A Little Help on the Road

I have not written for a while. And before that I was writing sporadically. And today I have little to say. There are reasons for this that I share not. Let's move on. I have been on the road a lot lately and during this past week found myself reading from the famous devotional book "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. I used to read Chambers in high school and college. Then I stopped. But, while staying in my parent's house for the week of Thanksgiving I picked it up again, since a copy of the book was on the bedside table. Here are a few highlights for your edification, amusement, and progress in the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Commenting on John 17:4: "The death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God. There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented. His death was the very reason why He came."

Commenting on 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Our safeguard is the shallow things. We have to live the surface common-sense life in a common-sense way; when the deeper things come, God gives them to us apart from the shallow concerns. Never show the deeps to anyone but God. We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life."

Commenting on Psalm 123:3 (This one, for me, was worth the trip and the week; if only I could do it):  "The thing of which we have to beware is not so much damage to our belief in God as damage to our Christian temper. 'Therefore take heed to thy spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.' The temper of mind is tremendous in its effects, it is the enemy that penetrates right into the soul and distracts the mind from God. There are certain tempers of mind in which we never dare indulge; if we do, we find they have distracted us from faith in God, and until we get back to the quiet mood before God, our faith in Him is nil, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is the thing that rules.

Beware of  'the cares of this world,' because they are the things that produce a wrong temper of soul. It is extraordinary what an enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention from God. Refuse to be swamped with the cares of this life.

Another thing that distracts us is the lust of vindication. St. Augustine prayed--'O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.' That temper of mind destroys the soul's faith in God. 'I must explain myself; I must get people to understand.' Our Lord never explained anything; He left mistakes to correct themselves.

When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede."

Commenting on Galatians 6:14: "If you want to know the energy of God (i.e., the resurrection life of Jesus) in your mortal flesh, you must brood on the tragedy of God. Cut yourself off from prying personal interest in your own spiritual symptoms and consider bare-spirited the tragedy of God, and instantly the energy of God will be in you. 'Look unto Me,' pay attention to the objective Source and subjective energy will be there. We lose power if we do not concentrate  on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these, we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work."