Clogged wishes ~ and water from Bethlehem's well...

I've been rereading Elisabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity... thinking I'm reading it to see if I think a few of my biggers are ready to read and discuss it as we do some of our home schooling over the summer months. The jury is still out on that decision - but it has been obvious that God has wanted me reading this book, as so much of what she shares, Scriptures to which she directs... it has all been directly applicable to present circumstances in my life. Let me share a few quotes - and these are just from the first few chapters...

"Steadfastness, that is holding on;

patience, that is holding back;

expectancy, that is holding the face up;

obedience, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do;

listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear."

followed by this prayer written in her journal:

"How long, Lord, must I wait?

Never mind, child. Trust me..."

(Elliot was quoting SD Gordon, in his Quiet Talks on Prayer)



Can any of you

relate to any of these sentiments?

"What has been like water from the well of Bethlehem to you recently? Love, friendship, spiritual blessing? Then at the peril of  your soul you take it to satisfy yourself. If you do, you cannot pour it out before the Lord. How am I to pour out spiritual gifts, or natural friendship, or love? How can I give them to the Lord? In one way only - in the determination of the mind, and that takes about two seconds. If I hold spiritual blessings or friendship for myself they will corrupt me, no matter how beautiful they are., I have to pour them out before the Lord, give them to  Him in my mind., though it looks as if I am wasting them, even as David poured the water out on the sand, to be instantly sucked up." (quoting Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest)

" 'Clogged with wishes.' I was wishing that my wishes were what God wished, and if my wishes were not what God wished, I wished that I could wish that my wishes would go away, but the wishes were still there..."

"Do You See Your Calling" - Oswald Chambers

"Separated unto the Gospel." Romans 1.1

"Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the Gospel of God. The one thing that is all important is that the Gospel of God should be realized as the abiding Reality. Reality is not human goodness, nor holiness, nor heaven, nor hell; but Redemption; and the need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker to-day. As workers we have to get used to the revelation that Redemption is the only Reality. Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause, and if we place our faith in human goodness, in the effect of Redemption, we shall go under when the test comes."

Paul did not say he separated himself, but - 'when it pleased God who separated me...' Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness we shall never get near the reality of Redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their own whitness, and not for God. 'Don't ask me to come into contact with the rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.' To talk that way is a sign that the reality of hte Gospel of God has not begun to touch me; there is no reckless abandon to God. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul is unconscious of himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose - to proclaim the Gospel of God."

From My Utmost for His Highest, Jan 31st entry.

More from Oswald Chambers

"I remember . . . the kindness of thy youth."

Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I as full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes...

God is saying to His people -- You are not in love me now, but I remember the time when you were -- "I remember the love of thine espousals." Am I as full of the extravagance of love to Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He find me recalling the time when I didn not care for anything but Himself? Am I there now, or have I become wise over loving Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no account of where I go? or am I watching for the respect due to me; weighing how much service I ought to give?

If, as I recall what God remembers about me, I find He is not what He used to be to me, let it produce shame and humiliation, because that shame will bring the godly sorrow that works repentance.

--------------------------------------------

-from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, Jan. 21 selection.

A Few Thoughts this Cool Tuesday Morning - And a Few Links, too!

"Thomas answered and said unto HIm, My Lord and my God." John xx.28

"Give Me to drink." How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking our thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me" - that means a life of unsullied, uncompromising and unbribed devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us.

Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. It is easier to serve than to be drunk to the dregs. The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him. We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings. Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?(from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, "IT IS THE LORD!" January 18th)

And then, some miscellaneous "stuff:" If you've not read our latest prayer letter, it is posted at our ministry blog site. I have so appreciated what Tim recently shared while preaching at church about seeing others through His eyes and not from our natural, worldly point of view.

So I'm starting to wonder if God is sending me a message, as I read the following post on my favorite blog page. Take a few minutes (if you've got them :) ), to read these quite similar and challenging thoughts.

And last, but not least, another very worthwhile read from Angie at Bring the Rain.

Thursday Thoughts - more from Oswald Chambers

WHAT MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD COSTS OTHER PEOPLE

I remember the first time this thought ever crossed my mind: after watching a drama re-enacting the life of Adoniram Judson entitled "The Cost of Greatness" - that is, greatness in the eye of God. I had promised the Lord as a young girl that I would serve Him as a missionary and I never really wavered from that promise for myself. But watching the story of Adoniram Judson's life was the first time that I realized that my obedience might also cost those I love, those I would never want to see hurt, and that it might cost them even more than I could imagine.

I think that is why this particular devotional has always touched me...

"They laid hold upon one Simon . . . and on him they laid the cross." Luke xxiii. 26.

If we obey God it is going to cost other people, more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything,it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and the will gibe us with it - "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.

Our human pride entrenches itself on this point, and we say - I will never accept anything from anyone. We shall have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (see Luke viii. 2-3).

Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the huiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say - I will not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him.

Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.

PLEASE NOTE:

Devotional taken from Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest, January 11.

"The Cost of Greatness" is the second of 2 plays often performed by the Academy of Arts Christian School recounting the life of Adoniram Judson. If you'd like to find out more about the Academy, check out their website.

A Meditation for this Monday

I've been enjoying rereading through Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest - AGAIN!

"And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless." I Thess. v. 23.

"Your whole spirit . . . " The great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the dim regions of our personality which we cannot get at. Read the 139th Psalm; the Psalmist implies - "Thou art the God of the early mornings, the God of the late at nights, the God of the mountain peakes, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of the earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature - Thou Who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at - my God, search me out."

Do we believe that God can garrison the imagination far beyone where we can go? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" . . . We do not allow our minds to dwell as they should on these great massive truths of God.

-from "Intercessory Introspection," Jan 9th's reading.