Friday, June 20, 2008

Service of Passionate Devotion

I never check my email before I write in the morning, but today I did. My brother has never emailed me Chambers writtings before, but this morning he did. In Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest" June 19, Oswald discusses what it means to serve.

"Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep." John 21:16
Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. "If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple." There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply - If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says - "Now I see Who Jesus is," and that is the source of devotion.
To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24).
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This is so true even, especially today. Instead of getting better and more like Christ we are getting more educated and further away from what He started and represents. I do not want to convert people to my "religious" choice. I want to help people become closer to their Lord and for them to allow him to work in their lives. I choose to live my life serving my Father, not for what I can get out of it, but because He loved me so much, even though...
I never dreamed of what was to happen in my life when I finally decided to allow Christ to guide my steps. I did not change in order to receive anything. All that I wanted to do was learn how to follow my Lord. What has happened to me since then has been the results of this decision. Every thing we do has an effect, good or bad. Before, I was not looking completely at what God wanted for me in His service. Now things are better, because my Lord is directing my steps. I will go out full force. There will be times when I do things wrong, but even in the wrong that I do God and His ways are my desire. He will make right even when I miss Him, His voice is my focus. It does not matter where you decide to worship. What matters is that you are seeking God in your life.

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