By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 25th

“Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.”

Natural love expects some return, but Paul says – I do not care whether you love me or not, I am willing to destitute myself completely, not merely for your sakes, but that I may get you to God. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.” Paul’s idea of service is exactly along that line – I do not care with what extravagance I spend myself, and I will do it gladly. It was a joyful thing to Paul.

The ecclesiastical idea of a servant of God is not Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of other men. Jesus Christ out-socialists the socialists. He says that in His Kingdom he that is greatest shall be the servant of all. The real test of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples’ feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men but count everything in the estimate of God. Paul delighted to spend him self out for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. We come in with our economical notions – “Suppose God wants me to go there – what about the salary? What about the climate? How shall I be looked after? A man must consider these things.” All that is an indication that we are serving God with a reserve. The apostle Paul had no reserve. Paul focuses Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz.: not one who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives.

Clearly The very foundation of Salvation is grounded in the realization that God’s unmerited love toward us is greater than any other power— including death.                                                                                                                                                   Romans 8:35-39, Ephesians 3:14-21

For Background Information Please Read Luke 13:10-17

So what is the only mission of Jesus and The Gospel?  Clearly it is His only mission “to heal all Creation of its damage”!! This is Reconciliation at its best! And not only does Paul admonish us to “Be Reconciled to God ourselves but he plainly states that Jesus Christ has given each of us the ministry of Reconciliation!!   2 Corinthians 5:14-17,18-19,20-21

Reconciliation is the very last message of Revelation 14:6-12 as well!!

It’s all about a personal intimate relationship with Jesus!! John 17:3, 1 John 3:2,        1 John 5:11-13   

“Think of it”:  “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Luke 13:16.  The eighteen years have been registered by Jesus who knows that they have been long years and who makes the length of the years and not just the number of years His reason to intervene.

We do not hear Him say, “Stuff happens,” treating her fate dismissively and the price some people have to pay for living in a disordered and messy world.  To the extent that she is proof of a disordered state, she is the victim of Satan.  This is an additional incentive for Jesus to drive back the forces of darkness and restore her to health.

On this point at least some interpreters see Jesus within the frame of reference of Creation, and the pieces fall into place when it is recognized that the Sabbath is “the designated day for the liberation of Creation.”  Jesus’s ministry cannot be explained apart from the assumption that “it is His mission to heal all Creation of its damage”.

Jesus is in the business of “restoring everything to perfection,” taking it back to the starting point, indeed, changing it “to an earlier good state or condition.”

Jesus’s answer portrays love to God and love for one’s fellow human beings as inseparable.  It one side is emphasized over the other, even as we hear it from Jesus, it is the second commandment because it is on this point that the religious priorities contemporary to Jesus fall short.  Matthew 22:39.  The same thrust is found in Paul, who, in Romans, makes all the commandments come together in the one commandment to love one’s neighbor, Roman 13:9, but who also, in Galatians, sees the full range of this commandment brought to completion in Jesus Galatians 5:14.  Seeing the commandment embodied in Jesus, Paul transforms law into narrative so as to make the living embodiment lead the way instead of law.

But what becomes of the Sabbath in this scenario?  It rises to the highest level in its course because it highlights the meaning of the greatest commandment.  Whereas Jesus’s critics make the Sabbath the inspiration and alibi for their indifference to human need, for Jesus the Sabbath and awareness of human need are indissolubly linked.

The Sabbath is the pledge of God’s healing, restoring presence.  “The Sabbath was made for mankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath,” says Jesus Mark 2:27.  The greatest commandment and the Sabbath, united in living narrative, converge in concern for others and awareness of human need.

When we read Jesus’s justification for His course of action in this light, the points of emphasis stand out distinctly.  His statement to people in the synagogue in Galilee should be read in two stages, like this, my own literal translation merely reinforcing the good work of the New King James Version:  “This woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years, must she not be loosed from this chain?”  This is the first stage, and the emphasis on the many years of suffering and the necessity of healing her should not be toned down.  The second stage is this, grasping that Jesus is exposing not only a moral intuition in disrepair but also a defective view of the Sabbath; “This woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years, must she not be loosed from this chain on the Sabbath? Luke 13:16.

 We have the “assurance” of salvation when we “trust” Jesus with our lives, that’s it.  Once we trust Jesus, He, our great Heavenly Physician, will perfectly heal and restore us, thus our assurance is in Jesus, not in ourselves or our future. Salvation is Now!!  1John 5:11-13,   1 John 3:2,   John 17:3

Thanks to Sigev K. Tonstad.

“Courtesy Come And Reason Ministries”

 By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 24th

“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you;”

When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only – that he might win men to Jesus Christ. Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a “door-mat” without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul’s motive. “I could wish my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren” – wild, extravagant – is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.

It is all Christ and nothing that we “do” in the area of putting forth effort.  We simply believe what God says. Praise God we don’t have to save ourselves.

She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.  Matthew 1:21, Luke 2:11, John 3:16,  Romans 10:9

Trusting In Jesus: John 11:26: You Never Die, Hebrews 4:3,10-12                         But You Must Continue Trusting In Jesus!

 It’s All About My Relationship!!  Am I Trusting In Jesus? John 17:3

The very foundation of Salvation is grounded in the realization that God’s unmerited love toward us is greater than any other power— Including death!!      Romans 8:35-39, Ephesians 3:14-21

Sin Is Not Trusting In Jesus

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.  And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.  John 16:7-9

There Is Reason For Encouragement!!

1. Romans 1:16-17,20
2. Colossians 1:26-27,Philippians 2:12-13
3. Matthew 24:14, Revelation 14:6
4. Romans 3:21-22,Ephesians 2:8-9,Philippians 2:12-13
5. John 3:16-17,Acts16: 30-31,Romans 10:9 ,Romans 5:1-5,6-8,9-11,20-21
6. John 15:5,9-17,John 17:2,23
7. 1John 2:28
8. 1Corinthians 1:18,21-25,29-30, 1Corinthians2:2,9,16
9. Romans 5:1-14,Romans 5:15-19 Romans 5:20-21

Full Assurance By Faith In Jesus Alone!!

1. Hebrews 4:14-16
2. Hebrews 9:11-15,27-28
3. Hebrews 10:4,10,11-20,22-25
4. Hebrews 1:9,Hebrews 10:34-39

For we continue to share in all that Christ has for us so long as we steadily maintain until the end the trust with which we began.  Hebrews 3:14 Phillips

  By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 23nd 

“The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

Paul’s idea of service is the same as Our Lord’s: “I am among you as He that serveth;” “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the “door-mat” of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. “I know how to be abased,” says Paul. This is Paul’s idea of service – “I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference.” So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.

Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person” – no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.

Blessed Assurance Jesus Is Mine!!

Can I be certain of my Salvation this very moment? You better be!!                                      1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 John 5:11-13

But Beware of  a false assurance: Matthew 7:21-23

To Know Jesus Is The Key!! John 17:3

Three Vital Salvation Questions

    1. Have I been saved?

Simply accept Jesus and be saved! Have I ever come to Christ and accepted Him as my Savior and friend? If yes I am saved!

2. Am I being saved?

Am I staying with Jesus in a moment-by-moment relationship? Am I continually abiding in Jesus?

 3. And  Will I be saved when Jesus comes?

Absolutely if number 1 and 2 are true.

Now A Look At Forgiveness vs Justification:

 Let’s use the example of a thief to aid our understanding ,

Forgiveness: I am a forgiven thief.

Justification: I never was a thief!! God chooses to forget my entire past!!               Jeremiah 31:3,33-34,2 Samuel 12:1-9, 1 Kings 14:7-9, Numbers 23:21.

Understanding Justification:

Study Key: Romans Chapter 5

To “set right” or “put right”. To Be Rightified.

“To put what is out of harmony into harmony”.

“Complete Acquittal that brings peace and life”

“I Have never done it in the first place” I stand complete in Jesus as though I had never sinned!!

“Truly This Is The Gospel—Righteousness By Faith In Jesus Alone”

Is it really this simple? It Is Indeed!! Praise God!! We are the ones who make Salvation so very difficult!!

Summary on Justification

When man sinned, what changed that needed to be set right? Did God somehow get changed and now Christ needed to die and minister His blood to the Father to set the Father right? Or did mankind get changed and Christ needed to come in order to set mankind right with God again?

When God “justifies” us, He is setting us “right” with Himself. He is “rightifying” us! (Romans 8:31-34). This justification of the human race happened in the person of Jesus Christ, who, being fully human, being part of this race, having taken our humanity upon His divinity, lived a perfect life of love and destroyed the infection of sin, thus “rightifying” the species. He recreated, restored, healed, cleansed, set right, justified, and purified the human species in His own victorious life, death, and resurrection! It is in the Godman Jesus that the human race (species) was healed, set right, renewed, justified, rightified, and put back into God’s original ideal!

When we as individuals recognize all that Jesus revealed about the Father and are won to trust we open the heart and then we, as individuals, are “set right” or “justified” in our individual relationship with God. We then receive, via the work of the Holy Spirit, the transfusion of Christlikeness! The Holy Spirit takes what Christ achieved and reproduces it in us! His victory over evil, His perfect character of righteousness, His character of love, is downloaded into our hearts and we become like Him. Our thoughts are brought into harmony with His, our desires in union with His, our character renewed to be like His, our motives cleansed to be like His. We live a Christlike life, for it is no longer I, the sinful, selfish me living, but Christ, the lover of others who lives in me! Only in Jesus is this possible. Only in a trust relationship with Him can we ever be justified or set right, because only in Jesus can we know the truth about God, which wins us to trust and then, in that trust relationship, experience the transfusion of His character of love which restores us to His original ideal!

No wonder Justification brings peace!!

 Romans 5:1,9-11,18-21, John 5:24, John 6:37.

If I say “I am sorry but I did it again Lord” Jesus  says: “What are you talking about”?   Greater The Sinner –Greater The Savior!!  Romans 5:20

There Are Volumes of Biblical Assurance And Confidence!!                                       1 Thessalonians 1:5, John 5:24, John 11:26, 1 John 2:28, Philippians 1:6,3:8-10,

More Bible Texts on Assurance!!

1. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 Much Assurance!
2. Matthew 7:21-23 False Assurance
3. Matthew 24:13, Revelation 3:21 Endures and overcomes
4. John 6:37 All who come are accepted
5. John 11:26 Believer never dies
6. Romans 5:1 Results of coming to Jesus
7. John 5:24 Won’t come into judgment
8. Romans 5:20 Greater the sin greater the Grace
9. 1 John 2:28 Abide in Jesus and you won’t be ashamed!!

10. 1 John 5:11-12 I am saved NOW!!!

11. Philippians 1:6,2:12-13, 3:8-10,2 Timothy 1:12 It’s God’s work!

KEY: John 11:26: You Never Die, 1 John 2:28: If You Remain in Jesus!

We have the “assurance” of salvation when we “trust” Jesus with our lives, that’s it.  Once we trust Jesus, He, our great Heavenly Physician, will perfectly heal and restore us, thus our assurance is in Jesus, not in ourselves or our future. Salvation is Now!!    1 John 5:11-13, 1 John 3:2, John 17:3

It’s All About Our Relationship With Jesus!!! John 17:3

The very foundation of Salvation is grounded in the realization that God’s unmerited love toward us is greater than any other power— Including death!!     Romans 8:35-39, Ephesians 3:14-21

    Graham Maxwell

“I believe that the most important of all Christian beliefs is the one that brings joy and assurance to God’s friends everywhere — the truth about our Heavenly Father that was confirmed at such cost by the life and death of His Son.

God is not the kind of person His enemies have made Him out to be — arbitrary, unforgiving and severe. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” God is just as loving and trustworthy as His Son, just as willing to forgive and heal. Though infinite in majesty and power, our Creator is an equally gracious Person who values nothing higher than the freedom, dignity, and individuality of His intelligent creatures — that their love, their faith, their willingness to listen and obey may be freely given. He even prefers to regard us not as servants but as friends.

This is the truth revealed through all the books of Scripture. This is the everlasting Good News that wins the trust and admiration of God’s loyal children throughout the universe.

Like Abraham and Moses — the ones God spoke of as His trusted friends — God’s friends today want to speak well and truly of our Heavenly Father. We covet as the highest of all commendations the words of God about Job: “He has said of Me what is right”.

“When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. Psalms 94:18,                                                                      2 Corinthians 5:14-15,17-18, Colossians 1:17

I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.  Jeremiah 31:3

The one thing above all others that Christ desires that we should know is that The Father has loved us just like He loves His Son Jesus!!                                  How Awesome Is That!!!  John 17:23

I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. John 17:23

This Is truly The Everlasting Gospel of  Revelation 14:6

Are you following Jesus? If Not Then Follow Him Now— This Very Moment!! 

2 Corinthians 5:14-15,17-18

 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1:17-18

“Courtesy Dr. Tim Jennings and ComeAndReason.com”

 By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 22nd

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for – love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men – will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o’-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.”

Remain spiritually tenacious.

  By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 21st

“She hath wrought a good work on Me.”

If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it.

Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced?

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion – “Am I of any use?” and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.

Can you  without any hesitation say that you experience Eternal Salvation right now? Do you have full assurance that Jesus has saved you and He is continuing to save you? If today were your last moments to live  can you say without pause and with complete assurance that you are saved?

The Bible teaches us that we have the “assurance” of salvation when we “trust” Jesus with our lives, that’s it. Once we trust Jesus, He, our great Heavenly Physician, will perfectly heal and restore us, thus our assurance is in Jesus, not in ourselves or our future. “This is life eternal that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3). When we “know” God as Jesus revealed Him to be and trust Him, then we have confidence, faith, or trust in Jesus’ ability to “save” (salvage) us! Our assurance or confidence is in our Savior (just like the thief on the Cross) not in a legal payment. Thus we can have complete assurance that we have Salvation NOW!!!! Praise God!!!!!1 John 5:11-13

We have Assurance that we don’t have to save ourselves.

We have made salvation woefully complicated.  We have brought our own ideas and opinions to the discussion.  When I choose to trust Jesus with my Life, then Jesus and Jesus alone will save me!  He is my Savior.  “In Christ,” Jesus wants us to sit down and enjoy what He has already done for us.  We are not to try to work at attaining these blessings.  I can’t add anything to the equation of Salvation no matter what I do.  “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”  Once we trust Jesus with our lives, He freely gives us all things which are bestowed “through Christ” and His Cross.                    1 Corinthians 1:30-31.  Luke 2:10-11.  Hebrews 4:1-8.

Jesus wants us to enjoy Salvation now!!

We have “Assurance that Jesus alone is reconciling us to Him”. 

Now all thing are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  2 Corinthians 5:18-19.  Jesus wants to heal us completely from the virus of sin.  Reconciliation is a change from enmity to friendship and is brought about my God alone.  “In Christ” we become a new creation.  This is possible only through the compelling love of Jesus.  He will draw us to Him with an everlasting love.  His transforming, reconciling love is through His Holy Spirit.  2 Corinthians 3:18.  Are you baptized by the Holy Spirit?  John 1:29, 33,  Luke 3:16,  Acts 1:5,2; 1-4,  Ephesians 5:18, 6:18,  Luke 11:13,  Galatians 5:22-23.

The truth is that Jesus wants to literally live out His life in us giving us His victory:  This is “being in Christ Jesus”.  Colossians 1:27.

We have Assurance that Jesus is writing “His laws” (plural) in our minds.

Yes, laws, plural.  His laws of love and liberty.  By completely healing us,  Jesus will remove selfishness from our minds and will restore in us the living law of love and liberty.  Praise God:  Hebrews 8:10, 10:16, 2 Corinthians 5:17.  (More on the concepts about the laws of love and liberty in future studies)

When we are “in Christ Jesus”  He will manifest Himself in and through us. 

It’s Christ alone who heals us!  It’s Christ alone who restores His image in us!  This is why there is no fear, anxiety, worry or burden abiding “in Christ Jesus”.  It’s all about Jesus.  We simply allow Him to do these things in and through us by The Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:1-5, 11.

  We have the “assurance” of salvation when we “trust” Jesus with our lives, that’s it.  Once we trust Jesus, He, our great Heavenly Physician, will perfectly heal and restore us, thus our assurance is in Jesus, not in ourselves or our future. Salvation is Now!!  1John 5:11-13,   1 John 3:2,   John 17:3

By Oswald Chambers

Author of:“My Utmost for His Highest”

Devotion For February 20th

“Arise, let us go hence.”

Dreaming about a thing in order to do it properly is right; but dreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. After Our Lord had said those wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected that He would tell them to go away and meditate over them all; but Our Lord never allowed “mooning.” When we are getting into contact with God in order to find out what He wants, dreaming is right; but when we are inclined to spend our time in dreaming over what we have been told to do, it is a bad thing and God’s blessing is never on it. God’s initiative is always in the nature of a stab against this kind of dreaming, the stab that bids us “neither sit nor stand but go.”

If we are quietly waiting before God and He has said – “Come ye yourselves apart,” then that is meditation before God in order to get at the line He wants; but always beware of giving over to mere dreaming when once God has spoken. Leave Him to be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights, and go out and obey what He has said. If you are in love, you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time, you go and do something for him; and that is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.