The Gateway to the Kingdom
The classic devotional book My Untmost For His Highest, written by Oswald Chambers, which I have used in the past as a supplement for my spiritual development, has captured my attention and my heart in a new and fascinating way of late! It's as though I have never read it before! Like these truths are completely new thoughts to entertain as I continue this pilgrimage toward my eternal home.
Take today, for instance! If you have this literary gem tucked away on a shelf somewhere I encourage you to get it out and take a read, or you can access it online.
Today Chambers opens with this brief statement from Scripture "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Matthew 5:3 and then he issues this warning:"Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first... What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near?...I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to dispair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be."
No wonder people are frustrated with Jesus' teachings!
Chambers goes on to say,"As long as we havce a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him.... The bedrock in Jeus Christ's kingdom is poverty, not possession ... a sense of absolute futility - I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says - Blessed are you. That is the entrance and it does take us a long while to beleive we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works."
Once again, I am reminded, It is NOT about me! How foolishly we struggle on our own sometimes when God's help and power lie at our disposal! Christ isn't saying, 'Do this!" Rather, "Let Me do this through you!'
The old adage, "Let go and let God" seems a fitting admonition!
Take today, for instance! If you have this literary gem tucked away on a shelf somewhere I encourage you to get it out and take a read, or you can access it online.
Today Chambers opens with this brief statement from Scripture "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Matthew 5:3 and then he issues this warning:"Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first... What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near?...I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to dispair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be."
No wonder people are frustrated with Jesus' teachings!
Chambers goes on to say,"As long as we havce a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him.... The bedrock in Jeus Christ's kingdom is poverty, not possession ... a sense of absolute futility - I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says - Blessed are you. That is the entrance and it does take us a long while to beleive we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works."
Once again, I am reminded, It is NOT about me! How foolishly we struggle on our own sometimes when God's help and power lie at our disposal! Christ isn't saying, 'Do this!" Rather, "Let Me do this through you!'
The old adage, "Let go and let God" seems a fitting admonition!
posted by Rosalie @ 9:14 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:40 AM,
Atlantic Guy said…
Great thoughts from a gifted writer and follower of Jesus - and Chambers words are good, too.
1-4-3!
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