Posted on 12/27/2005 10:28:17 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must "put on the new man . . ." ( Ephesians 4:24 ). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, "I won’t submit." We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
In 1910 Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen, who still resides in London (as of 1992).
In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.
My Utmost for His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and in this, the last decade of the century, remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic. [from the flyleaf of the book]
Absolutely no flaming! These daily threads are intended to be devotional in nature. If a particular day's offering says nothing to you, please just go on and wait for the next day. Consider these threads a DMZ of sorts, a place where a perpetual truce is in effect and a place where all other arguments and disagreements from other times and places are left behind.
I can attest from personal experience that reading from Chambers daily will almost certainly change - not one's faith - but one's perspective of his/her own faith, and open up new vistas in your spiritual life. If - when - this happens to a reader of these threads, and they choose to share what has happened within them - we are treading on hallowed ground. Be respectful.
- Religion Moderator
O Lord,
Open our eyes,
let the scales fall off
and let us see
the pain
and grief
and anger
and rage
and hate
and misery
and loneliness
and sickness
and sorrow
that permeates around us,
and how we effect it,
and how we should react to it.
Lord,
make our hearts burn
with the love that knows
that our actions count,
even in that little cup of water given,
that refusal to be angry,
saying the kind word instead of the cutting one,
praying instead of cursing,
smiling,
hoping,
loving.
Lord,
Open our eyes
to how we should respond
to loving you,
to the needs of our neighbor.
Help us to see what we are doing
when we find excuses
to not help,
when we find reasons
not to forgive,
when we wrap our anger around us
like a dark, motheaten cloak
dipped in acid,
pretending it is the cloak of your righteousness.
Teach us always to love
in the way you loved us,
You who loved us through the pain
of rejection,
torture
and death,
not afraid of the cost.
Open our eyes, Lord,
let the scales fall off
so we can see how we waffle,
how we compromise,
how we stall,
and falling on our knees,
let us come to you
at the foot of the cross
and be renewed.
Amen.
Amen! Thank you for your prayer and meditation!
GOODMORNING AND GRACE TO ALL BRETHREN!
"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of
God."
- Galatians 2:20
When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all
said, "Live"; and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely
essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are
incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which
grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none
other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs
into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our
souls and Jesus.
Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it
as its firstfruit.
It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious
Head.
"Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
In the economy of gospel types,
And symbols apposite-the Church's neck;
Identifying her in will and work
With him ascended?"
Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She
knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose
her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly
grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving
embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is
established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth
streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both
the bride and bridegroom love to drink.
When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and
Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as
flowing through the veins of each.
Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared
for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.
C.H.SPURGEON
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
I love today's devotional reading from Chambers: Indeed, we press on!
Beautiful, truthful verses.... Thank you!
What is maturity?.. Accumulation of facts, guile, street wisdom, craftiness, talent, cleverness, facility, finesse, ingenuity, mastery, skill, slickness, smoothness, wit, cunning....WHAT?...
There is nothing as self-centered as a new born.. A new born don't even know its MoM is its MoM.. or even what a MoM is.. All a new born knows about is, it has needs.. We are supposed to grow out of that.. and do somewhat.. Seems to me immaturity is self-centered'ness or as some say a second reality.. and maturity is the opposite.. Also a new born is not very grateful.. because gratitude comes from the lack of self-centerness.. As self-centerness wanes gratitude rushes in to fill the void, and increases..
Big difference between a self-centered child and a grateful one.. Can one be a self-centered Christian?.. or a Grateful one?.. Yes.. It is for sure a matter of degrees.. As awareness increases gratitude does too, the lack of awareness is displayed by self-centerness.. Self-centerness is vanity.. Maturity is gratitude in degrees.. The most mature is the most grateful, and the least needy.. Which brings up another subject. What is poverty? and what is wealth?.. but that is for another day..
**Note: If you think this post about you, then it is.
Thank you so much for the beautiful Spurgeon devotion!
Thank you oh so very much for the warm welcome and kudos for our gracious and wise betty boop!
When I think of Chambers' exhortation, I think of how a child trusts his parents and believes what they say and counts on them. Of course, when the child becomes a teenager at some point thereafter the parents become idiots to him and he is apt to reject them in some way - until the kid finally "adjusts" and the parents start getting smarter again, day by day. LOL!
Anyway, my point is that no matter how needy or self-centered a child may be, he nevertheless believes and trusts his parents. A child who asks his father to pick him up, trusts that he will not be dropped or refused. When he hurts or is hungry or is afraid, he cries out to mommy or daddy. And when a baby nestles into his parent's arms and grabs his shirt with his wee little hands, falling asleep - that is trust.
Even so, the kid may not be at all altruistic and may not be aware of his love for his parents beyond the desire to have them satisfy himself. But that "eros" kind of love (desire) can grow to "philia" (brotherly love) and ultimately, to "agape" (selfless love).
My two cents...
Self-Centeredness has Always Been One of my Main Problems. I Pray our Savior Uses the Trials of Life to Deliver me from this Sin, and that He will Make others and their Well-Being Paramount in my Life.
When we Dwell with our Heavenly Father in His House, how Wonderful it will Be to Be Free of 'the Body of this Death,' as our brother Paul Puts it in Rom. 7! No More Sin!
The Gracious Majesty of Heaven Bless you All!
Teach me to Do Thy Will; for Thou Art my God; Thy Spirit is Good; Lead me into the Land of Uprightness. (Ps.143:10)
Yeah its going around.. A member of my household has that problem too.. No names, but I live alone..
Pity that some never recover.. and when they reject their parent(s) they also reject God..
Indeed. It is truly sad when that happens.
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