Oswald Chambers

CONFESSION

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HUMILITY

screen-shot-2017-02-20-at-3-46-01-pm“The head must be bowed low to the dust to admit that we are no better than what Jesus had to become for us” Roy and Revel Hession (ref#100, p77).

FATHER, let me daily review my total inability to help myself. You do not help me occasionally, like picking up a just-learning-to-walk child when he falls, no, I am in the troughs of an enemy who labors day and night to devour me (1 Pet 5:8). I need to envision myself daily in the middle of a ring of fire needing You to reach Your hand down and pluck me out.

“The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; weakness, not strength of will; infirmity of character, not goodness; a sense of absolute poverty, not decisions for Christ…(Matt 5:3)”  Oswald Chambers (ref#83, p90).

“If we grow down in humility and up in worship—leave off all sin and the diverting pleasures of this world and persevere because we desire Christ supremely—we could not fathom doing anything to grieve One so infinitely glorious—One who saves to the uttermost and ever lives to intercede one as vile as me” Dan Cummings (ref#141, April 9, 2006).

PRELUDE TO PRAYER

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Prayer Facts:

“…there are burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off, He wants us to roll them back on Him….the burden is lightened by the sense of companionship. Never disassociate yourself from the burden” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, April 13th).

Reasons for Waiting for GOD:

Because in CHRIST I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of my trespasses (Eph 1:7), therefore I will wait for You.

Because in CHRIST I am set free from the law of sin and death and given the law of the Spirit of life (Rom 8:2), therefore I will wait for You.

Because in CHRIST I am a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17), therefore I will wait for You.

Because in CHRIST neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from His love (Rom 8:38,39), therefore I will wait for You.

Read Through the Bible in a Year: February 26th – Mar 3rd

Feb 26 Num 20-21; Acts 20

Feb 27 Num 22-24; Acts 21

Feb 28 Num 25-26; Ps 13

Feb 29 Num 27-29; Acts 22

Mar 1  Num 30-31; Acts 23

Mar 2  Num 32-33; Acts 24

Mar 3  Num 34-36; Acts 25

ADORATION

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Chord Progression: (C G/B Am Em/G) (F C/E Dsus G7)

WHATEVER REASON I MAY CALL UPON HIM

screen-shot-2017-01-28-at-2-43-46-pmI cannot find out the deep things of You, GOD,

nor You limit, Almighty.

I cannot explore Your depths,

or ascend to Your heights,

 

I cannot extend to Your breadths,

or comprehend Your infinite perfection.

No, I cannot explain the mystery of You,

nor diagram my GOD (Job 11:7).

 

The secret things belong to You, LORD,

but the revealed things are my business

and my children’s forever

that we may follow Your laws (Deut 29:29).

 

For who has a GOD so near,

as the LORD is to me.

For whatever reason I may call upon Him;

He is always ready to listen (Deut 4:7).

 

You are great in counsel and mighty in deed;

to my ways Your eyes are open,

rewarding me according to my work,

according to the fruit of my deeds (Jer 32:19).

 

CONFESSION

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THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHDRAWING HIS SENSIBLE PRESENCE

screen-shot-2017-01-02-at-3-47-19-pm…FATHER, save me from being content with a little measure of the SPIRIT, thinking that is all I am expected to have.   So often I feel His absence and act using my own human spirit. Grow in me a desire for the power of His presence all the time (ref#76, p29).

“The Holy Spirit is no temporary gift; He abides with the saints. We have but to seek Him aright, and He will be found by us. He is jealous, but He is compassionate. If He leaves in anger, He returns in mercy. Gracious and tender, He does not weary of us, but He waits to be merciful still” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 12th PM).

Through sin and worldliness I lose the consciousness of the SPIRIT’s presence. I don’t lose You, SPIRIT, but You are behind my conscious awareness (ref#30, p115).

For instance, no matter how eager or clever I am in sharing the Gospel, it is insufficient without Your presence.  What I need is to experience continual power to be obedient to You, SPIRIT, Who alone truly teaches me (ref#33, p86).

“God is determined to have His child as pure and clean and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will prevent none of the working of His spirit” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, June 30th).

FATHER, sensitize me to watch for the SPIRIT. In Him is the only way I can remain spiritual (ref#101, p28).

CONFESSION

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THE MESSAGE MUST BE PART OF ME

screen-shot-2017-01-02-at-3-17-25-pm“Christian work may be a means of evading the soul’s concentration on Jesus Christ” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, March 25th).

FATHER, I don’t want to be ambitious to win souls but to be ambitious to be accepted by You (ref#7, March 17th). I may be more of a hindrance to You than a help if my witness is just what CHRIST has done for me instead of presenting CHRIST from the vantage point of being His friend (ref#7, March 25th). Obedience is good but being the friend of the Bridegroom is more important.

Move me to maintain my relationship with CHRIST above all else, FATHER (ref#7, March 25th). No wonder “conquer” is a word used often in Scripture. It takes purposeful effort to develop a relationship with CHRIST. Obedience to witnessing can be accomplished too easily in my own strength and thus can’t even be classified as a battle conquered.

“The natural heart will do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken by conviction of sin, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and crumpled into the purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of its message” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, March 10th).

THANKSGIVING

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THE SPIRIT’S WORK

screen-shot-2016-10-21-at-1-07-40-pm“That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it…” (Eph 1:14 AMP).

“The work of the cross creates a position and achieves a salvation by which sinners can be saved; the task of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to sinners what the cross has created and achieved so that they may in fact receive it and be saved” Watchman Nee (ref#101, p11).

FATHER, I thank You for providing the condition that led me to believe in CHRIST so that I am now “…stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13 AMP). This was just Your laying the groundwork for Your indwelling in me (ref#101, p13).

I thank You, SPIRIT, for energizing my personal spirit so that CHRIST is formed in me (Gal 4:19). You give me “the essential nature of God” and the “quickening life of the Son of God” Oswald Chambers (ref#83, p89). Praise to You for I am “lifted to the domain where Jesus lives” Oswald Chambers (ref#83, p89). You SPIRIT, reorient my affections and renew my will. You transform me so profoundly that I no longer live, but CHRIST lives in me (Gal 2:20).

SUPPLICATION

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HOW GOD GUIDES

screen-shot-2016-10-21-at-11-38-02-am“Many failures and much waste and confusion…are due to men’s coming to work, instead of being sent out to work” Watchman Nee (ref#101, p42).

FATHER, I know what my head says is from You because You have a quiet persistence about Your words of guidance. Keep me from considering pros and cons that bring about debating and doubt. This mental activity does not indicate Your presence (ref#7, March 28th).

“Doubt and reflection take the place of spontaneous obedience…Only the devil has an answer for our moral difficulties, and he says, ‘Keep on posing problems, and you will escape the necessity of obedience’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ref#10, p73).

FATHER, when You say it is better to obey than sacrifice, You are addressing my human nature in me. This self-serving, self-glorifying part of me wants to sacrifice itself by doing what it considers great and wonderful acts for You. This sacrificing is the “counterfeit of obedience” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, June 8th).

“Obedience is perfected not in doing something you want to do but in doing the last thing in the world you want to do” Michael Card (ref#137, p152).

VALLEYS TO MOUNTAINTOPS

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PRIDE, LOVE OF SELF

6/26/2016

screen-shot-2016-10-21-at-1-58-45-pmMy Sabbath day was going pretty well until 10:00PM. The afternoon was particularly satisfying as I was pulled into a good book—a commentary on the Song of Solomon. So good the reading was that I continued into the evening.

Instead of the usual commentary depicting CHRIST and His church, the writing is an allegory of CHRIST and a single member of His church. It reads so personal that it brought out my own heart’s desire and I pretended I was the “bride” and it was my interaction with CHIRST.

The “bride” in the book was so in love with CHRIST that she followed Him everywhere, satisfied with every stage of their developing relationship. It reminded me of a quote:

“Sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do it to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ…” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, March 25th).

The author of the commentary alluded that obeying commands can be done outwardly—without being changed inwardly, but being in love with JESUS changes everything. Obeying commands are not even thought of, they are followed without any thought.

Being in love with JESUS made the “Bride” think of nothing but her “Bridegroom.” She thought no more about caring for herself; she would not take her eyes off her lover. She died to herself, becoming lost in CHRIST.

I fancied I had obtained that goal in my Christian walk and was happily brushing my teeth before bed when GOD dropped in my conscience a small request that made me recoil. Immediately my dreams of succeeding in my relationship with CHRIST vanished.

I was back with my eyes on myself! I did not want to do what He asked. My resistance not only destroyed my imagined delightful relationship with CHRIST but it put me all the way back to willfully resisting obeying.

Well, after a short amount of thinking I did do what He asked. But that did not restore my thoughts about a good relationship with Him. The “bride” in the Song of Songs did a lot of assuming she was ready for marriage only to find out the “bridegroom” had more to teach her.

So, I end this Sabbath day being further behind in my relationship with CHIRST than I thought. However, His mercy has not let me fall off the foundation He is building in our relationship but He has certainly humbled me by pointing out my pride.

I could be discouraged but His unseen assurance keeps me in pursuit of Him. I am glad for this Sabbath even though I’ve been justly convicted of my love to self, more than love of GOD.

SUPPLICATION

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GENERAL TRIBULATION

[We all can think of a Christian sister or brother experiencing so much affliction they may not be able to pray for themselves. Here’s an opportunity to pray for them. Fill their name in the blanks.]

REASONS FOR AFFLICTION–TO OVERCOME

 

screen-shot-2016-10-21-at-9-33-46-am“But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me” (Mic 7:7-8 NRSV).

 FATHER, our natural inclination is to be spared from trouble. But, in Your wisdom, You give us troubling situations to deliver us in trouble. No evil can harm us when we’re at one with You no matter what situation You have us in (ref#7, Aug 2nd).

“God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Aug 2nd).

FATHER, empower ____ to accept the hard situations; compel (him/her), by faith, to defer to Your strength. Even anticipating hard situations wears ____ out physically, but if (he/she) spends (himself/herself) spiritually (he/she) will get more strength. You give strength minute by minute (ref#7, Aug 2nd).

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard…” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ref#10, p88).

____ will find You, FATHER, when (he/she) overcomes suffering by suffering. JESUS prayed for the cup to pass from Him (Matt 26:39). It did pass—when He drank it. His suffering passed as he accepted it. “The cross is his triumph over suffering” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ref#10, p92).

FATHER, how vital for ____ to keep communion with You—to draw near You in hard times for if (he/she) removes (his/her) eye from You even for a moment, (he/she) will succumb to “every dark suggestion of the adversary” Octavius Winslow (ref#61, May 30th). Linked with You, (he/she) overcomes—we overcome—You, LORD, overcome for ____.

THANKSGIVING

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I AM IN THE TRAIN OF JESUS THE CONQUEROR

“…thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory]…” (2 Cor 2:14 AMP).

screen-shot-2016-10-19-at-4-45-56-pmFATHER, I am on earth for one purpose—to be a captive. “We are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ”  Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Oct 24th). I thank You, FATHER, for triumphing over me through CHRIST. He defeats my fallen, evil nature. Contrary to earthly living where to be in the train of a finite man would be the most miserable, but being conquered and being made to walk behind CHRIST is my most glorious lot JFB Commentary (ref#17, [2 Cor 2:14]).

“Paul regarded himself as a trophy of God’s victorious power in Christ. His Almighty conqueror was leading him about, through all the world, a sample of His triumphant power…to subdue and to save” JFB Commentary (ref#17, [2 Cor 2:14]).

It is my joy that You took me, a rebel and changed me to a captive. Being CHRIST’s captive is my position now in life (ref#7, Oct 24th). I have no joy that is not connected with CHRIST—no success which I can not trace to Him (ref#16, [2 Cor 2:14]).

“…I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Oct 24th). FATHER, I thank You that I have been captured making me able to display the victory of CHRIST.