Oswald Chambers

A number of years ago, I read the most delightful biography about Oswald Chambers. It’s called Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, by David McCasland. It was quite good as well as inspiring. I believe I’ve mentioned before, about two thousand times, that I love reading Christian biography.

Of course, as with most people, I first met Chambers through the devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. That devotional, like all of his books, was put together after his death from the notes his wife took (shorthand) from his many lectures, studies, sermons, etc. (She was quite a woman).

I own pretty close to all of Chambers’ books (due to the very kind and generous offerings of a widow who was giving away her departed husband’s library). I have treasured them.

Chambers only lived into his early 40s. As someone who will be 48 this year, I have been “forced” to compare my productivity with his. I’m not fairing well. But we moderns never seem to compare well with anyone who’s been dead for a hundred years or more (usually). At any rate, if you would like to learn more about Chambers’ extraordinary short life, you can check out the following links.

• My Utmost for His Highest (online version of his wonderful devotional.) You can click here for another good version of it.
• Wikipedia on Chambers. Seems to be an accurate summary of what I’ve read thus far.
• The Oswald Chambers Publications Association. (official site)
• Wheaton College’s Collection

Soli Deo Gloria,
Dale

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FIRE

Year of Grace 1654

From about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight,

FIRE

“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6),
not of philosophers and scholars.

Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace.

God of Jesus Christ.

God of Jesus Christ.

“My God and Your God” (John 20:17).

“Your God shall be my God” (Ruth 1:16).

The world forgotten, everything except God.

He can only be found by the ways that have been taught in the Gospels.

Greatness of the human soul.

“O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You” (John 17:25).

Joy, Joy, Joy, tears of joy.

I have separated myself from him.

“They have forsaken me, the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13)

“My God, will you leave me?” (cf. Matthew 2746).

Let me not be cut off from him forever!

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.

I am separated from him; for I have shunned him, denied him, crucified him.

May I never be separated from him.

He can only be kept by the ways taught in the gospel.

Complete and sweet renunciation.

Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.

Everlasting joy in return for one day’s striving upon earth.

“I will not neglect your word” (Psalm 119:16) Amen.

by Blaise Pascal – Discovered on a piece of parchment on which Pascal recorded the decisive experience of 1654 when he was converted. This testimony was found sewn into his clothing after his death. It appears that he carried it with him at all times. (Os Guinness)

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 9

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

by A.W. Tozer

As for myself, I have learned to talk back to [the devil] on this score.

I say, “Yes, Devil, sin is terrible – but I remind you that I got it from you! And I remind you, Devil, that everything good – forgiveness and cleansing and blessing – everything that is good I have freely received from Jesus Christ!”

Brethren, we have been declared “Not guilty!” by the highest court in all the universe. It is good to know that on the basis of grace as taught in the Word of God, when God forgives a man, he trusts him as though he had never sinned.

by John Bunyan

God is the only desirable good; nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God are able to ravish the heart; how much more happy is the man that has interest in God. God alone is able by himself to put the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition than can the whole world; yes, and more than if all the created happiness of all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man’s bosom.

by Oswald Chambers

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith, faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God his opportunity.

God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of his blessings.

Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew his conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.

…Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts him – I will remain true to God’s character whatever he may do. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13:15) - this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 8

by Thomas a Kempis

Every man naturally wants to know, but what is the good of knowledge without the fear of God? …He who knows himself well becomes cheap in his own eyes, and takes no pleasure in the praises of men.

And foolish indeed is he who gives his attention to other things than those which make for his salvation.

The greater and better your knowledge, so much the more severely will you be judged, unless you have lived a more holy life.

This is the highest knowledge and the most useful lesson – to have true understanding and small opinion of oneself. To hold no high opinion of oneself, and always to judge well and highly of others, is great wisdom and high perfection.

by John Calvin

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. …In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he “lives and moves.”

Each of us must, then, be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God. Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is more – depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness, rest in the Lord alone.

To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves.

Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 7

from A.W. Tozer

There seems to be a great throng of professing Christians in our churches today whose total and amazing testimony sounds like this: “I am thankful for God’s plan of sending Christ to the cross to save me from hell. …Surely we know the Bible well enough to be able to answer that: God’s highest purpose in the redemption of sinful humanity was based in his hope that we would allow him to reproduce the likeness of Jesus Christ in our once-sinful lives!”

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored or turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”

from Oswald Chambers

The answer to the question “How can a man be born when he is old?” is – When he is old enough to die – die right out of his “rag rights,” to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive into himself the life which never was there before. The new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness.

Is my knowledge of Jesus born of internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned by listening to others?

from John Wesley

The [new] Society [in Portarlington] now contained above one hundred members, full of zeal and good desires; and in one week the face of the whole town is changed: open wickedness is not seen; the fear of God is on every side; and rich and poor ask, “What must I do to be saved?” How long (I thought with myself) will this continue? In most only till the fowls of the air come, and devour the good seed. Many of the rest, when persecution or reproach begins, will immediately be offended. And in the small remainder, some will fall off, either through other desires, or the cares of the world, or the deceitfulness of riches.

from Ken Boa

Father, You have loved me and called me to be Your loyal follower, and to find my true pleasure in Your revealed will. You have given all humanity great personal worth and have called us to a high and holy life of other-centered love. As I pursue You, may I also pursue the best interests of the people You have sovereignly placed in my life, so that I will be an agent of reconciliation and of Your grace. You are the eternal wellspring of wisdom, and I want to drink from the water of Your Word and be satisfied. Keep me from being a stumbling block to others and empower me to treat people according to their true dignity in Your image rather than according to the world’s distorted view of status and worth. Let my love and service of others be an expression of my love and service to You.

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 6

George Whitefield

Joined with those at night, who set apart this day as a day of fasting and humiliation, to deprecate the judgements our national sins deserve. Lord, hear our prayers, and let our cry come unto Thee.

Happy the man who serves God in his health, and has nothing to do when sickness seizes him, but quietly to lie down and die.

Monroe Hatch (Monroe served our church as pastor, retired pastor, and pastor emeritus for many years)

Help us to give our hearts to you that we may so love you that we may seek nothing but to please you, and fear nothing but to fail to be your child. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Proverbs 4:25-27 
    Let your eyes look straight ahead,
        fix your gaze directly before you.
    [26] Make level paths for your feet
        and take only ways that are firm.
    [27] Do not swerve to the right or the left;
        keep your foot from evil.

Isaiah 65:17-19
    “Behold, I will create
        new heavens and a new earth.
    The former things will not be remembered,
        nor will they come to mind.
    [18] But be glad and rejoice forever
        in what I will create,
    for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
        and its people a joy.
    [19] I will rejoice over Jerusalem
        and take delight in my people;
    the sound of weeping and of crying
        will be heard in it no more.

Matthew 20:26-28 
    Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, [27] and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– [28] just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Acts 15:11 
    No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

C.S. Lewis

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 5

by John Stott

Jesus of Nazareth is the heaven-sent Savior we sinners need. We need to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with the all-holy God, from whom our sins have separated us. We need to be set free from our selfishness and given strength to live up to our ideals. We need to learn to love one another,, friend and foe alike. This is the meaning of “salvation.” This is what Christ came to win for us by his death and resurrection.

by Leonard Ravenhill

Unction cannot be learned, only earned – by prayer. Unction is God’s knighthood for the soldier-preacher who has wrestled in prayer and gained the victory.

by K.P. Yohannan

Each and every day, our walk with the Lord and our commitment to him must be fresh and new.

It is of utmost importance that the people who are called to fulfill God’s plan and purpose remain close to him and do not blindly rely on the past.

How is it possible for us to regain or maintain this fresh walk with the Lord…? I believe the answer starts with a conscious decision to daily “humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord (James 4:10) and begin or continue to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). And this is possible only if we are willing to repent or forsake all that causes our heart to wander away from the Lord…

by Oswald Chambers

[God] wants to get us to the place where we will be his witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water.

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