Tag Archive: Surrender

The Habit of Rising To The Occasion

Oswald Chambers 90x115by Oswald Chambers

. . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling . . . —Ephesians 1:18

Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.

You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out your own salvation” which God has worked in you already (Philippians 2:12). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it “out”? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

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May 16th, 2012

Daily Cross-Carrying

A.W. Tozer 90x115by A.W. Tozer

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

Our Lord called men to follow Him but He never made the way look easy. Indeed one gets the distinct impression that He made it appear extremely hard. Sometimes He said things to disciples or prospective disciples that we today discreetly avoid repeating when we are trying to win men to Him. What present-day evangelist would have the courage to tell an inquirer,

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:24-25)?

And do not we do some tall explaining when someone asks us what Jesus meant when He said,

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law" (Matt. 10:34-35)?

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May 13th, 2012

The Sovereign Decrees And Allotments of Your Infinite Wisdom!

John MacDuff 90x115by John MacDuff

"Evening Incense" 1856

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised!" Job 1:21

O my Father, let me feel, even amid the troublous changes of life, that what I am apt to call painful vicissitudes–are the sovereign decrees and allotments of Your infinite wisdom!

Let me rejoice that every bitter drop in the ‘cup of life’–is appointed by my Heavenly Father! May I submissively drink it, saying, "May Your will be done!"

What I cannot now comprehend–be it mine to wait the disclosures of that blessed morning when, standing at the luminous portals of Heaven, I shall joyfully acknowledge that, "You have done all things well!"

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May 11th, 2012

"Stuff"

Jesus Is Lord 90x115by Yeshua (Jesus) Is Lord

Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.

[Corrie Ten Boom]

Ecclesiastes 5:13-14 … There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

Matthew 6:19-21 … Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

2 Corinthians 4:18 … While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. ❤

by Yeshua (Jesus) Is Lord

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May 10th, 2012

Judgment And The Love of God

Oswald Chambers 90x115by Oswald Chambers

The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God . . . —1 Peter 4:17

The Christian servant must never forget that salvation is God’s idea, not man’s; therefore, it has an unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is simply the door through which salvation comes into the conscious level of our life so that we are aware of what has taken place on a much deeper level. Never preach the experience— preach the great thought of God behind the experience. When we preach, we are not simply proclaiming how people can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; we are conveying good news about God.

In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out— it is the sign of the love of God. Never sympathize with someone who finds it difficult to get to God; God is not to blame. It is not for us to figure out the reason for the difficulty, but only to present the truth of God so that the Spirit of God will reveal what is wrong. The greatest test of the quality of our preaching is whether or not it brings everyone to judgment. When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to face with God Himself.

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May 6th, 2012

Vicarious Intercession

Oswald Chambers 90x115by Oswald Chambers

. . having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . —Hebrews 10:19

Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Spiritual stubbornness is the most effective hindrance to intercession, because it is based on a sympathetic “understanding” of things we see in ourselves and others that we think needs no atonement. We have the idea that there are certain good and virtuous things in each of us that do not need to be based on the atonement by the Cross of Christ. Just the sluggishness and lack of interest produced by this kind of thinking makes us unable to intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests and concerns for others, and we get irritated with Him. Yet we are always ready with our own ideas, and our intercession becomes only the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means a radical change of all of our sympathies and interests. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.

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May 5th, 2012

Abide

Jesus Is Lord 90x115by Yeshua (Jesus) Is Lord

Abide in Jesus, the sinless One – which means, give up all of self and its life, and dwell in God’s will and rest in His strength. This is what brings the power that does not commit sin.

[Andrew Murray]

Isaiah 40:29 … He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

John 15:4 … Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Philippians 2:13 … For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1 Peter 1:5 … Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ❤

by Yeshua (Jesus) Is Lord

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April 30th, 2012
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Has America Become The Hotel California?

Todd Strandberg 90x115by Todd Strandberg

In 1979, the Eagles rock band released their most successful album, "Hotel California." When the title song became a huge success, evangelical Christians began wondering if the "Hotel California" referred to a San Francisco hotel purchased by Anton LaVey and converted into the Church of Satan. LaVey’s hotel was located on California Street.

Over the years, the members of Eagles strongly denied any connection to satanism. However, many of their explanations conflicted with each other. The Eagles’ manager, Larry Salter, spilled the beans in a February 28, 1982, Waco Tribune-Herald interview in which he admitted that the Eagles were involved with the church of Satan.

There are several clues in the lyrics of Hotel California that point to the dark side: "I was thinking to myself/this could be heaven or this could be hell," and "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device" are two that stand out. But the most chilling verses are the ones that end the song:

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February 16th, 2012