Seeing God through the darkness

Seeing God through the darkness

Quotes from the Bible and Oswald Chambers

     "... we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead... in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf...." 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

"There are disasters to be faced by the one who is in real fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. God has never promised to keep us immune from trouble; He says, 'I will be with him in trouble,' which is a very different thing. Paul was 'an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,' and it is this fact that accounts for the crushing criticism and the spiteful treatment to which he was subjected by those who could not discern on what authority he based his apostleship....

"If you are experiencing the disasters of fellowship, don’t get into despair, remain unswervingly and unhesitatingly faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and refuse to compromise for one second. Don’t say 'it can’t be done' because you see a thing is going to crush your physical life. Calculate on the disaster of fellowship, because through it God is going to bring you into fellowship with His Son."

Oswald Chambers, Devotional Bible, page 843

"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3

"In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side.... There is always a battle royal before sanctification, always something that tugs with resentment against the demands of Jesus Christ. Immediately the Spirit of God begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle begins. 'If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . his own life, he cannot be My disciple.'”

The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me until I am nothing but ‘myself,’ that is the place of death. Am I willing to be ‘myself,’ and nothing more—no friends, no father, no brother, no self-interest, simply ready for death? That is the condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus on this point. ‘But it is so stern,’ we say; “He cannot wish me to do that.’ Our Lord is stern; and He does wish me to do that.

Am I willing to reduce myself simply to ‘me,’ determinedly to strip myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and to hand that simple naked self over to God? Immediately I am, He will sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in connection with everything but God.

When I pray—‘Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,’ He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus Christ puts into me: it is Himself in me."

Oswald Chambers, My utmost for his highest. July 22.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, abut for the will of God. " 1 Peter 4:1

"The sufferings of the sanctified are caused by growing into the idea of the will of God. God did not spare His own Son, and he does not spare His sanctified ones form the requirements of saint-ship.   May the God of Peace sanctify us wholly so that we are no longer sickly souls retarding His purposes, but made 'perfect through suffering.' Oh, that from every heart may rise the yearning longing, as from the apostle Paul."

Oswald Chambers, Devotional Bible, page 1120

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." 1 Peter 4:12-14

"It is not easy to say that God is love when everything that happens actually gives the lie to it. Everyone's soul represents some king of battlefield. The point for each one is whether we will hang in, as Job did, and say 'Though things look black, I will trust in God.'

"It is very easy to trust in God when there is no difficulty, but that is not trust at all. It is simply letting the mind rest in a complacent mood; but when there is sickness in house, when there is trouble, when there is death, where is our trust in God?...

"God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. It is all very well to know in theory that there are things we must not trust in, but another thing to know it in fact. When God deals with us on the death side, He puts the sentence of death on everything we should not trust in, and we have a miserable time until we learn never anymore to trust in it, never anymore to look anywhere else than to God. It sometimes happens that hardly a day passes without God saying, 'Don't trust there, that is dead.'"

Oswald Chambers

"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself." Acts 20:24

"You will be more prosperous and successful, more leisure-hearted, if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a call from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad; you will no longer be able to work for Him on the commonsense basis.
     "What do I really count dear? If I have not been gripped by Jesus Christ, I will count service dear, time given to God dear, my life dear unto myself. Paul says he counted his life dear only in order that he might fulfill the ministry he had received; he refused to use his energy for any other thing.

     "Acts 20:24 states Paul’s almost sublime annoyance at being asked to consider himself; he was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Practical work may be a competitor against abandonment to God, because practical work is based on this argument—‘Remember how useful you are here,’ or—‘Think how much value you would be in that particular type of work.’ That attitude does not put Jesus Christ as the Guide as to where we should go, but our judgment as to where we are of most use. Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own -- but His."

My utmost for his highest, March 4th