Devotional Reflections

Grace and peace to you brothers and sisters.

It is Good Friday, April 10, 2020 and what an awesome reading from our devotional this morning.  My Utmost for His Highest selection is called Complete and Effective Decision About Sin. Romans 6:6 is the scripture reference and it reads “… our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” 

Sin, the age-old question in all of the Christian Journey, what do we do about it, what do we do with it?  The point is made very clearly. That’s one thing about Oswald Chambers, there are very few ‘fluff’ words. He is to the point and for this Good Friday, I  think this is an awesome message to reflect on. Here is the start of his reading. “Have you made the following decision about sin – that it must be completely killed in you?  [Again, have you made the following decision about sin – that it must be completely killed in you?] It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin.”

Is sin really killed in us? This is a question that is asked over and over again.  In this old nature of mine am I just sitting on it?  Am I controlling temper?   Am I simply setting aside things that I want to say to people that are not Christ-like, or in my case I always say, not pastoral?  What do we do with sin?  So many times we think we’ve conquered it until it wells up within us at the most inopportune times.  Are we really saved?  Have we really been changed?  Are we really even a Christian?  I think part of it is that we think we’re supposed to hide it.  We think we’re supposed to walk this journey changed or change ourselves and we forget Christ is the one who changes.  The Holy Spirit within us when we have accepted the gift of God’s grace and God’s love.   We go part way. As in yesterday’s reflection, we accept the gift but we don’t always take everything The Giver wants to offer. 

When Christ offers himself to us, He offers to crucify the sin.  The question is:  are we willing to allow our sins to be crucified with Christ?  It is not just a matter of becoming a good person. It’s not just a matter of not losing our temper. It’s a matter of actually getting rid of the sin.  This is the depth of the Christian Journey.  This is the walk.  The ending of his reflection says: “Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life?”    Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me …. “

Great words for reflection on Good Friday.  Allow your sins to be hung on the cross with Christ.   Amen.

Good morning brothers and sisters.

It is April 9th 2020 – Holy Thursday in our pandemic seclusion. And this morning Oswald Chambers brings us to a point of recognizing the difference between being saved and seeing Jesus. As a matter fact, that is his opening statement of the devotion today, “being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing.”  How can that be you might say?   Well it’s pretty easy I think. 

Many of us have been the recipient of help indirectly and never met the person who actually provided the help. We’ve been beneficiary of or in situations because things worked the way they did but we never really met who was responsible.  We’ve received a gift from someone in passing, someone whose face we might know but we don’t really know the person.  In any of those instances the gift was given, the help was given, the forgiveness was offered, the grace was extended but we did not really know the one who gave the gift.  So my thought is Oswald Chambers was thinking the same – there’s a difference between being saved, receiving the gift, and actually knowing the one who provided the way. 

In this Holy Thursday setting we seriously, this evening, think about the fact that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, had conversation with them, offered them all that was left that they needed to know before He went to the cross.  The same is offered to us.  The gifts are given but do we still think that Christ is the one who is going to come and be king or do we realize it leads to the cross?  May your day be meditative and reflective in seeing Christ.  Amen.

Good morning brothers and sisters. 

It is April 8th, a Wednesday of Holy Week, and we are here again reflecting on the works of Oswald Chambers.   The verse this morning is from the 24th chapter of Luke and it says “ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?”   And our focus this morning in these few minutes is the fact that Christ did come for purpose. Christ came that we might be saved from ourselves, that we might be made righteous so we could be in right relationship with God. 

But the true gift, that which Paul spoke about often, is we receive the Resurrection Life.  Oswald Chambers makes note of it, he says when I am born again from above I received from the Lord, from the Risen Lord, His very life.  When Christ was resurrected he entered into a new life states Oswald Chambers. And in this new life he calls us all to become the family of God.  He offers us all the very power of this new life in which he is living.  A life, a life that is supported by the power of God.

One day we shall have a new body, yes, but right now we already have the power.  Isn’t that what Paul talked about in sharing the good news?   His good news wasn’t it sins were washed away, his good news was that we walk now in the power of the Resurrection!   You and I don’t have to wait until we’re in a new body to experience the presence of God.  We don’t have to wait until we are in a new body in heaven to know and experience the gift of God.  Through the Holy Spirit who works in us we get to live life now. 

Oswald Chambers ends his writing his reflection saying “thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Spirit can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey him.”   Do you choose to obey him?  In the little things throughout the day and the big decisions throughout our lives, it is the same power and the same Christ at work in us if we will obey him.   Peace to you.

Good morning family of God.   Day 2 of our Holy Week devotions – reflections on the works of Oswald Chambers from his book My Utmost For His Highest. This morning’s verse comes from Mark 9:9 and it reads “he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the son of man were risen from the dead.”  Oswald Chambers’ response to this verse is “say nothing until the Son of man is risen in you – until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you understand what the historic Christ taught.”

What a wonderful thought that we are not supposed to be out there studying and learning trying to get all the head knowledge we can!  Jesus says to the disciples “…till the son of man were risen from the dead” and Oswald Chambers says “until the life of the Risen Christ so dominates you…” We’re called to live our lives as Christians not learn our lives as Christians!  Yes, we gain head knowledge but abiding in the life of the Cross, abiding in the love of the Cross is living our faith and walking in God’s love. 

When we have mastered our journey, when we have faith and confidence in our journey, then we are ready to start talking to other people about the Risen Christ.  Until then keep walking in the faith.  Keep learning how to live it because that’s really what other people want to know about.  Peace to you on this wonderful Tuesday morning.  Amen. 

This is the first of our Holy Week devotions.  It is Monday April 6, 2020. Yes, we are in the midst of our social distancing dealing with the covid-19 pandemic.  I pray that as this week progresses and even as this month progresses you find ways to trust in God, to keep your sanity in all your dealing with – working from home, working with children.  Perhaps you are alone and are working with the silence from which you usually can escape so I pray God’s peace to you. 

This morning we will be using the devotion by Oswald Chambers, it is from his book My Utmost For His Highest.  You may read the devotion before you listen to this message in order to understand or, I guess, you can read it afterwards.  You will find it online at utmost.org . I’m sure if you Google My Utmost For His Highest you will be directed right to the website.  It also is available in a contemporary updated English or the original style in which Chambers wrote.  

I just have two thoughts about the short devotional today.  The first one is that it did not “happen” to Jesus. This idea of going to the Cross did not happen because Jesus was a misunderstood person. The cross happened because that is God’s way of bringing us back into right relationship with God.  God was Jesus. Jesus was a man but God was Jesus. And it was God’s choice to come in the form of a human that there might be a gateway, a way, a manner that we could get past who we are, our human condition, and be able to be right with God.  It did not just happen … it was God taking action.

The second thing that got my attention in the devotion is we do not go through the Cross.  No matter how much we think we are suffering and even for those who have died for the faith, it is a different purpose because you and I are not God.  We are doing what God wanted to accomplish. We are maintaining our right relationship. But we don’t get through the cross.  We get to the cross and when we come to the cross our lives are changed.  As Oswald Chambers says, we are called to abide in the Life that the Cross provides.  We are called to abide, we are called to live in the Cross of Christ which means we’re called to live in God’s love. As you complete your day today, no matter how chaotic it gets, no matter how out of sorts you may start to feel, remember as a Christian, you’re called to live in the life that God provides. You are called to abide in the love of the Cross. Peace to you.

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