His Wonderful Grace
My Goal is God Himself. . .
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.
"...because
you ... have not withheld your son, your only son — I will bless
you... In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:16
"page 647 - grace
627 -
634 - word
643 - power to suffer
“Who art Thou, Lord?” Acts 26:15
“....God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. ‘I
know this is what I should do’—and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way
that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown
our ignorance of Him in the very way we determined to serve Him. We serve
Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we
push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but
our spirit is that of an enemy. 'He rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what
manner of spirit ye are of.' The spirit of Our Lord in an advocate of His is
described in 1 Corinthians 13.”
CATEGORY . The Habit of Enjoying the Disagreeable: "While Christians must
pursue peace and unity with all whenever possible, that does not mean that
they should ever be at peace with false teaching, false teachers, false
preachers, or false leaders. The conflict that arises when we obediently
confront error, as Jesus did and as Paul did, is most disagreeable. I, for
one, do not like it. I have a deep desire to be at peace with everyone, but
when those who disagree with the truth from God’s Word descend upon me
simply for stating it, refusing to be sucked into unfruitful debate about
it, or for rebuking those who refuse to repent then I must remain obedient
and ready to continue in that obedience. The cost has been counted.
Even though it hurts some when being called all sorts of names or reading
things about myself that these people write, I have learned a very huge
truth. When we do this and do not fall away from it, our Lord is right there
with us manifesting Himself through us. Our human side may want to avoid the
conflict, but if we are genuine disciples called to this ministry of
restoration and reform then we will experience a closeness with our Lord
that few have. That closeness is also accompanied by a deep Joy that comes
to those who are obedient no matter how hot the fire. I am posting another
devotional by Oswald Chambers on obedience. Enjoy and be blessed. by Mike
Ratliff----------------
by Oswald Chambers “That life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:10) We have to form habits to express what
God’s grace has done in us. It is not a question of being saved from hell,
but of being saved in order to manifest the life of the Son of God in our
mortal flesh, and it is the disagreeable things which make us exhibit
whether or not we are manifesting His life. Do I manifest the essential
sweetness of the Son of God, or the essential irritation of “myself” apart
from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy the disagreeable is
the keen enthusiasm of letting the life of the Son of God manifest itself in
me. No matter how disagreeable a thing may be, say–”Lord, I am delighted to
obey Thee in this matter,” and instantly the Son of God will press to the
front, and there will be manifested in my human life that which glorifies
Jesus. There must be no debate. The moment you obey the light, the Son of
God presses through you in that particular, but if you debate you grieve the
Spirit of God. You must keep yourself fit to let the life of the Son of God
be manifested, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to
self-pity. Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully
perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to
make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God. It is one
thing to choose the disagreeable and another thing to go into the
disagreeable by God’s engineering. If God puts you there, He is amply
sufficient. Keep your soul fit to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never
live on memories; let the word of God be always living and active in you.
See Preparing for Persecution
My goal is God
Himself, not joy nor peace;
Nor even blessing,
but Himself, my God.
'Tis His to lead me
there, not mine but His...
At any cost, dear
Lord, by any road.
By Frederick Brook
See the rest of this wonderful
poem here