When you know the one who is leading you.

"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading." - Oswald Chambers

David firmly believed that God was leading him into the best path for his life. He wrote:

"You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny." (Psalm 73:24)

Prayer: Lord, help me remember that you will go with me, into the paths you lead me, and that I should trust in your Love for me.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Semper Reformanda

One of the slogans of the Reformation was semper reformanda ("always reforming"). Perhaps a better translation of these 2 words would be: "always being reformed." 

What I like about this is that it reminds me of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God is always trying to transform and renew us - we can choose to resist these moments of refreshing and change, or we can embrace them.

2 Corinthians 3:18 - "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

"There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow." - Martin Luther
"Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me." - Oswald Chambers

Living in Grace

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Last words

Coming to the end of his thoughts on life, wisdom and choices, Solomon gives us these profound words. Having read through the previous 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes they certainly sum up his sentiments neatly. 

"That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad." - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

This is the best advice we could pass onto the younger generation, and those who still need to hear this advice: 

Let us have a reverence for God (a holy fear) and be willing to follow God's ways. In the end, we will all be judged according to our actions and I am grateful that my life will be judged by one person only - The Lord.

"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else." - Oswald Chambers

Living in Grace

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What a Commitment!

“Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only—My Utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone.” - Oswald Chambers

These words show us the commitment of  a person who was ready to serve his Lord wherever God called him. If you like, this was Oswald's covenant promise to Jesus - I will do my Utmost for God's Highest! He died at just 43 years of age (in 1917), when an emergency appendectomy never healed.

The dedication of this man should challenge us to ask: "Am I doing all I can to serve Jesus? Wherever God places me, am I using all my gifts to bring out the HIGHEST for our God?"

Worth thinking about...

Romans 8:9-10 (MSG) - But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?

Living in Grace
D3LM3

My Utmost for His Highest

Oswald Chambers is known as an incredible man of God and will long be remembered for his work 'My Utmost for His Highest.' This collection of devotions is still available today, years after Oswald passed away. There is even a digital version if ever you are interested in reading some of his thoughts.

One of the lines in his devotion for today hit home to me and I wanted to share this with you. He writes: "Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes."

Our REDEMPTION (Salvation) should cause us to desire personal holiness, NOT be a goal we strive for after living a holy life. He makes the point that being 'good' is an effort to try and be holy, which in turn leads us to believe we are redeemed by God. Although this seems logical, it goes completely against the Truth of the matter - none of us will EVER be holy enough to enter heaven's gates. We only get to enter in because of what Christ has done for us.

He adds onto this initial thought the tough reality that if we live our lives on human effort, we will 'go under' when the time of testing comes.

Ephesians 1:7 - "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace."

What are your thoughts on this? Love to hear them.

Living in grace
D3LM3

Day of Prayer

1 Kings 8:28 - Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.

 

Join us today as we pray for our country and for the upcoming elections.

Let us pray for our children and for our youth of our land.

Pray for leaders of integrity and courage.

Let us pray for reconciliation and healing in our land.

Pray for ........................

 

"We have to prayer with our eyes on God not on our difficulties." - Oswald Chambers 

 

"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer." - John Wesley

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/prayer_3.html

 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

 

 

My Utmost for His Highest

The author of "My Utmost for His Highest" Oswald Chambers, died on the 15th November 1917. His work has inspired me over the many years.

"We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.” - Oswald Chambers

Are you willing to do your Utmost for God's highest?

Living in Grace
D3LM3