Usefulness or Relationship

Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His highest

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven —Luke 10:20

Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory . . .” (Hebrews 2:10).

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.

Will I...

And just how many times more
Do I have to transverse this road
This endless spiral down and down
Into the emotional pit of fears and null.

Irrational and senseless, yes I know
Try preaching and reaching through it all
More than anyone I want it out
Yet again and again I'm caught off-guard.

Just want normal like everyone else
To have a chance and not sympathy
To show despite these monsters that I fight
I am still okay to contribute more

Will I even have the call
To show it's not me but Christ in me
Or simply given the bench
To minimize collateral or asked to rest

Can someone just show me how
The world is more than rationality and risks
That it's a place of more than second chances
One willing to accept wholly me and my bogeyman

Will I be ushered to the ward or the side
If I show you the imps I wrestle with
Or will you look me in the eye
And say it's okay for everybody's the same

Will I ever see the day
When I stand with all with victory won
Or will that day only come
When I'm shown I have nothing to fear

 

Faithfulness, not fruitfulness for the latter comes only from God

I commend it to you now, as Charles Bridges commended it to me then.

Charles Bridges
(d. 1869) said, “Our recompense is measured not according to 'our
success' but 'our labor' and, as with our blessed Master, vouchsafed
even in the failure of our ministration.” God rewards our labor, even if
we “fail.” Like Jesus.

This is exactly what I needed. I knew success was not in my power. By
grace I could do my work. But the fruit—that was all God’s doing (“God
gives the growth” 1 Corinthians 3:6). God did not expect of me what he
kept only for himself. He did expect me to work.

Then the real power of the encouragement came. Bridges quoted Isaiah
6:9, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and
vanity, yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God.”

That was not Charles Bridges talking. That was Isaiah the prophet, on assignment from God, to an unresponsive people. The recompense will come whether I “succeed” or “fail”. A burden was lifted. A burden I could not possibly bear.

Nor can I now. So I still pray: Lord let me come to the end of my
days bearing the easy yoke and the light burden: Success belongs to the
Lord, and my recompense is with him, whether the last season is famine
or feast.

- John Piper

Does He Know Me . . . ?

http://utmost.org/does-he-know-me/

He calls his own . . . by name . . . —John 10:3

When I have sadly misunderstood Him? (see John 20:11-18). It is possible to know all about doctrine and still not know Jesus. A person’s soul is in grave danger when the knowledge of doctrine surpasses Jesus, avoiding intimate touch with Him. Why was Mary weeping? Doctrine meant no more to her than the grass under her feet. In fact, any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could never ridicule was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (see Luke 8:2); yet His blessings were nothing to her in comparison with knowing Jesus Himself. “. . . she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. . . . Jesus said to her, ’Mary!’ ” (John 20:14, 16). Once He called Mary by her name, she immediately knew that she had a personal history with the One who spoke. “She turned and said to Him, ’Rabboni!’ ” (John 20:16).

When I have stubbornly doubted? (see John 20:24-29). Have I been doubting something about Jesus— maybe an experience to which others testify, but which I have not yet experienced? The other disciples said to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:25). But Thomas doubted, saying, “Unless I see . . . I will not believe” (John 20:25). Thomas needed the personal touch of Jesus. When His touches will come we never know, but when they do come they are indescribably precious. “Thomas . . . said to Him, ’My Lord and my God!’ ” (John 20:28).

When I have selfishly denied Him? (see John 21:15-17). Peter denied Jesus Christ with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75), and yet after His resurrection Jesus appeared to Peter alone. Jesus restored Peter in private, and then He restored him publicly before the others. And Peter said to Him, “Lord . . . You know that I love You” (John 21:17).

Do I have a personal history with Jesus Christ? The one true sign of discipleship is intimate oneness with Him— a knowledge of Jesus that nothing can shake.

No-mans land

Finally... an academic who very precisely verbalizes what I feel and makes me feel less alone in my calling.
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by Paul M. Gould, in chap 1 of The Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar

"...the secular ethos of the university presses Christian scholars to conduct their research and teaching in purely secular terms and motifs. If Christian scholars want a place at the table, they must play by the rules of the academic game. A strict wall of separation between church and state exists, and any effort to tear down the wall is looked on with either suspicion or outright incredulity.

On the other hand, the Christian scholar is committed to a particular view of he world that is often antithetical to the established secular ethos. The Christian universe is a God-centered universe. If Jesus is Lord, he is Lord of all areas of thought and life. In fact, the Bible claims that in Jesus "are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). Thus, the Christian scholar himself often becomes disintegrated, compartmentalizing his "scholarly life" from his "spiritual life" as he attempts to navigate between the Scylla of religious fundamentalism and the Charybdis of accomodationism. Any attempts to invoke a Christian perspective to science (for example) in the university are quickly labeled as fundamentalist attempts to promote religion masquerading as science. Any attempts to utilize non-biblical conceptual schemes erected by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle or Kant in order to shape and guide research and teaching are (sometimes) viewed by the church as selling out to accommodationism. The net result of these opposing pressures is that the Christian scholar is left in a sort of 'no-mans land' - viewed with suspicion by both the church and the university. And within the secular academy, religion is relegated to the sidelines. Religion is reserved for the scholar's personal life: meaningful to either the individual or one's own religious community only."


Ideas have consequences, and the university in general and professors in particular are the gate-keepers of ideas - influencing directly or indirectly all aspects of thought and life in our world.

YES! What takes places in universities' labs and especially, what research/theories/way of thinking becomes accepted and even dominant have effects on the future generations. We may not see the effects today, because they lay the foundation of tomorrow's thinking and paradigm. Whatever we see happening today in ALL segments of the society (e.g. public policy, lay theories, popular beliefs etc) is the result of what has been accepted yesterday in the universities - the core of ideas and mindsets.

Trust Me

Trust in me.

I am unfathomable, faithful from the first to the last. My love for you is so wide, so deep, so all-encompassing that you cannot imagine. I reach out to you with all my heart. I love you, my child. 

Whatever you do, however bad you feel, even if you shun me and turn your back on me, I will always love you. Even if you have done the most dreadful things, I still love you. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the love that you seek. The love to heal your wounds, to bind up your inner hurts. 

Be encouraged - you are not alone. I am always with you. I knew you before you were born, when you were formed in your mother's womb. I know every step of your life, every minute, every second.

Turn to me and I will comfort you. You cannot hide from me like you hide from other people. I see into your heart, and I understand. I know about your insecurity. Do not worry that I know this; be reassured, because I love you and want the best for you. I am here. 

I will not harm you - I came to set you free, free in your heart, free in your spirit. I yearn to bring you into my Kingdom, into my peace. Turn to me, let me in, and I will begin to heal you. There is no outer shell that you can wear that I cannot love through. Be at peace. Do not be afraid. I love you. I AM.

-http://www.ethoughts.org/insecurity.htm

Fellowship of suffering

How can I love a person if I do not even know the hurts she carry? Even for myself, I feel closest n most loved by ppl who know my pains, hurts n struggles. Ppl who walked with me thru the desert, who have seen my tears n know the stories of the tears. ppl who did not merely give me cliche answers or counsel, but gave themselves to soothe the pain, gave me their precious time to understand n share in my hurts n struggles.

Indeed the easiest way to truly feel love for a person, esp an irritating person, is thru their hurts n pains. Somehow, their hurts illuminate their humanity, n bond us as fellow pilgrims of Life.

Similarity, God reaches us to us in n thru our pains, thru the same pains He Himself went thru. Truly, fellowship of suffering. Do not forget my experiences, hurts n scars. Use them to reach out to others. Use them to keep me always tender n sensitive to the pains n humanity of others. Use them to bring them into the fellowship of suffering of Christ.

Romans 8:16

from today's Daily Bread verse:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. – Romans 8:16 (NIV)

How do we know that we are accepted by God? For the person who struggles with this, take heart: the very struggle can be a sign that the Spirit is dealing with you, and if the Spirit is dealing with you, this is a sign of being a child of God. We equate living a certain way with our acceptance, but the Scripture tells us another story. As we surrender to Jesus Christ with all of our faults, He sends His Spirit to perfect us. So both the sense of peace and struggle testify to being an heir with Christ. It is dullness and apathy that we should be concerned about.

My faith

Do I know anything with any certainty?
Frankly, all I have is my faith.
When all else goes, all that's left is Faith.
A faith that gives birth to Hope.
A faith that draws strength from Love.

Unique experiences

At a big Christian bookstore yesterday, somehow it just came to me how many Christian books there really are... even on similar topics.

I was thinking about this sheer number of books... and it occurred to me that perhaps this is the by-product of having a relational God who relates to each one of us uniquely, in accordance to who we are. And such experiences are so wonderful that we can't help but want to share with the rest of the Body of Christ, or even the world. Thus, so many different books but yet each varying in differing degrees of differences from each other.