture illustrates for us the way in which our heavenly Father works — which is the same as it was centuries before in the call of the “father of the faithful” — Abraham (who was previously named Abram): “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.'” (Genesis 12:1)

It each case — including our own in our day — the great work of God begins with our personal commitment through obedience.  Stretch out your hand.  The overcoming power of God has never been nearer!  – Luther

Tagged , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →