Oswald Chambers

Unglamorous

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“There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man’s work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from God’s standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

That’s the part about life that no one really tells you but you learn eventually. 99% of life is unexciting and unadventurous, despite what you may have seen in just about every single movie and television show ever made.

Most of living is showing up and being faithful in your job, at your church, and in your home. Very rarely will anything you do be worthy of a news story or a newspaper headline (or a news website headline to make it 21st century). Hardly anyone outside of your immediate circle will know about most of what you do.

But that’s where God does His best work. When you are committed to be faithful in the small and menial tasks God has placed in front of you, then God can multiply those offerings like the fish and the loaves. He can open up new avenues of service that would not have been available if you weren’t already doing God’s work.

Each person who belongs to Jesus can reach those no one else can reach. Not your pastor. Not your worship leader. Not anyone but you. And your witness is showing up every day and not giving up. That will open up opportunities for you to be able to give a reason for the hope you have in Jesus and lead to gospel conversations.

I truly believe that those who have done the most for the Kingdom of God are those you and I will never know about 99% of the time. They will be the behind the scenes folks who went to work every day, came home and loved their families, and showed up every Sunday to worship and serve.

If you’re not satisfied with where you are or what you’re doing, maybe reframe it as a way of serving Jesus Himself rather than working for an employer. See what you’re doing for your family as serving Jesus. Remember that as you minister to the least of these through your church you are ministering to Jesus Himself.

God honors the longsuffering effort of patient faithfulness. If you can serve not out of your own strength but out of the overflow of the joy of the Lord that comes from time with the Lord, God sees and rewards you and those you serve. You may not get rich or famous, but you will have God’s favor which is by far the best reward of all.

No Fear

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“The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else” (Oswald Chambers).

That was a hip slogan back a few years, I think. No fear. I think it needs to make a comeback.

These days, fear is used as the supreme motivator when it comes to politics and marketing and just about everything else under the sun. It seems like so many are still living under the fear of 2020 and the pandemic.

Another saying that I like better from back in the day went like this: “No Jesus, know fear. Know Jesus, no fear.”

It might be a tad simplistic, but the general idea is good. To know Jesus as the Prince of Peace is to be free from a life dominated by fear and anxiety. I don’t think any believer ever is completely free of fear this side of heaven, but he or she is not a slave to it any longer.

I also recall an acronym used by a black preacher that I have always loved. He said that F-E-A-R stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Nearly all of fear is based on a lie. Nearly all the lies based on fear tell you that either God is not there or He doesn’t care. Fear says that you have to figure it out and solve it all yourself because there is no one else. Fear isolates.

But Jesus calls us to the Father and to one another. Peace comes when we are right with God and right with each other. Peace doesn’t come when you feel super relaxed and calm. Peace comes when even in the midst of feeling afraid you also have certainty of hope at the center of your core.

There’s an old chorus that came to mind when I was typing out these words. I can’t for the life of me find it anywhere, but I think the words are along these lines:

“There is no fear in Jesus Christ
And by his grace we’re made new
And it’s the cross that reminds us
That in him no fear.”

Anyone who remembers this, if you can reply with the correct lyrics (or better yet, the worship artist), I would so greatly appreciate it.

The Funeral of Your Own Independence

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“The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God’s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. The cost to your natural life is not just one or two things, but everything. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

A lot of what passes for Christianity is simply behavior modification. Back in the day, there were a lot of don’ts. Don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t play cards, don’t dance, etc. As one pastor put it, we’d get to church on Sunday and celebrate that we hadn’t done anything.

But Christianity is a lot more than being moral. If you want to play that game, the standard is impossibly high, as in be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. Simply put, you can’t be good enough. But Jesus could. And Jesus was.

Christianity is not behaving better. It’s not being an upstanding citizen or a good moral human being. It’s about surrender. It’s about dying to self. It’s about letting God form the Christ-life within you and make you more like Jesus.

As my friend says, it’s not about making bad people good. It’s about making dead people alive. It’s about being transformed rather than just upgraded. And Christmas is the season where we celebrate the hope that means that we can be better or more improved but made brand new.

Christian Celebrity

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“Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I heard something on a podcast that’s been living in my head rent-free ever since. Basically, we weren’t made to be famous. It’s not something that most of us can handle well. To put people on a pedestal because of the ability to sing or act or preach is contrary to what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about.

One thing we do is immediately upon finding out someone believes in Jesus and can sing is to put them in front of a lot of people without any kind of discipleship or even finding out what they actually believe. The result is a whole myriad of trainwrecks of people who derailed morally or have deconstructed to the point where they no longer believe anything or have watered down the faith to the point that it’s basically meaningless.

We weren’t called to be famous. We were called to be faithful. Maybe what we need are less singers and actors and dancers and people on a stage with a spotlight and more people behind the scenes serving and washing feet. We need less Christian celebrities and more servants.

Hopefully, this is not a bashing session. I hope it’s to get us to the point where we don’t seek to elevate people to the place that only God deserves and in the process put tremendous pressure on them to somehow be all things to all people and be perfect instead of allowing them to be human.

I still remember one year how I commented one year that so many celebrities were passing away. One friend wisely commented that every day a hero passes and very few people know about it. The real heroes are the ones who often go unnoticed and unacclaimed because they’re not seeking attention but to make the world better. So many are doing the faithful work of faith in secret and are themselves unaware of the eternal impact they’ve made.

I love that people get a chance to represent Jesus well in front of a camera or a crowd, but better yet is a live of sacrifice that that leads to the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Homesick for God?

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“How many people have you made homesick for God?” (Oswald Chambers, Disciples Indeed)

That’s the key to evangelism, I think. It’s not constantly reminding people how sinful they are or ridiculing their worldview. I think in that approach we forget that we too were once sinful and had wrong beliefs about the universe.

What was it that won you over? What was it that made you want to know and love God? Was it really someone telling you what an awful person you were? Was it someone constantly berating your beliefs?

I think the key is to make people long for God to the point where they’re homesick for God. I think people seeing you loving God and living out of the overflow of God’s love for you will want to know God. People who see you loving others well the way God loved you well will crave that kind of love, even if they don’t have a name for it.

The way the early Church drew people was in how those believers loved each other. They loved lost people as well, but mainly it was in their love for each other that made people want to hear their gospel message.

If all you have is a well-defined set of doctrines and beliefs, no one cares. If all you have is a passion for making people as moral as you are, then no one wants to hear about it. But when you live transformed and let the life of Christ in you permeate everything you do, then people can’t help but see and be drawn to what they don’t have.

The key is to make people homesick for a home they’ve never known but want to go to more than anything or anywhere else. Make them homesick for God.

The Call of God

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“The call of God in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

This makes me think of so many people called by God in the Bible who were just as flawed as I am. Or maybe I’m just as flawed as they were. Or maybe we’re all flawed and God uses us anyway.

Esther was one who happened to be in the right place for God to use her to save His people. She was by no means perfect, but she was obedient, and that’s what matters in the end. It’s not our ability but our availability that God seeks.

The key is God’s timing. I’ve learned it’s best not to anticipate what God will do or to rush His hand. God’s timing is always perfect, right on time, and never a split second late.

God uses flawed and broken people because that’s where He gets the most glory. It’s not the most popular or prestigious ones whom God calls but the nobodies and the also-rans. He chooses those no one else would ever choose and makes their lives spectacular because of His light shining through.

God Has No Deadlines

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“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves” (A.W. Tozer).

“Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says–‘I cannot stand anymore.’ God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s hands. Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Oswald Chambers).

As I’ve probably said many times, I’m thankful that God is way more patient with me that I am with Him. I’m thankful that God doesn’t operate off my timetable or always grant me what I ask for when I ask for it. The reason is that usually the things I ask God for are 1) stupid, 2) things I’m not yet ready for, 3) me thinking small when God wants me to think bigger, 4) me thinking finite and earthly when God wants me to look through the lens of heaven and eternity, 5) me being myopic when God is seeing His whole plan throughout creation and history.

So, to remind myself once more: God’s timing is 1) not mine and 2) perfect.

Trusting Beyond Knowing

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“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us ‘go.’ The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. ‘Abraham believed God’ (Oswald Chambers).

I heard a sermon today that talked about trusting beyond knowing. Basically, the idea is that faith goes beyond understanding. If I knew everything and saw the whole picture, I wouldn’t need faith.

But the life of faith is one where you only see the next step in front of you, not the entire path. You have to take that first step in order to see the next one. There is no magic word or secret formula that will allow you to skip the difficult parts or to forego being obedient in the present.

There’s no guarantee that being faithful will always lead to prosperity and blessing. Sometimes, the path of obedience leads through the valley of the shadow of death. But the promise we have is that our Shepherd is with us when we go down that road. His rod and staff will comfort us.

We have no promise of material reward for our obedience. We do know that God is faithful to be with us and to fight for us and to never leave or forsake us. We know that God will provide for every need and He Himself will be our inheritance and our reward.

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer” (Corrie ten Boom).

May we sit still and trust our Engineer, no matter where He leads us.

Resting in the Reality of Redemption

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“If you put your faith in your experience anything that happens–toothache, indigestion, an east wind, incongenial work–is likely to upset the experience, but nothing that happens can ever upset God or the almighty reality of the Redemption; once based on that, you are as eternally sure as God Himself” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

If you live your life based solely on your emotions, you will be as unstable as the east wind, blowing one way one moment and blowing the other the next.

If you live your life based solely on your own understanding, you will soon get frustrated with how your life isn’t meeting your expectations, never mind how realistic those are.

But if you live your live out of the reality of God’s redeeming work in Jesus, then you find yourself much more stable and secure. You can cease striving and live out of the strength and joy that Jesus provides.

That becomes especially vital at this time of the year when it’s easy to let other people’s impatience and rudeness upset our Advent and Christmas experience.

Once you base your joy on the unchanging and unceasing reality of God’s work of redemption in your life, then nothing can steal it from you. No one or nothing has the power to take away the eternal surety of God’s promise to you to finish what He started.

 

 

A Good Word from Oswald

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“‘The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 4:14).

‘We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as “rivers of living water” in blessing to everyone. Yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, always receiving but never giving. Whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever'” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I don’t see Oswald climbing the charts as a popular baby name, but the man to whom the name belonged left a legacy of wisdom behind when he died at a young age.

If you want to read about his incredible life, I recommend the book Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God: The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest by David McCasland. Here’s a link to the amazon site where you can purchase the book.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=oswald+chambers+biography

I think what he’s trying to get at is that we’re called to serve out of the overflow of time spent with Jesus. It’s no good if all we do is soak up and receive and never share with anyone else. It’s also no good if all we do is serve with no time left over to receive from God.

PS I also recommend My Utmost for His Highest as one of the best devotionals you’ll find. It’s a classic.