"The Cross of Jesus Christ stands unique and alone. His Cross is not our cross. Our cross is that we manifest before the world the fact that we are sanctified to do nothing but the will of God." Oswald Chambers Christian Disciplines, Volume 1, Chapter 2, "The Discipline of Suffering" |
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"The one marvellous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is 'Christ in you.' It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification, and imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His word? ...Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is on a different line. In Jesus Christ is the perfection of everything, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfections of Jesus are at my disposal, and slowly and surely I begin to live a life of ineffable order and sanity and holiness: 'Kept by the power of God.'"
Oswald Chambers from "Sanctification," My Utmost for His Highest, July 23 "As Jesus transfigured, He didn't try to be transfigured ...'OK, now, I'm going to really try to be transfigured'... no, His transfiguration was a natural consequence of His relationship with His Father. We don't try to be spiritual. Don't try to be godly, don't try to be good. Just trust, and live out of fellowship with Jesus Christ. Don't try to put anything on the outside that's not natural. No phoniness. ...[Your] 'transfiguration' means, people who are meeting you will meet Jesus."
Charles Price, "A Thanksgiving Church," October 12, 2014 (Peoples Church, Toronto) One night not long ago I decided to take the counter-intuitive approach to some mounting frustration. I sat down with my Bible study notebook and waited for the Lord's direction. One passage He led me to was Psalm 85:
I will hear what God the Lord will say; For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones; But let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. ... Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him And will make His footsteps into a way. Psalm 85:8-9, 12-13 The image in verse 13 strikes me deeply: Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way. His own footsteps become our way -- not the process of following in them, but His own footsteps, because He is the way. But what on earth does this mean in practical terms? I for one don't need a Christianity that only deals in abstractions; apparently neither does God. The other day God added another dimension to the image. Taking Louie Giglio up on his advice at the end of "Fear Must Fall," I began soaking in Psalm 23. It's so familiar, most of us could recite it in our sleep, but I had never noticed that in verse 3b... He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. ...the word "paths" literally means "tracks." This made me think of a reflection I posted here on "tracks" a couple of years ago, concerning Psalm 65. The metaphor is cool enough to bear repeating, so I hope you don't mind if I link to that post ("Wagon tracks," August 2012). In Psalm 23, the image is even more intimate, because the tracks are made by the feet of our Shepherd. How is this practical? It's practical because the Christian life is a process of learning to let Him walk in our feet. And wherever His feet make genuine contact, deep healing begins. In a world where the level of anxiety seems to intensify by the day, what could be more practical? |
All thy sins were laid upon Him, Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him, and, believing, thou art free. Joseph Denham Smith (c. 1817-1889) Praise reflection archives
May 2020
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...take root downward and bear fruit upward.
2 Kings 19:30 |