For Thought and Meditation - Friday, March 24

[Pine Baron]

Good morning all. Today's message is so powerful, it knocked me to my knees. Have a safe and blessed day.

Decreasing for His Purpose
By Oswald Chambers

He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30

If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “…the friend of the bridegroom…rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness— at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight.
from The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L

[buckwheatpaul]

Amen....we are suppose to minister to those in need....if it is truly written on your heart.....you will know what to do!

[USMC87]

Amen, we often miss the point that we are too cue on and we lose that opportunity.

[GhostHawk]

John, do you love me? Master you know me better than I know myself. You KNOW I love you.

"Feed my sheep"

In essence, I will not be here, take over my job. Tend my flock.
Mathew 25 40.
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Visit those who are shut in, sick, in prison, feed those who can no longer feed themselves.
Be the Lords Shepherd, feed his sheep.

[ioon44]

Amen, I need more of Jesus and less of me.

[dverna]

This interpretation of scripture is nothing like what I found with a cursory search of the meaning of John 3:30.

And I quote:

#1 “He must become greater;”
John is not saying that Christ in himself is not already as great intrinsically as he could possibly be. Rather, he refers to the fame and influence of Christ. John’s desire, and the reason he existed, was to see Christ exalted and glorified. Rather than be anxious that his followers were leaving him for Christ, which was the disposition of his remaining disciples, John was glad.

#2 “I must become less.”
No doubt some of John’s disciples showed the tendency of all men to hitch their star to a great man for the sake of being great by association. But Christ is the head of man, just as God is the head of Christ. Our allegiance should be to Christ alone. While the Bible teaches us to follow leaders (Heb 13:7), there should be no one in between us and Christ.