PDA

View Full Version : for thought and meditation on Wednesday



Markopolo
09-30-2020, 09:56 AM
morning boys... Round one if over thank you Lord! here is the much needed devotional.

30
The Assigning of the Call
By Oswald Chambers

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church… —Colossians 1:24

We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

God Loves you. Have a Great day!

Pine Baron
09-30-2020, 10:28 AM
"But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. "
Great perspective...I got to think on this one.
Thanks Marko.

USMC87
10-02-2020, 09:34 AM
Amen!

Blackwater
10-02-2020, 06:09 PM
We are living in a time when most folks, when faced with something that needs doing, say "Let somebody else do that." That is NOT what the Lord put us here to do! No, not all of us can do all things we encounter, and then, it's perfectly OK to go get someone who CAN do what needs to be done. But mostly, we need to do all we can before going elsewhere to get help. Sadly, we far too often just walk away, and maybe try to show how "concerned" we are by saying something like, "Isn't that a shame."

This is a great post and one that we need to ever keep in mind in our daily lives. If we all practiced this, we'd be living in a far different world than the one we presently have all about us. God wants us to be happy and satisfied, and that's why He left us so many tidbits of such sage and exquisite advice as this. It may not come easily or naturally for us to stop and help someone, but it's always the best thing we can do. If we walk away, we collect another bit of shame and regret, that piles up until it becomes a serious problem for us, and really degenerates our attitude as we walk our daily path. Nihlistic cynicism permeates our culture today, like a deadly disease. Stopping to render aid always works to overcome that horrible attitudinal problem. God has never given us even a speck of advice that isn't for our own good. We need to keep that in mind as we study His word. It's all for and about us, and getting us and keeping us happy and well satisfied.