6.19.2009

Stealing Blatantly from Oswald Chambers

I am cutting off my ties to Facebook for a while, because I too often found myself fruitlessly browsing the quizzes and looking at pictures of friends' babies - friends that I haven't talked to for years - babies I will never meet . . . and my Bible? It sat unopened much longer then the laptop was.

BUT I am still allowing myself the guilty pleasure of Twitter - which limits itself in time wasting, because there is just not much to do on there. What is Dwight Howard doing right now? ohh, ok - that's cool, what about my friend Lauren- ok pretty cool too. . . but no hours of pictures to browse through and time to waste.

Well, this morning I found something delightful. The year after college I read through "My Utmost for His Highest" pretty regularly. Oswald Chambers compiled this devotional and it contains sweet little reminders of God's sovereignty and my calling to place that sovereignty above my own will. Soft, daily reminders to surrender self to Him. So this Twitter account is basically a daily posting of links to the day's "Utmost" entry. I thought I would share part of today's with you! :)

Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a "doormat." The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies"— it will spring up and change the entire landscape ( John 12:24 ).
-Oswald Chambers

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