Satanic Perils - Oswald Chambers

This is from the blog Christian Praise and Worship in Sermons and Songs:

Solitude

It is Finished

This is from the blog Theological Jon:

The perfections, also known as the attributes, of God are often abused today. Not that people mess up on the definitions of these beautiful perfections of God, but that it can be rather easy to overemphasize one perfection/attribute over others. Such it is with the love of God. Yes, God is loving, but we must never say that His love outweighs God’s holiness, righteousness, justice, and so on. Yet, it is common to say that God’s love is the only attribute contributing to the salvation of man is dangerously wrong. As Oswald Chambers explains in today’s devotional, God does not forgive us for our sin only because He loves us. Love is an attribute included in the process of forgiveness, but true forgiveness of sins comes only through the death of His Son. This supreme act to forgive man for their sin includes all the attributes of God, not just love. At the cross, we see God’s holiness, righteousness, justice, mercy, grace, love, power, and sovereignty.

It is Finished! 

"I have finished the work which You have given Me to do." 

(John 17:4)

"The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him— something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came.

"Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and the redemption “much ado about nothing.” God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of His death. “We see Jesus…for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor…” (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ— “It is finished!” (John 19:30). That is the final word in the redemption of humankind.

"Anything that lessens or completely obliterates the holiness of God, through a false view of His love, contradicts the truth of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus Christ stands with us, and against God, out of pity and compassion, or that He became a curse for us out of sympathy for us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by divine decree. Our part in realizing the tremendous meaning of His curse is the conviction of sin. Conviction is given to us as a gift of shame and repentance; it is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the sin in people, and Calvary is the measure of His hatred."

--Oswald Chambers

Contrary to Common Sense

The Staggering Question

This is from the blog Theological Jon:

What is man without God? Is man good or able to be good without divine help? Can man achieve favor with God based on their own merits? Ezekiel and the Apostle Paul have valuable insight on these questions and Oswald Chambers does a marvelous job on a familiar passage from the Old Testament to present a brilliant explanation.

The staggering question 

Son of man, can these bones live? -Ezekiel 37:3. 

Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: ‘O Lord, Thou knowest, I don’t.’ Never trample in with religious common sense and say—‘Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and prayer, I see how it can be done.’
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow-workers with God and so many workers for Him. We would far rather work for God than believe in Him. Am I quite sure that God will do what I cannot do? I despair of men in the degree in which I have never realized that God has done anything for me. Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.
“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves.” When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My ‘grave’ has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” God’s Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.

Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.

The remarkable truth of the gospel is that God can, and does through the work of his Son on the cross and his resurrection, give dry bones new life. This work does not come through the prophet Ezekiel who was called the son of man, but the power to give the dry bones life only comes from the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Will you be like Ezekiel who responded, “O LORD God, you know!” Can you say with the Apostle Paul, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out!” These men knew the power required to give dry bones life and the power could only come from the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Apart from him, we can do nothing. His grace is sufficient for you.

Full of the Holy Spirit

This is from the Pioneer Library:

In the Old Testament, most instances of being filled with the Spirit involve outward ministry and potent action. But Jesus is full of the Spirit, and goes to the desert to be tested and tempted.

The filling of the Holy Spirit does not just prepare us to preach and do miracles. In his Passion week, Jesus told his disciples many roles that the Holy Spirit would fulfill: “He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.” “He shall glorify me.” “He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.”

The Holy Spirit also helps us to minister to the Father. He is “the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Rom. 8:15) Any believer that is full of the Holy Spirit has a full-time ministry, because the Holy Spirit is in them to help them minister to the Father.

There are two Greek words translated ‘worship’ in the New Testament. One means to bow, to personally prostrate yourself in homage. The other means to serve, in a liturgical sense, fulfilling a role in a temple or church worship ceremony. Revelation 22:3 uses this word when it says “his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.”

John was exiled to Patmos, a Greek island measuring only a few miles from end to end. The island is volcanic and mostly lifeless. But John wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” (Rev. 1:10, ESV) Whether or not anyone else was with him, John could walk in the Holy Spirit and worship the Father. Even in exile, he had a full-time ministry as far as God was concerned.

Jesus went to the desert, full of the Holy Spirit. That means that the Holy Spirit is with me and in me even when I am ministering to no one except the Father. Exile and desertion can never take that away.

Fasting is a ministry to the Lord—not just a spiritual warfare tactic. Our fasting is misguided if we only think about what we are going to get out of it, and not about ministering to the Father.

Now we know that when we walk alone, he is not merely preparing us for something more important that we will do. If we are ministering to the Father, we are already fulfilling our most important calling. Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is not preparation for greater work. Prayer is the greater work.”

This desert, this place of solitude, is our greatest work. Our greatest calling is simply to know him in prayer and praise.

Father, thank you that I can know you and walk in your Holy Spirit, even in solitude, even in conflict. Teach me that my first and greatest ministry is simply to know you.

Amen.

Personality

This is from the blog Macy Halford:

This is my inaugural blog post for An Utmost a Day, and oh, boy, are we beginning with a bang.

When I was working on my book about Utmost, December 12th was one of the entries that gave me the most food for thought (read: trouble). When Oswald Chambers uses the word “personality,” he’s not just talking about a person’s unique character (i.e. he’s not using it the way we might today). He’s joining one of the fiercest philosophical and cultural debates of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Consider this quote by the Scottish Evangelical P. T. Forsyth, one of Oswald’s favorite thinkers:

Christ is certainly no less concerned than Nietzsche that the personality should receive the fullest development of which it is capable, and be more and more of a power. The difference between them lies in the moral method by which the personality is put into possession of itself and its resources--in the one case by asserting itself, in the other by losing it.

What’s Nietzsche doing here? The German philosopher surfaces in Oswald’s sermons, too, a testament to his far-reaching influence in the era (it’s actually difficult to overstate Nietzsche’s importance in Western Europe in the years leading up to the First World War).

The strand of his thinking that Oswald and Forsyth—along with numerous other Christian thinkers in this era—addressed most often did indeed have to do with “person”-ality: that is, with what a person was and with how a person could, and should, go about the task of living.

Nietzsche put forth the idea of the Übermensch—we call it the Superman. The Superman was an ideal: a fully independent individual, a self-actualizing “will-power,” who created his own values, rather than deriving them from a system, a religion, or history. This notion—particularly the power it promised—was extremely appealing to citizens of the late nineteenth century, who were grappling with the massive changes brought on by modernity. Many felt hemmed in on all sides—by the industrial forces that had ripped them from their ancestral homes, sending them en masse into cities and factories; by the oddly distant political system that had replaced the old one, breaking the ancient bonds of kin and clan; by the economic system, capitalism, which seemed to make money the entire measure of the man. People—and particularly men—began to describe themselves as “cogs in a machine.” Talk of a “crisis of masculinity” was rampant.

It might seem odd today, but there was actually a good deal of kinship between Nietzsche’s way of thinking and that of Evangelicals like Oswald and Forsyth. The idea of breaking through false systems—governmental, religious, or economic—to set the individual free was key to both. And both latched on to the same idea—”personality”—to make the point. A human “person” was not a cog in a machine or a passive subject; he was not merely a member of a crowd; he did not exist in the mass. He was a unique entity, the basic building block of society, and all of creation existed within him. He was sacrosanct.

Of course, Christian Evangelicals diverged from Nietzsche on crucial points: Nietzsche hated Christianity, calling it a religion for weaklings. Oswald worked hard to overturn this myth. He frequently made the point that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were “personalities,” full of power and agency, and unable to be contained or controlled by systems, namely theological ones. In fact, his entire definition of Christianity could be summed up as: two personalities in personal, unmediated, relationship to one another, i.e. Christ with the Christian. Both he and Forsyth argued that, since Christ is the only true power, only Christians in relationship with Christ could be truly powerful.

There is much more to say on this subject (I didn’t even mention the main point of the December 12th reading, which is distinguishing between individuality and personality), but as it will come up again in Utmost, I’ll end today’s post by addressing Oswald’s statement that a person can only fully possess his own personality by “merging” with another’s. It’s similar to what Forsyth says above—that a person has to “lose” his personality in order to gain it. Both are responses to what was (and is) a common criticism of Evangelicalism: that in reducing Christianity to a personal relationship with Christ it encouraged isolation, broke communities, and allowed questionable theologies to flourish.

For Oswald and Forsyth, the personal relationship with Christ was all about others. It was all about acquiring Christ’s personality, which was humble, oriented toward serving others, and moved, as and when God commanded, between moments of private devotion and public activity.

—Macy

The Devotion of Hearing

This is from the blog Three Iron Nails:

Speak; for Thy servant heareth. — 1 Samuel 3:10

Because I have listened definitely to one thing from God, it does not follow that I will listen to everything He says. The way in which I show God that I neither love nor respect Him is by the obtuseness of my heart and mind towards what He says. If I love my friend, I intuitively detect what he wants, and Jesus says, “Ye are My friends.” Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord's this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not consciously have disobeyed it; but most of us show such disrespect to God that we do not even hear what He says, He might never have spoken.

The destiny of my spiritual life is such identification with Jesus Christ that I always hear God, and I know that God always hears me (John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God, by the devotion of hearing all the time. A lily, or a tree, or a servant of God, may convey God's message to me. What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him. The child attitude is always, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” If I have not cultivated this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God's voice at certain times; at other times I am taken up with things – things which I say I must do, and I become deaf to Him, I am not living the life of a child. Have I heard God's voice to-day?

--Oswald Chambers

[My Utmost for His Highest]

The Truth Regarding Temptation // Oswald Chambers

This is from the blog Pastor Brad's Corner:

"Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else—what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race. God does not save us from temptations—He sustains us in the midst of them."

--Oswald Chambers

Relationships That Will End in Disaster

Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917

This is from the blog Craig T. Owens:

Relationships That Will End In Disaster

"Most of the suffering in human life comes because we refuse to be disillusioned. For instance, if I love a human being, and do not love God, I demand of that man or woman an infinite satisfaction which they cannot give. I demand of them every perfection and every rectitude, and when I do not get it, I become cruel and vindictive and jealous.

"Think of the average married life after, say, five or ten years; too often it sinks down into the most commonplace drudgery. The reason is that the husband and wife have not known God rightly, they have not gone through the transfiguration of love, nor endured through the discipline of disillusionment into satisfaction in God, and consequently they have begun to endure one another instead of having one another for enjoyment in God. 

"The human heart must have satisfaction, but there is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching of this of the human heart, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why He is apparently so severe in regard to every human relationship. He says if we are going to be His disciples, occasion may arise when we must hate both father and mother, and every closest tie there is. Our Lord has no illusions about men, and He knows that every relationship in life that is not based on loyalty to Him will end in disaster."

       --The Place Of Help by Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers is exactly right: Unless a relationship is not first founded on complete devotion to God will be headed for disaster.

You cannot change another person; only God can. You cannot find ultimate satisfaction in another person, because you were designed to find your ultimate satisfaction in God alone. Intimate human relationships do have some value—

• They are meant to be nourished by God love.
• They are meant to reflect God’s love.
• They are meant to draw others into God’s love.
•  

If your closest human relationships aren’t doing those three things, your closest human relationships are headed for dissatisfaction and disaster.

Contrary to Common Sense

Devotion to Christ

"Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink’” (John 4:7). 

"How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “You shall be witnesses to Me . . .” (Acts 1:8). That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us.

"Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?"

--Oswald Chambers

God's Purpose or Mine?

This is from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see “Him walking on the sea” (Mark 6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.

God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.

Vital Intercession

Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917

"As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.

"It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, 'I will not allow that thing to happen.' And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.

"Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own 'sad and pitiful self.' You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them."

--Oswald Chambers

We Are Going Up To Jerusalem . . .

This is from The Mission blog:

"He (Jesus) said to them (His disciples), Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem..." (Luke 18:31)

Oswald Chambers writes: "Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord , represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father's will.  Jesus said, "I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent me." (John 5:30).  The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God's purpose, not our own.  Remember Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you.  (John 15:16)."

My prayer.  Dear Heavenly Father I ask you in the name of Jesus that you'd keep pushing me, pulling me, driving me to go with you to Jerusalem, to seek your compelling purpose, never allowing me to falter or turn my sights on anything else but Christ and going with Him.  I can and will do this by your great grace through faith in the accomplished work of the cross. Amen!

Comments:

Tim Shey:
 

"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem." "Take up your cross and follow Me." When you obey the Lord, you die to self and, in my experience, you will be delivered of many demons.

Too many people go to church to fulfill some social contract. They go to church to run away from God and so that they don't have to deal with their besetting sins. They go to church, so that they don't have to go to Jerusalem--the death of the cross--dying to self--so that the Lord can be glorified in their life of self denial.

Self-willed church people have never gone to Jerusalem: dying to self is too abhorrent to them.

Traveler (Randy):

Wow, Tim I never saw it like that before, "They go to church to run away from God...They go to church, so they don't have to go to Jerusalem." So revealing and frankly it leaves me with a great impression to ponder this deeper. I tremble in fear before our Lord.... But for the grace of God go I... Dear Lord in Jesus' name please by your grace never leave me to my own will and devices... Pull me lead me, put an aul in my ear, a yoke on my neck. Lead to Jerusalem, to the cross each day. It is all about you and not about me. Be it unto me according to your will. Amen!

The Mission

_____

Luke 18: 31-34:  "Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.  For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."

"And they understood none of these things:  and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."

It is rare for the Lord to reveal Himself (His will/wisdom/knowledge) to a vessel that is not surrendered to Christ and that does not die to self.  The rain from heaven (revelation knowledge) is gratefully soaked into fallow, humble ground--dead to self will.

I Corinthians 2: 14-16:  "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."

To the Jews Spiritual, who are of the Seed of Abraham Spiritually

Are We Disciplined to Obey Christ? - Oswald Chambers

An excerpt from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

"This is another aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul says, 'I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ.' (Moffatt.) How much Christian work there is to-day which has never been disciplined, but has simply sprung into being by impulse! In Our Lord's life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was not a movement of an impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father's -- 'The Son can do nothing of Himself.' Then take ourselves -- a vivid religious experience, and every project born of impulse put into action immediately, instead of being imprisoned and disciplined to obey Christ.

"This is a day when practical work is overemphasized, and the saints who are bringing every project into captivity are criticized and told that they are not in earnest for God or for souls. True earnestness is found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that is born of undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not bringing every project into captivity, but are doing work for God at the instigation of their own human nature which has not been spiritualized by determined discipline."

Eastern Idaho and Oswald Chambers

I am now in eastern Idaho with some friends probably till the rain passes. I got rained on pretty well while I was hitchhiking between Pocatello and Idaho Falls. It has been a rainy spring here in Idaho and in California. It could be raining for the next few days.

I saw this in the daily devotional that I love to read: My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

"The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint."

I have always said that if I ever got stuck on a desert island, I would want a King James Bible and My Utmost For His Highest with me. Oswald Chambers is one of those great gifts to mankind that come around maybe once every one hundred years. He lived a short life (I believe he died at the age of 43), but he contributed so much to the Kingdom of Heaven. It was also providential that his wife, Biddy, was an excellent stenographer, so she was able to write down his teachings in short hand and later have his books published.

The more we die to self, the more we can see God and know God and do His will for our lives. I am a bond-slave of Jesus Christ and I am here to obey Him--eventhough it seems crazy where He leads me at times. We who abide in Christ, live in God's economy and not man's economy.

"Not my will, but Thine be done."

The Certainty of God - Oswald Chambers

My Utmost For His Highest
By Oswald Chambers

April 29th.

THE GRACIOUSNESS OF UNCERTAINTY

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be." 1 John 3:2

Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We imagine that we have to reach some end, but that is not the nature of spiritual life. The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere. Common sense says - "Well, supposing I were in that condition . . ." We cannot suppose ourselves in any condition we have never been in. 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 are 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 be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him. Jesus said, "Except ye become as little children." Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.

"Believe also in Me," said Jesus, not - "Believe certain things about Me." Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come. Remain loyal to Him.

Some Great Quotes

Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917

"Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness."

--Oswald Chambers

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day."

--Abraham Lincoln

"I shall not live 'till I see God; and when I have seen him, I shall never die."

--John Donne

"The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility to God."

--Daniel Webster

"The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man's business but build his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel."

--Maltbie D. Babcock

"To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead as to its own. Such an one can do no deed however small but it is clothed with something of God's power and authority."

--Meister Eckhart

"Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties."

--Charles H. Spurgeon

"The wisdom of this world is precious in the eye of the world; and the wisdom of God in His poor, weak, despised earthen vessels is still foolishness with them; but the Lord so orders it, that He still justifies his despised wisdom in his despised vessels, and makes the wisdom of the world appear foolish to all the single and uprighthearted, who thirst after and wait for the revelation of His truth."

--Isaac Penington

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

--William Shedd

"Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, whose life has been hid with Christ in God. These are of the old time religion, hung to the nails of the Cross."

--Robert Murray McCheyne

"Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obedience, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience."

--A.W. Tozer

"All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. 'I suppose I shall understand these things some day!' You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming 'wise and prudent.'"

--Oswald Chambers

"Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a living presence."

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won…
Unlettered they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks."

--Leonard Ravenhill

"The beginning of true nobility comes when a man ceases to be interested in the judgment of men and becomes interested in the judgment of God." 

--J. Gresham Machen

Some Great Quotes on Prayer
The World Is In The Church
Quote of the Day

Intercession

Old Testament Intercession

Judges 14: 5-6: "Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done."

I Samuel 25: 7: "And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel."

I Samuel 25: 15-16: "But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields. They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep."

I Samuel 25: 23-26: "And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal."

I Samuel 25: 28: "I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my Lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days."

II Kings 1: 9-10: "Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."

Job 42: 10: "And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends."

New Testament Intercession

Romans 8: 18-19: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory [glorification, rapture, Holy Fire] which shall be REVEALED IN US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."

Romans 8: 26-27: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but

THE SPIRIT ITSELF MAKETH INTERCESSION FOR US with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

Matthew 3: 11-12: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND WITH FIRE: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but HE WILL BURN UP THE CHAFF WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE."

John 17: 9-11: "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

John 17: 15-16: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

John 17: 20-22: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."

Ephesians 6: 18: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

II Thessalonians 1: 7-10: "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day."

II Thessalonians 2: 8: "And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."

Hebrews 7: 25: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

James 5: 16: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Revelation 1: 14-16: "His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

Revelation 19: 12-15: "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

Revelation 19: 21: "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."

__________

"I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe."

--Mary Queen of Scots

"A man with God is the majority."

--Last words of John Knox

"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men."

--Samson at Ramath-lehi

__________

"Identification is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with God, it is by sympathy, not sin."

"Vicarious intercession* means that we deliberately substitute God's interests in others for our natural sympathy with them."

[*Vicarious: "Performed or suffered by one person as a substitute or to the benefit or advantage of another: SUBSTITUTIONARY: ." --Webster's Third New International Dictionary]

"Am I fulfilling the ministry of the interior? There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified . . .The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint."

"The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God is bringing you into places and among people and into conditions in order that the intercession of the Spirit in you may take a particular line. Never put your hand in front of the circumstances and say--I am going to be my own providence here, I must watch this, and guard that. All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.

"Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession, and the human side is the circumstances I am in and the people I am in contact with. I have to keep my conscious life as a shrine of the Holy Ghost, then as I bring the different ones before God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for them.

"Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, but the Holy Ghost makes intercession in our particular lives, without which intercession someone will be impoverished."

--Oswald Chambers

Two Emails (Intercession)

Paga (Intercession)

Samson: A One-Man Wrecking Crew

Obedience: The Bondage Breaker

Holy Ghost Fire
The Fifth Element (4:05)

The Worst Hard Time

NEEDLESS CASUALTIES OF WAR by John Paul Jackson