Monday, January 30, 2012

God's Call is Expressive of His Nature

“But when it pleased God…to reveal His son in me…”  Gal. 1:15-16

The following is from Devotions for MORNING and EVENING with OSWALD CHAMBERS  

              “The call of God is not a call to any particular service; my interpretation of it may be because contact with the nature of God has made me realize what I would like to do for Him. The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. The vocation of the natural life is stated by the apostle Paul – ‘when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him’ (i.e., sacramentally express) among the Gentiles.’

              Service is the overflow of super abounding devotion; but, profoundly speaking, there Is no call to that, it Is my own little actual bit and is the echo of my identification with the nature of God. Service is the natural part of my life. God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account. To serve God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature; consequently when I receive His nature and hear His call, the voice of the Divine nature sounds in both and the two work together. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and I serve Him in the ordinary ways of life out of devotion to Him.” (pg 34)

              “There is so much talk about our decision for Christ, our determination to be Christians, our decision for this and for that. When we come to the New Testament we find that the other aspect, God’s choosing of us, is the one that is brought out the oftenest. ‘Ye did not choose me, but I chose you…’ We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God’s purpose, we are taken up into His purpose without any consciousness on our part at all; we have no conception of what God is aiming at, and it gets more and more vague as we go on.

At the beginning of our Christian life we have our own particular notions as to what God’s purpose is – we are meant to go here, or there; or, God has called us to do this or that piece of work. We go and do the thing and still we find the big compelling of God remains. The majority of the work we do is so much scaffolding to further the purpose of the big compelling of God. ‘He took unto him the twelve.’ He takes us all the time; there is more than we have got at, something we have not seen.

        The call of God embarrasses us because of two things – it presents us with sealed orders, and urges us to a vast venture. When God calls us He does not tell us along the line of our natural senses what to expect: God’s call is a command that asks us, that means there is always a possibility of refusal on our part.”
(pg 35)  (some italics are Jean’s)

The following is taken from Pocket Devotions of The Pocket Testament League on 1/17/12

"As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'" (Acts 9:3-4)

“Saul was on his way to Damascus to do his will -- not the Lord's will. I'm sure Saul thought the two were the same, but the Lord used this extraordinary event to halt Saul in his tracks -- to get his full attention. Then the Lord spoke directly to him in verse 4 saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

When I was a child sometimes my mother would become disappointed in something I had said or done and she would say to me, ‘Michael, Michael, why did you do such and such?’ Repeating my name twice, my mother would be saying – ‘I expected so much more of you, you are capable of so much more -- yet you are doing the wrong things.’ I think this is the tone of the Lord's voice -- disappointment that Saul was using his talents and gifts the wrong way.”

Are you using your talents for Christ’s glory?

jowildflowers@gmail.com  jean-oathout.blogspot.com  Tomorrow’s post: Elijah’s Fervent Prayers: Prayer Note # 9




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