UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

Began reading this “Utmost” fully intending to finish it before attempting to write an accompanying poem; got half-way
and knew where I was going.  Hope You Will Enjoy, Jeff
___________________________________________

NOT A BIT OF IT!

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as He has to deal with other people. “God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” We have to learn – “Not a bit of it!” Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.
________________________________

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

Look up no more
And refuse to see
The life you are living
Is all about Me

Bow down no more
And refuse to obey
The choices you are making
Are directing you My way

Stand up no more
And refuse to be proud
Only the strength you are given
Is what will raise you off the ground

Fall down no more
And refuse to be new
The discernment of your steps
Proves you are walking in My truth
______________________

J. E. POLLOCK
Oct. 23, 2009
________________________________

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new
creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left, the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and “all things are of God.” How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always
kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actu-
ally trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.

___________________________________________

http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php

GIFT OF FAITH

Try as you might

Pray as you may

Our vision for life

Is God’s gift of faith

Faith to believe
Faith to repent

Faith to receive
The Gift Father sent

Try as you may
Fight as you might
Your purpose for living
Is to use the gift right

Faith to encourage
Faith to let flourish
Faith to know best
The Gift Jesus left
______________

J. E. Pollock

Oct. 9, 2009

The Gift of Faith

What is the nature of faith?  Is faith simply a prescribed rational content?  Or is faith an irrational leap into the dark?  So often our understanding of the nature of faith swings widely between these two extremes; either faith is solely an assent to certain beliefs or it is ultimately devoid of intellectual content and consists exclusively of feelings of total dependence.

The author of Hebrews grounds faith in the “assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.”(1)  The early Christians who received this letter were undergoing tremendous suffering and persecution, and the author reminds them that faith is assurance even in the midst of trouble.

The “assurance of things hoped for” is not merely wishful thinking about a yet to be determined future.  Rather, it is a description of what true faith already has: the possession in the present of what God has promised for the future.  In other words, faith is the response to the trustworthiness of God for what God has already promised and has brought to pass.  So faith is confidence in God’s saving work done in the past, and hence a hopeful assurance that God will act in the future.  To illustrate this point, the author recounts those who by faith believed God in the past in order to encourage the beleaguered recipients of this letter.  Just like those who walked in faith before, we too may not see every promise fulfilled.  The content of faith is in remembering God’s faithfulness in the past, so that we might trust in God’s goodness for our present, and in the future that is yet to come.

The writer of Hebrews even chose a particular word to illustrate this point.  The Greek word that is used for “assurance” is hypostasis.  This is the same word that is used to describe how Christ is the hypostasis, “the very being” of God.  In the same way, faith is the “very being” of things hoped for; it is the reality that God’s promises will be fulfilled ultimately, and they are being fulfilled already, in the present time!  While we often focus on the bad things that are happening around us, faith opens our eyes to see God’s work going forward in our world.

Ultimately, the “assurance of things hoped for” is an assurance that comes only in Jesus Christ.  For Jesus is the promise fulfilled and the very substance of faith.  It is to Jesus Christ and to him alone that the writer of Hebrews directs us as we look for the content of faith.  We have faith because we look to Jesus “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”  We look to Jesus, who endured in faith on our behalf, so that we might not grow fainthearted.  Assurance doesn’t come in well-ordered circumstances or trouble-free living.  Nor is assurance found in having a rational answer for every question.  Assurance comes in relationship with a trustworthy God who fulfilled promises in the past and who will fulfill them in the future.  Faith is grounded on God’s work accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Georgia.

(1) Hebrews 11:1

TRUTH

Truth
Relays
Unquestionable
Tell-tale
Holiness

J7

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

THE VISION AND THE VERITY

“Called to be saints.” — 1Corinthians 1:21

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not there yet by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter’d to shape and use” by God? The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.

There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making known His demands.

The little “I am” always sulks when God says do. Let the little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s indignation – “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” He must dominate. Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live, and the kennels we crawl into! He will hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

This devotional is copyright Oswald Chambers Publications, http://www.oswaldchambers.co.uk

======================================================================

Now playing: A Better Freedom