John

The Secret Of The Lord

Dan

By Oswald Chambers

The Lord confides in those who fear him. — Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of true friends? That they tell you secret sorrows? No, that they tell you secret joys. Many people will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the ultimate sign of intimacy is confiding secret joys. Have we ever let God tell us his joys? Or are we so busy telling God our secrets that we leave no room for him to talk to us?

At the beginning of our Christian life, our prayers are full of requests. Then we discover that what God wants is to bring us, through prayer, into a personal relationship with him so that he can reveal his will. Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer is, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Are we so committed to this way of praying that we catch the intimate secrets of God? God may bring us great big blessings, but it is the small, secret things that make us love him, because they show his amazing intimacy with us. They show that he knows every detail of our lives.

“He will instruct them in the ways they should choose” (Psalm 25:12). At the start of our life of faith, we want to be conscious of God guiding us. But as we go on, we no longer need to ask what his will is; the thought of choosing anything else no longer occurs to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God instructs us in every choice we make, guiding our common sense and alerting us when we are in danger of choosing something he doesn’t want. When God checks us in this way, we must obey. Never reason it out and say, “I wonder why I shouldn’t.” Whenever there is doubt, don’t.

2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.

Oswald Chambers was an early-twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher who was aligned with the Holiness Movement. He is best known for the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest

What Is Truth

Dan

This essay was written for a friend of mine who asked me about the nature of Truth. He was  not alone; Pontius Pilate asked “what is truth?”. My one-word answer? Jesus. Every truthful thing in the universe can be found in Jesus the Logos. Wisdom, Truth, and Knowledge originate in Jesus (implied in John 14:6). Truth is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Logos is absolute, rock solid, eternal truth. “I am the Lord thy God – I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

2 Corinthians 10:5 (paraphrased) tells us – We use scripture and wisdom to demolish arguments and every pretense the foolish use against the knowledge of God within us, and the Spirit takes captive of every thought we have, gradually bringing our inner self into obedience with Christ. Read more →

The Never-Failing God

Dan

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5

What path do my thoughts take? Do they turn to what God says or to what I fear? “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” If I am listening to God, I won’t simply take his comforting words and leave it at that; I’ll build upon them, adding words of my own: “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid’” (Hebrews 13:6).

“Never will I leave you.” God has promised that he will never leave us—not for all our sin and selfishness and stubbornness. Have I truly let God say to me that he’ll never leave me? If I have, let me listen again. “Never will I forsake you.” Difficulty isn’t always what makes me think God will forsake me. Sometimes it’s the tedium of the day-to-day, of living with no great challenge to meet, no special vision to pursue, nothing wonderful or beautiful to urge me on. Can I hear God’s promise when life is uninspiring?

We have the idea that God is going to do something exceptional with us, that he’s preparing us for some extraordinary feat. But as we grow in grace, we find that he is glorifying himself through us here and now. If we hold fast to God’s promise, we will find that we have the most amazing strength, and we will learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

2 Chronicles 21-22; John 14

Oswald Chambers was an early-twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher who was aligned with the Holiness Movement. He is best known for the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest

I Am Redeemed

Dan

It has been my observation that Paul presents a clear, unmistakable path for restoration with God in Romans. In Romans 10:9-10 he defined the restoration in simple unambiguous terms. God assures an amazing outcome for every scared timid soul who approaches the one true living God with their head hung in submission, seeking forgiveness. Our redeemer clears the path, we are forgiven. Then, in parallel, the Holy Spirit helps us to slowly assimilate the message until our heart is flooded with a brilliant light that only God can make. In this essay, I want to examine this remarkable path.

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