Come up here, and I will show you. — Revelation 4:1

Elevated emotions can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If you’ve developed the kind of character that allows you to live up to the highest standards you know, God will grant you insights that draw you even higher. He will continually say to you, “Come up here, and I will show you.”

Each time you go higher, you will face new and different kinds of temptation. The golden rule of temptation is “go higher.” Both God and Satan use the promise of elevation to draw us upward, but they use it to very different effects. Satan whispers to us of an unattainable holiness, a holiness beyond what flesh and blood can bear. He draws us into a spiritual acrobatic performance that ends up freezing us: we are poised on a tightrope and cannot move. But when God, by his grace, elevates us to the heavenly places, we find a vast plateau, where we can move around with liberty and ease.

Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year, and see how God has called you higher. This is how you know you have grown in grace—not because you no longer backslide into sin but because God has granted you new spiritual insight. If God has revealed to you a new truth, you know it is because of growth in your character. Keep trusting and obeying him. Whenever he gives you a truth, apply it instantly to your life. Always work it out in your personal practices; always keep yourself in its light.

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17). Why didn’t God immediately tell Abraham about his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Because Abraham wasn’t yet ready to receive that truth. God has to hide from us what he does, until by personal character we get to the place where he can reveal it.

Judges 1-3; Luke 4:1-30

Wisdom from Oswald

God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L

https://utmost.org/

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. — Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence; it is much more. Purity is the outcome of sustained spiritual closeness with God. We have to grow in purity. Our private life with God may be healthy, and our inner purity may be unsullied, and still, every now and again, the bloom on the outside may become tarnished.

God doesn’t shield us from this possibility. When we go astray in some outward expression or action, we realize just how necessary outward purity is to maintaining our vision of God. Spiritual understanding becomes blurred the instant we go astray in our external lives. When we notice that the outward bloom of our life with God has been damaged, even to a tiny degree, we must stop everything and correct it. The inner sanctuary and the outer rooms must be brought into perfect agreement.

God makes us pure by his sovereign grace, but we also have something we must take care of: our bodily lives. Our bodily lives bring us into contact with other people and other points of view, and if we are not careful these external influences can tarnish our purity. If we are going to keep in personal contact with Jesus, there are some things we must refuse to do or touch or think, even things which seem worthy and legitimate to others. A practical way of maintaining personal purity around other people is to say to yourself, “That man, that woman: perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend, that relative: perfect in Christ Jesus!”

Remember that spiritual vision depends on character: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Joshua 22-24; Luke 3

Wisdom from Oswald

God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. Not Knowing Whither, 900 L

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The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him. — John 3:29

Goodness and purity should never attract attention to themselves; they should be magnets that draw attention to Jesus Christ. If my holiness isn’t drawing people to him, it isn’t holiness of the right order; it’s an influence that will spark misplaced affection and lead souls astray. A talented and virtuous preacher may be an obstacle if, instead of preaching Jesus Christ, he preaches only what Jesus Christ has done for him. People will come away saying, “That preacher has a fine character!” when they should be coming away with Jesus himself. If my face is growing brighter while Jesus’s fades, I’m not being a true friend of the bridegroom (John 3:30).

In order to maintain a loyal friendship with Jesus, we have to be careful with our moral and vital relationship to him—more careful than we are with anything else, even our obedience to God. Sometimes, the only thing we need to do is maintain this vital connection. Occasionally, when we are faced with a crisis, we have to seek knowledge of God’s will so that we can act in obedience. But most of life doesn’t require this kind of conscious obedience; it requires the maintenance of this relationship, our friendship with the bridegroom.

Beware of allowing anything to come between you and Jesus Christ. Too often, Christian work provides the perfect excuse for breaking our soul’s concentration on him. Instead of being friends of the bridegroom, we may end up working against him.

Joshua 19-21; Luke 2:25-52

Wisdom from Oswald

Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. Disciples Indeed, 386 R

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He must become greater; I must become less. — John 3:30

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, your great responsibility is to be a friend of the bridegroom, following the example set by John the Baptist: “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him” (John 3:29). The bridegroom’s friend never takes the central role away from Jesus or becomes a necessity to another person’s soul. If you find, in your relationships with others, that you have stolen the spotlight away from Christ, then you know that you are out of God’s established order for his disciples. You’ll know your influence over others has taken the right direction when you see their souls gripped by the claims of Jesus Christ.

Never interfere when another person’s soul has been gripped by Christ. However painful it may appear to you from the outside, pray that the pain grows ten times stronger, until there is no power on earth or in hell that can keep that soul away from the Lord. You may often see Jesus Christ wreck a life before he saves it. Never mind what havoc the bridegroom causes, what crumblings of health and wealth. Rejoice with divine hilarity when his voice is heard.

Over and over again, we turn ourselves into amateur providences, trying to prevent suffering by stopping God. In the end, our sympathy costs other people dearly. One day, they’ll accuse us of being thieves, of stealing their affections away from their bridegroom and causing them to lose their vision of him. We must beware of rejoicing with a soul in the wrong thing, but we must make sure to rejoice in the right thing. The bridegroom’s friend “is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:29–30). John the Baptist is describing the absolute effacement of the disciple; he will never be thought of again. But he acknowledges this with joy, not sadness.

Joshua 16-18; Luke 2:1-24

Wisdom from Oswald

The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from.The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R

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I have been crucified with Christ. — Galatians 2:20

Paul doesn’t say, “I’ve decided to imitate Christ” or “I’m interested in following Christ.” He says, “I have been crucified with Christ”: he has become identified with Christ in Christ’s death.

In my spiritual life, the essential need is to sign the death warrant of my sinful disposition. I must issue a moral verdict against the idea that I have a right to myself, drawing on every emotional and intellectual tool at my disposal to make the decision Paul made. When I do, when I come to the decision to identify myself with Christ’s death, everything that Christ won on the cross is realized in me. By freely committing myself to God, I allow the Holy Spirit to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). My individual life continues, but the wellspring of my character, my ruling disposition, is radically altered. My body remains as it was, but the satanic belief I used to have—the belief in my right to myself—is destroyed. Paul emphasizes that he is living this life “now.” It isn’t a life he plans to live one day; it’s the life he’s living “in the body”—the body that other people can see. This body bears witness to the life of Christ within it: “And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (v. 20).

Joshua 7-9; Luke 1:21-38

Wisdom from Oswald

God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L

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Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? — Genesis 18:17

Chapter 18 of Genesis brings out the delights and difficulties of real friendship with God.

Its delights. Real friendship with God is different from occasionally sensing his presence in prayer. To have a real friendship with God is to be in such close contact with him that you never need to ask him to show you his will. It is to be nearing the final stage of the life of faith. When you are rightly related to God, life is full of liberty and delight: you are God’s will. Unless he tells you otherwise, your commonsense decisions are his will for you, decided in perfect friendship with him.

Its difficulties. In Genesis 18, Abraham begins to plead with God to spare Sodom, but he stops before receiving God’s final assurance (vv. 25–33). Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He was not yet intimate enough with God to go boldly on until his desire was granted. There was something still lacking in their relationship. Whenever we stop short in prayer, there is another stage to go in friendship with God. We aren’t as intimate with God as Jesus was and as God wishes us to be.

What was the last thing you prayed about? Were you devoted to your desire or to God? Did you hope to get some gift of the Spirit, or to get at God himself? “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). The point of asking is to get to know God better. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God himself.

Joshua 4-6; Luke 1:1-20

Wisdom from Oswald

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

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By faith Abraham . . . obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. — Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, people demonstrated a close, personal relationship with God by separating themselves physically from friends, family, and home. Abraham “obeyed and went,” leaving everything behind. Today, the separation God asks of us is more of a mental and moral separation. We must maintain a radically different mindset from those who do not have a personal relationship with him, even if they happen to be our nearest and dearest. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother,” Jesus said, “such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

As disciples, we are called to walk by faith. Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason. It is a life of knowing the One who sends us out. The root of faith is knowledge of a person—Jesus Christ himself. One of the biggest traps we fall into is the idea that God will surely lead us to worldly success. He will surely lead us into a personal relationship with Jesus. That is his measure of success.

The final stage of the life of faith is the development of our character. There are many moments in our walk with God when we feel our character being transformed. We might feel God’s blessings wrap around us when we pray, and for a moment we are changed. Then we go back to the ordinary days and ways and the sense of glory vanishes. The life of faith isn’t a life of mounting up with wings but a life of walking and not fainting (Isaiah 40:31). It isn’t a question of sanctification but of something infinitely greater: of faith that has been tried and has stood the test. This was the faith of Abraham, a tried-and-tested faith built on a real God. “Abram believed the Lord” (Genesis 15:6).

Joshua 1-3; Mark 16

Wisdom from Oswald

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

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Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves . . . perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. — 2 Corinthians 7:1

Have I recognized that God, through his promises, has a claim on me? We delight in God’s promises to us and count on their fulfillment, and it is right that we should. But Paul reminds us that this is only the human side of the equation. The divine side is that God wishes us to become pure and holy out of reverence to him.

Have I understood that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Or do I have a habit that obviously can’t stand the light of God upon it? Through sanctification, the Son of God is formed inside me, but the story doesn’t end there. I must transform my natural, physical life into a spiritual life through obedience. God educates us down to the scruple, examining every aspect of our character. Keep yourself clean in your daily walk, and when God begins his inspection, rid yourself at once of any impurity his gaze reveals. The goal is to bring yourself, in both body and spirit, into perfect harmony with the nature of God.

Are my thoughts and outlook in perfect agreement with the Spirit inside me? Or am I intellectually defiant? Am I forming the mind of Christ and obeying God? Jesus never spoke of his right to himself. Rather, he maintained an inner watchfulness, continually submitting his spirit to his Father. I too have the responsibility of keeping my spirit in agreement with the Lord’s Spirit. If I do, then by degrees Jesus will lift me up to where he lived—in perfect consecration to his Father’s will, paying no attention to anything else.

Am I perfecting this kind of holiness in the fear of God? Is God getting his way with me? Are other people seeing more and more evidence of him in my life? Be serious with God and happily leave the rest alone. Literally, put God first.

Deuteronomy 32-34; Mark 15:26-47

Wisdom from Oswald

The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R

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We make it our goal to please him. — 2 Corinthians 5:9

Staying focused on the goal Paul sets in 2 Corinthians 5:9 is difficult work. It means holding ourselves, year in and year out, to the highest ideal: not the ideal of winning souls or establishing churches or ushering in revivals but the ideal of pleasing Jesus Christ. Failure in spiritual work isn’t caused by a lack of spiritual experience; it’s caused by a lack of effort to maintain the highest ideal.

At least once a week, take stock before God and see if you are keeping your life up to the standard he has set. The standard must be your ruling passion, your master ambition. Paul is like a musician who cares nothing about the approval of his audience—so long as he catches the look of approval from his master.

Follow a lesser ambition to its natural conclusion, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord. Any ambition that is separated from the highest goal, even by the tiniest degree, may end in our disqualification. “Therefore,” Paul says, “I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:26–27). Paul was constantly watching himself, constantly keeping himself in line, lest he lose sight of the ideal.

I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, maintaining it at all times. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please him and be acceptable to him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?

Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15:1-25

Wisdom from Oswald

We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R

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You are slaves of the one you obey. — Romans 6:16

The first thing to do when confronting a habit or mindset that controls me is to face an unwelcome fact: I am responsible for being controlled, because at some point I gave in. If I am a slave to myself—to my habits and urges, my egotisms and selfishness—I am to blame, because I gave in to myself. Likewise, if I obey God, it’s because I’ve yielded myself to him.

We learn the truth of this in the most ridiculously small things. “I can give up that habit whenever I want,” you say. You cannot. Try it, and you will find that the habit absolutely dominates you. Give in to selfishness in childhood, and you will find it the most binding tyranny on earth. Yield for one second to any form of lust—to the thought “I must have this thing at once”—and you will be chained to that thing, even if you hate yourself for it.

No human power can break the bondage of a character that has been shaped by giving in. Only the power of the redemption is sufficient. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only one who can set you free, the Lord Jesus Christ: “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and … to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). It is easy to sing “He can break every fetter” and still be living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. Only Jesus can break the chains, and only when you let him. Yield yourself to the Lord, and he will set you free.

Deuteronomy 23-25; Mark 14:1-26

Wisdom from Oswald

Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him.Approved Unto God, 10 R

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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

We will never understand how to abandon ourselves to God until we understand how God abandoned himself to us. When God gave his Son in love to the world, he didn’t give just a part of himself. He gave all of himself, absolutely and entirely. He gave with total abandon, holding nothing back. We must beware of talking about abandonment if we don’t really know about it, and we won’t know—not until we realize the full meaning of John 3:16.

That God gave with total abandon is the very essence of salvation. Salvation isn’t merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. Salvation is deliverance out of self and into union with God. What I experience of salvation may be a sense of personal holiness, but what salvation actually means is that the Spirit of God has brought me into contact with God himself. I am thrilled by the contact with something infinitely greater than myself, and I wonder how it is possible. It is possible because God has given himself completely for our sake.

Abandonment is never self-conscious. If we are abandoned to God, our whole life is his. There is no awareness of striving to let go, no struggling to abandon. We aren’t torn between our old life and our new. We are simply given over to our Lord. Our entire existence is wrapped up in him, and the consequences of abandoning ourselves never enter into our thinking.

Deuteronomy 20-22; Mark 13:21-37

Wisdom from Oswald

There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.

https://utmost.org/

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” — Mark 10:28

Jesus replies to Peter that the disciples will be amply rewarded for their sacrifice. But he also makes clear that their reason for following him shouldn’t be anything they’ll get in return. It must be entirely for Jesus himself: “for me and the gospel” (Mark 10:29).

Beware of an abandonment that has a self-interested spirit in it. Too often, we abandon ourselves to God because we want to be made holy or delivered from sin. We will be, if we are rightly related to him, but this demanding spirit is not in line with the essential nature of Christianity.

Abandonment is not for any thing at all. We’ve become so commercialized in our thinking that we go to God only when we want something. It’s as if we’re saying, “I don’t want you, God. I want myself: a clean, Spirit-filled version of myself. I want to be put on display in your showroom, and to be able to say, ‘See what God has done for me.’”

If we give something to God only because we want something in return, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment: it is miserable, commercial self-interest. To gain heaven, to be delivered from sin, to be made useful to God: real abandonment never considers these things. Real abandonment is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ himself.

When we are forced to choose between our natural relationships and Jesus Christ, most of us desert him. “I did hear your call, Lord,” we say. “But my spouse needs me; my mother needs me; my self- interest needs me.” “Such a person,” Jesus replies, “cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). It is always natural devotion that tests abandonment. Rise to the test, and God will embrace all those you hurt when you abandoned yourself to him.

Deuteronomy 17-19; Mark 13:1-20

Wisdom from Oswald

The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.Disciples Indeed, 386 R

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I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. — Acts 26:19

When Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and told him to preach the gospel, there was nothing hesitant about Paul’s response: he obeyed, keeping the vision from heaven bright before him as he began fulfilling his commission (Acts 26:12–19). If we lose the vision, we alone are responsible; it means that we’ve been lax and careless in our spiritual lives. The only way to be obedient to the vision God sends is to give our utmost for his highest, and this can only be done by continually and resolutely recalling the vision, while working steadily to realize it. The test is to keep the vision in our sights not only during times of prayer and devotion but sixty seconds of every minute, sixty minutes of every hour.

“Though it linger, wait for it” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot rush the fulfillment of a vision; we have to live in its light until it accomplishes itself through us. Sometimes, after we receive a vision, we grow impatient. We go racing off into practical work, hoping to speed things along. Then the work becomes our focus, and we lose sight of the vision. We don’t even notice when it has been fulfilled! Working to realize the vision is necessary, but we must work steadily, without rush or force, and only when and where God chooses. Our ability to wait for the vision that lingers is a test of our loyalty to him.

After God gives a vision to his disciple, he always sends a whirlwind, flinging his disciple to the place where the seed of the vision will take root and grow. Are you ready to be sown, so that the vision can fulfill itself through you? The answer depends on whether or not you’re living in the light of what you’ve seen. Let God fling you out, and don’t go until he does. If you try to dictate where you’ll go, you’ll prove empty. But if you let God sow you, you will bring forth fruit.

Deuteronomy 14-16; Mark 12:28-44

Wisdom from Oswald

The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R

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Preach the word. — 2 Timothy 4:2

We aren’t saved to be mere mouthpieces for God; we’re saved to be his sons and daughters. God has no interest in turning his preachers into passive channels. He wants vigorous, alert, wide-awake men and women with all their powers and faculties intact. God’s disciples are spiritual messengers, not spiritual mediums, and the message they deliver must be part of themselves.

The Son of God was his message. His words were Spirit and life (John 6:63). As disciples, we must become the examples of what we preach; our lives must become the very sacrament of our message. It is natural to want to serve and give to others—that desire lies in most human hearts. But it takes a heart broken by the conviction of sin, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and crumpled into the purposes of God to turn a life into the sacrament of its message.

There is a difference between giving testimony and preaching. Anyone who is saved can give testimony. A preacher is someone who has answered the call of God and is determined to use every power to proclaim God’s truth. God takes his preachers out of their own ideas for their lives and shapes them for his use, just as the disciples were after Pentecost. Pentecost did not teach the disciples anything; it made them the embodiment of their message: “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

Before God’s message can liberate other souls, the liberation must be real in you. Gather the material you wish to preach, and set it alight. Let God have perfect liberty when you speak.

Deuteronomy 11-13; Mark 12:1-27

Wisdom from Oswald

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.Disciples Indeed, 395 L

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In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. — Romans 8:37

In all these things . . .” Paul is speaking here of things that might seem likely to separate the sanctified soul from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can separate the two. Certain things can and do come between God and our devotional practices or private life with him. But nothing can separate the sanctified soul from his love.

The bedrock of Christian faith is the unearned, fathomless marvel of the love of God displayed on the cross, a love we never can and never will deserve. Paul says that this is the reason we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We are super-victors through Christ, and the joy we take in this fact is directly related to the magnitude of the challenges we face.

The wave that distresses the new swimmer gives the seasoned surfer the extreme joy of riding clean through it. For the sanctified soul, tribulation, distress, and persecution are not things to fight or fear or avoid: they are sources of jubilation. In them, we are more than conquerors through Christ—not in spite of them but in the middle of them. If certain things didn ’t seem likely to overwhelm us, we wouldn’t fully appreciate Christ ’s victory. We know the joy of the Lord not in spite of hardship but because of it. “In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds,” Paul says (2 Corinthians 7:4).

Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing. It is built on the love of God, which nothing can alter. The experiences of life, however terrible or monotonous, are powerless to touch it.

Deuteronomy 3-4; Mark 10:32-52

Wisdom from Oswald

We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L

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As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses. — 2 Corinthians 6:4

It takes almighty grace to take the next step—the next step in devotion, the next step in our studies, the next step in the kitchen, the next step in our duty—when there’s nothing to inspire us and no one to cheer us on. When there’s no vision from God and no enthusiasm, when it’s just the daily routine and the trivial task, it takes almighty grace.

Sometimes, it requires far more of the grace of God to take the next step than it does to preach the gospel. Perhaps at one time we had a clear vision of something God wanted us to accomplish, and we threw ourselves into it with excitement. But now the excitement has waned and we wonder how we’ll keep going. We begin to doubt that the vision will ever be realized. It will be, if we’ll keep working steadily until it is fulfilled. Every Christian has to participate in the essence of the incarnation; we have to bring it down into flesh-and-blood life and work it out through our fingertips. In the long run, what counts for God—and for people—is steady, persevering work in the unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18). The only way to live our lives uncrushed is to live looking to God.

Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to crush you. Continually get away from pettiness of mind and thought. Remember Jesus’s example: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

Deuteronomy 1-2; Mark 10:1-31

Wisdom from Oswald

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed

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I consider my life worth nothing to me. — Acts 20:24

It’s easier to serve God without a calling than with one. It’s easier to be unbothered by his requirements and to let common sense be your guide—common sense with a thin veneer of Christian sentiment on top. If you choose to serve God in this way, you’ll be more successful and leisure-hearted. But if you have received the call, the memory of it will never let you be. Once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, it is impossible to continue working for the Lord on the basis of common sense.

What do you truly value? If you haven’t been gripped by Jesus, you value your own acts of service, your own offerings to God, your own life. You take on practical work in his name, not because you’ve been called to it but because you want to be appreciated by the people around you. “Look how useful I am,” you think. “Look how valuable.” Practical work often competes with abandoning yourself to God. Instead of letting Jesus Christ tell you where to go and what to do, you follow your own commonsense judgment about where you’ll be most valued.

The Holy Spirit warned Paul that “prison and hardships” awaited him, should he choose to follow Jesus Christ (Acts 20:23). Acts 20:24 reveals Paul’s almost sublime annoyance at the idea that he would consider himself. His own life, he says, is worth nothing to him. The only thing that matters to him is fulfilling the ministry he’s been given, and he refuses to use his energy for anything else. He is absolutely indifferent to anything except completing the Lord’s task.

Never consider whether you are useful. Ever consider that you belong not to yourself but to him.

Numbers 31-33; Mark 9:1-29

Wisdom from Oswald

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure.The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R

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Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” — John 21:17

This is love in the making: Peter, having confessed how deeply he loves Jesus, is told to add action to emotion and feed God’s sheep. The love of God was not created; love is God’s very nature. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we are united with God so that his love is manifested in us. But this isn’t the end of the story. The ultimate goal is that we may be one with the Father as Jesus is. “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11). What kind of oneness is this? Such a oneness that the Father’s purpose for the Son becomes the Son’s purpose for us: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (20:21).

After Peter recognized the depth of his love for Jesus, Jesus made his point: Spend it. Don’t declare how much you love me. Don’t testify about the marvelous revelation you’ve had. “Feed my sheep.” This is a challenging request, because Jesus has some extraordinarily funny sheep! Bedraggled, dirty sheep; awkward, headbutting sheep; sheep that have gone astray (Luke 15:3–7). God’s love pays no attention to such quirks and differences. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by personal preference. I simply have to feed his sheep. There is no relief and no release from this part of the call.

Beware of letting your natural human sympathy decide which sheep you’ll feed. You are called to spend God’s love, not pass off a counterfeit version of it. That would end in blaspheming the love of God.

Numbers 28-30; Mark 8:22-38

Wisdom from Oswald

The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. Notes on Ezekiel, 1477 L

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Now we can see that you know all things … This makes us believe. — John 16:30-31

When the disciples finally told Jesus that they believed he was the Son of God, Jesus replied with skepticism: “Do you now believe? … You will leave me all alone” (John 16:31–32). Many Christians leave Jesus alone as they go about their work. They’re motivated by their conscience or a sense of duty, but their souls aren’t in intimate contact with their Lord; they’re leaning on their own understanding. It isn’t a sin to work for God in this way, and there’s no punishment attached to it, but when we catch ourselves acting like this, when we realize we’ve grown distant from Jesus and produced confusion and sadness for ourselves, we come back to him with shame and contrition.

We need to learn to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to him. We make decisions based on common sense, then ask God to bless those decisions. He cannot. Common sense is not in God’s domain; it is severed from divine reality. Common sense tells us that duty and moral obligation should be our guides. “I must do this; conscience compels me,” we say, haughtily. A decision based on common sense can always be backed up by an argument like this. But when we do something purely out of obedience to the Lord, no commonsense argument is possible. That’s why obedience is so easy to ridicule.

If we don’t want to leave Jesus alone, we must be willing to be ridiculed for his sake. We aren’t told to walk in the light of conscience or of duty; we’re told to walk in the light as God is in the light (1 John 1:7).

Numbers 20-22; Mark 7:1-13

Wisdom from Oswald

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed

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