| Author | Message | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 288 Registered: 8-2004 |
 I read this the other night and it really blessed me. I wanted to share it then but didn't get it done. So finally now I can! "The summing up of our Lord's teaching is that the relationship which He demands is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that there not be the slightest trace of resentment even suppressed in the heart of a disciple when he meets with tyranny and injustice. No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring cleaning until there is only one purpose left - I am here for God to send me where He will. Every other thing may get fogged, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must never be. "The Sermon on the Mount is not an ideal, it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in a disposition like His own. Jesus Christ is the only one who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount. "If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally; as long as we have the deadset purpose of being disciples, we may be sure we are not. "I have chosen you." That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we cannot get away from; we can disobey it, but we cannot generate it. The drawing is done by the supernatural grace of God, and we never can trace where His work begins. Our Lord's making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along those lines always." -- Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest" | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 2620 Registered: 12-2003  |
Mary, thank you for sharing that quote. I love that particular passage. I completely believe Chambers; what God asks of us is impossible unless He does it in us. Everything in me must be Him, and He has to bring me over and over the the point of surrender of my hopes, dreams, fears, loves--and He gives me Himself, and that is the greatest surprise and fulfillment of all. He calls us and equips us--and what He asks us to do is very often nothing we have prepared ourselves to do. It is His work alone. Colleen | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 843 Registered: 3-2005 |
Mary, Thanks for sharing that Oswald Chambers quote. It really blessed me this morning. I especially love that part of the quote that says we are made disciples only by His supernatural power. God has chosen us to be His disciples, (we didn't choose Him, like a lot of teaching out there says). Chambers says that God says "I have chosen you".'That is where the grace of God begins'. This is the Biblical doctrine of election. "My utmost for His Highest" by Chambers is indeed a classic morning devotional. According to Newsweek magazine, this is the reading material every AM of Pres. Bush. If that is true, then I know that Bush is at least reading from the right instruction book. Stan | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 289 Registered: 8-2004 |
Interesting that it's a MORNING book. I'm reading it in the evening. LOL! I'm reading "Streams in the Desert" in the morning. Mary | ||
| Kathy23 Registered user Username: Kathy23 Post Number: 11 Registered: 6-2005 |
I read this thread just minutes after reading an e-mail from J (the former teacher I am trying to get away from). She was chastizing me and my prayer partners for not keeping in touch with her and not letting her know what is going on in our lives so she can "lift and prepare a path in heaven for your work to be successful on earth". She was telling us we need to be making disciples out of people. She told us "if we don't bear fruit(disciples), then it means we are sterile-unfruitful-and in a short time we not only will lose our focus, but become so self absorbed, our faith turns into selfishness". Using the parable in Luke 13:6-9 of the fig tree planted in the vineyard not bearing fruit, she told us the Lord gives us 3 years to start bearing fruit. She told us she had discipled each of us for 3 years and we should take heed and be seeing fruit in a new generation of disciples by now. I read the quote from Oswald Chambers right after reading that e-mail and it struck home to me: J can't make disciples and I can't make disciples, only the supernatural power of God can do that. I like the quote "as long as we have the deadset purpose of being disciples, we may be sure we are not." Thank you God for taking my confusion away concerning that e-mail right away. Kathy | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 1948 Registered: 11-2002 |
Kathy, Is your prayer partner SDA? I'm courious. | ||
| Kathy23 Registered user Username: Kathy23 Post Number: 12 Registered: 6-2005 |
No, my prayer partners and former teacher J are not SDA. I left the SDA church after I got married 21 years ago. You'd think I would know better than to get mixed up with cultish type people after being raised SDA. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 2628 Registered: 12-2003 |
Kathy, isn't it amazing how God addresses our needs before we know what they'll be? How awesome! Colleen | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 848 Registered: 3-2005 |
Kathy, After reading all your previous posts and your involvement with this "prayer partner" and your exposure to another false prophet Kim Clement, I really praise God for that Chambers quote posted above, as you say it was God's timing. Stan | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 290 Registered: 8-2004 |
Maybe that's why I didn't get to post it when I'd planned to! God is awesome. Mary |
