Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was a prominent early twentieth century Scottish Protestant Christian minister and teacher.Chambers was born 24 July 1874 in Aberdeen, Scotland to devout Baptist parents. He converted in his teen years. While walking home from a service conducted by Charles Spurgeon, he mentioned to his father that, had there been an opportunity, he would have become a Christian. His father, a Baptist minister, wasted no time and helped his son convert right on the street. Chambers developed quickly in his faith, but did not plan to go into ministry. after years of spiritual dryness, Chambers realized that he couldn’t force himself to be holy. Once he realized that the strength and peace he was looking for was Christ himself, Christ’s life in exchange for his sin, he experienced great renewal so much so that he described it as a “radiant, unspeakable emancipation.”
The golden rule for spiritual understanding is not intellect but obedience; behind the deed of obedience is the reality of the Almighty God
Today Jesus Christ is being dispatched as the figurehead of a Religion, a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more; He is salvation itself, He is the Gospel of God.
Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you-or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death.
“There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion- “am I of any use to God?” and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time”
Paul’s idea of service is the same as our Lord’s: “I am among you as He that serveth”; “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the “doormat” of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. “I know how to be abased”, says Paul. This is Paul’s idea of service-“I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference.” So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.
Beware of giving over to mere dreaming when once God has spoken. Leave him to be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights, and go out and obey what He has said. If you are in love, you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time, you go and do something for him; and that is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.
When we pray to be sanctified, are we prepared to face the standard of these verses? We take the term sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of our interests in God. Sanctification means intense concentration on God’s point of view. It means every power of body, soul and spirit chained and kept for God’s purpose only. Are we prepared for God to do in us all that he separated us for?..Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. Are we prepared for what that will cost? It will cost everything that is not of God in us.
The marvel of the Redemptive Reality of God is that the worst and the vilest can never get to the bottom of His Love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but to “to reveal His Son in me”
We are nowhere commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification; we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (John 12:32). It is a travesty to say that Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ travailed in redemption to redeem the whole world, and place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God. The fact that Redemption can be experienced by us is an illustration of the power of the reality of Redemption, but that is not the end of Redemption. If God were human, how sick to the heart and weary He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation, for our sanctification. We tax His energies from morning till night for the things for ourselves-something for me to be delivered from! When we touch the bedrock of the reality of the Gospel of God, we shall never bother God any further with the little personal complaints.
Sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that.
God spilt the life of his son that the world might be saved; are we prepared to spill out our lives?
Naturally we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing…certainty is the mark of the common-sense life; gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we re uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.
Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as he is with you.
There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because his call is to be in comradeship with himself, for his own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what he is after
Obey God in the things he shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. God will never reveal more truth about himself until you have obeyed what you know already…this chapter brings out the delight of real friendship with God
When love, or the Spirit of God, strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality of a man’s “elbows” or his isolated position, but in terms of personality-“that they may be one, even as We are one.” If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.
(Peace) As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends. Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of the unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Spirit, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.
(“I came not to send peace, but a sword Matthew 10:34)Never be sympathetic with the soul whose case makes you come to the conclusion that God is hard. God is more tender than we can conceive, and every now and again He gives us the chance of being the rugged one that He may be the tender One. If a man, cannot get through to God it is because there is a secret thing he does not intend to give up—I will admit I have done wrong, but I no more intend to give up that thing than fly. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with a case like that: we have to get right deep down to the root until there is antagonism and resentment against the message. People want the blessing of God, but they will not stand the thing that goes straight to the quick. If God has had his way with you, your message as His servant is merciless insistence on the one line, cut down the very root, otherwise there will be no healing. Drive home the message until there is no possible refuge from its application. Begin to get at people where they are until you get them to realize what they lack, and then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives—“We never can be that”, then drive it home—“Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You cannot, unless you have a new Spirit” (Luke 11:13). There must be a sense of need before your message is of any use. Thousands of people are happy without God in this world. If I was happy and moral till Jesus came, Why did he come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to Himself
When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.
The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer.
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“Faith never knows where it is being led. But it loves and knows the One Who is leading.”
“We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and
they mean nothing to us, then all of a sudden we see what God means,
because in some particular we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is
opened up.”
“God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ. He expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be manifested.”
