Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

4-1. HIS HUNGER

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" (Psalm 107:8).

Our Father gave us the hunger to be justified (John 6:44), and He gave us the hunger to be sanctified (Philippians 3:10). This same principle applies to our service, our sharing. He never pushed us, but drew us in loving kindness--and He would treat others likewise, through us.

"If we are not living near the Lord Jesus and are not where we should be, we neither have an appetite for spiritual things, nor can we feed upon Him who is the living Bread. When God pours into you a hunger for your Beloved and begins to reveal your privileges in Him, rejoice with great joy and gratitude toward God. If He did not put into our hearts the longing to know Him better and to have His very best, we would be satisfied with the least we could have and be saved." -C.H.MacI.

"How wondrous are the working and drawings of God upon a human heart! How little do we behold Him or know that which He is doing, as day by day He works down in the depths of our beings. The most favored place a child of God can be in, is to continually feel the drawing of God urging and constraining him to a greater hunger for Him."

"God never gives anything till the soul is ready to receive it. When you are ready you will long and hunger for it."

"For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).

[Netchaplain]

4-2. CONSTANT CARE

"The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust" (Ruth 2:12).

The Lord Jesus not only died for every sin in our life, but He lives for every second of our life. We cannot rest in Him until we realize that there is never an instant that He is not caring for us. It is as though each of His own were His only one.

"So many saints are disturbed, so many are restless, because they are not living in the knowledge that they are under the care of the Lord; and then there is no power to walk. Why have you so little power in walk or service? It is because you are not yet clear that the Lord is caring for you, that He is in all watchfulness over you, that He has let down the strong pinions of His protecting care till they sweep the ground around you, and, if you are wise, you will creep up close under His wings, into the very down." -J.B.S.

"It belongs to the nature of our pilgrimage and life of faith, that we cannot see the land for which we are bound. If only thou hast bid farewell to thy past, have confidence in thy God; trust Him to bring thee into a better land than the one thou art leaving. Should we find that Divine things do not at present correspond with our hopes, we may be quite sure they will eventually exceed our expectations; we shall realize above all we ask or comprehend." -O.S.

"And a man shall be like an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2).

[Netchaplain]

4-3. GROWTH FOR SERVICE

"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19).

A ministry of life, whether it be at the kitchen sink, or from the First Church pulpit, must flow from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That life must be developed in and shared through the growing believer, by the Holy Spirit. We are to rest in Him for spiritual growth, and He will work through us for spiritual service.
"He, whom the Lord cannot trust with the faithful care of his own vineyard, will not be trusted with the tending of God's Vineyard of living, immortal souls. How shall we face the Owner of the Vineyard, if we have neglected our own lives; if we have not entered into that which God has shown us; if we must say, when He asks us about the lack of fruit and the neglect which is so sadly evident: 'Lord, I was so busy tending Thy Vineyard, that my own vineyard I have not kept' (S.S. 1:6)." -C.H.MacI.

"Our Lord is more concerned for a testimony than for a work. We need to get clear on that. A good deal of confusion comes in when you begin to think of things in the light of a work. When you get a lot of people leaving their employment to go into 'the work,' all kinds of complications arise. It is not that we aren't to serve the Lord, but in the first place it is not the work the Lord is after, it is a testimony, it is a light, a living flame."

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10)

[Netchaplain]

The significance in the lesson learned isn’t as valuable as the process of learning the lesson. Trusting that “all work all things together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), esp. in the hardest of times is more faith building than arriving at the moment of obtaining that which is sought, because it teaches us to know our support is not in the need being fulfilled but in the Fulfiller.

“Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:26, 27).

Conformation (Rom 8:29) and not confirmation is where the work of the Spirit resides (2 Cor 3:18) and until a mature level in Christ’s image is attained (through accurate bible study) it will be expected of a Christian to seek more in the evidence of the Provider than in trusting Him to provide.
-NC

4-4. INTERNAL PRIORITY

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Beware! The world, both secular and religious, is seeking to destroy your individuality by conforming you to the mass of faceless ones. But our heritage and destiny in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be conformed to His image--not at the loss of our individual personality, but by the gain of His nature and character. "I in you"; "Christ liveth in me" (John 15:4; Galatians 2:20).

"Something has got to be done in us as well as for us. We want to proceed on the line of having things done for us, heaven intervening for us, our difficulties removed for us, having a straight path made for us. Heaven may be ready to come in, the Lord may be prepared to work for us, but it is not sufficient for Him--and it would not prove good enough for us--if that were all. The very principle of spiritual growth and maturity demands that He keep the objective and the subjective balanced; that is, that something is done in us as well as for us." -T. A-S.

"We are apt to think that if and when the circumstances and conditions of our lives are changed and we are in another position than the one we now occupy, then something will happen, the purpose of God will begin to be fulfilled. But the Lord says, 'No, it is not circumstances, not conditions, at all; it is you.'"

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). - mjs/withchrist.org

[Netchaplain]

I like recalling the story of the “Prince and the Pauper” because it reminds me more of whose (Christ) we are than what (saved) we are. It’s not a matter of doing as much as it is of being; just as Mary “hath chosen that good part” (Luke 10:42)--to know Christ, more than to serve Him because our love for God is commensurate with our knowledge of Him. We serve God, not out of debt, for salvation is free but out of love and gratitude and our desire in our love for God will always exceed our practical love for Him until we learn His ways, which are revealed by His Spirit in His written Word.

Our place in the Lord has preeminence to our work in the Lord because it is our position which determines our production. To know our position in Christ is to realize our condition in this life—possessing sin (Rom 7:17, 20) but not in sin (Rom 8:9). We possess sin by birth; we vicariously overcame sin by rebirth. If we are to know the depth of God’s holiness we must know the depth of our decadence (old man) and thus, we will realize more the depth of our freedom, which will enhance our continued growth in Christ’s image.
-NC

4-5. RAGS TO RICHES

"But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23).

Self is the believer's indwelling enemy; its degrading bondage is his deepest heartache. However, the reign of self is overthrown by its own enmity, since it creates the needs that cause us to hunger for and appropriate Christ's life and liberty.

"A sense of spiritual poverty is necessary to spiritual growth. This awareness of failure becomes acute to the believer during those days when he is attempting to attain holiness of heart through self-effort. Knowing what he ought to be and do, he proceeds to try to reach those goals. He purposes, resolves, promises, struggles, weeps, and fails again. His testimony, with Paul, is, 'The things that I want to do, I do not do, and the things that I do not want to do, I do' (Romans 7:15).

"What a delightful day it is for him when he realizes that 'in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing' (Romans 7:18).Only then does he, in his failure, cry out, 'Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' 'I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Romans 7:24, 25) comes back the reply. He begins to recognize that God expects only failure from the flesh, never success, but that 'in Christ' is his sanctification, his growth. Thus it is that freedom comes through bondage, life through death." -W.W.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).

[Netchaplain]

4-6. RELIANCE IN TOTO

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians 2:16).

It has been well said that "it takes a lifetime to learn real dependence upon God, and to accept practically our own inadequacy." We are going to learn this only through experience, and now is the time to settle down to this schooling--a day at a time.

"We are to understand that God loves us, and that He justifies us by the work of His Son. We have no longer conscience of sins before God, because He Himself has taken them away before His eyes; we know that being united to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has fully glorified God in that which concerns our sins, we have been made the righteousness of God in Him. So the heart is free to enjoy His love in the presence of the Father." -J.N.D.

"I no longer attempt to produce that which will satisfy God from myself as originator. I know that even if I try I shall only fail. But I do seek to please God by faith in the activity of Another. The Son of God who indwells me by His Spirit is able and willing to carry out in me 'those things that please Him'; and I count upon Him to do so. Consciously, day by day, I take the attitude that I trust Him to work the will of God in me, and in that attitude I go forward and serve Him. I do not trust myself. 'I live by faith in the Son of God.'" -A.I.K.

"Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work" (2 Thessalonians 2:17).

[Netchaplain]

4-7. HAND HEWN
"Hearken unto Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord; look unto the rock from which ye are hewn" (Isaiah 51:1).

If we care for His glory, we will want to serve. If we care for others, we will want to be well prepared for that service. And that care will enable us to hold still and trust Him through all that is entailed in the preparation.

"When a certain breaking down of self takes place in a believer's life, it produces a marked change in him; but afterwards he has to learn it all in detail." -J.N.D.

"This is a fact borne out in the case of every servant of God in history who has really come under the hand of God--that the real values of their lives for all time have been those which correspond to the wine of the grape, the thing trodden out in the winepress, the agony of heart; and you know that it is true in your case that if ever you have had anything at all which you knew to be worthwhile and which has helped someone else, it has been born out of some travail in your own experience."

"If we knew the heart of our Father we would never question any of His dealings with us, nor should we ever desire His hand lifted off us till we had learnt all He would teach us." -E.D.

"Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:19, 20).

[Netchaplain]

When is victory over a trial present for the Christian? When it transpires? Is it in the midst of the trial or at the beginning? Even if we have yet to realize it, all of our victories are present prior to the beginning of all our trials!

Kicking or screaming, hardly enduring or “patiently enduring” (Heb 6:15; 2 Pet 2:20; 2 Tim 2:3); how we respond to all our trials does not determine their outcome because God has already ensured they will eventuate to our benefit for the purpose of Christ-conformity (Rom 8:28, 29). Our response to all things is not a cause, but an effect which reveals the presence of a cause. “For it is God who works in you (cause) both to will and to do (effect) for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

If the strength of our faith in God is in our power and might (Zec 4:6), our trials will “trouble us” (John 14:1, 27) but God’s blessings will remain ours. The level of our position in Christ, mature or immature, does not determine the Father’s blessings to us because they were all foreordained (1 Pet 1:20) and cannot be withdrawn (Rom 11:29).

It's better to go through a trial with God than to go around one without Him!

We can needlessly labor with besetting weights
And be troubled, harassed and assailed
Or take pleasure in infirmities
Either way you’re in the Lord and will not fail
(Heb 12:1; 2 Cor 2:10; Jude 1:24)
–NC


4-8. TRIUMPH IN TRIAL

"Always guarded by the power of God through faith.... In such a hope keep on rejoicing, although for a little while you must be sorrow-stricken with various trials" (1 Peter 1:5, 6, Wms.).

There are testimonies, and there are testimonies. Some can testify as to how God cleared up adverse circumstances for the victory; but others can testify to the triumph God gave in the midst of difficult circumstances. The essential consideration is that our Father be glorified in all His dealings with and for us. How He brings it all about should be secondary to us.

"If there is a great trial in your life today, do not own it as a defeat, but continue, by faith, to claim the victory through Him who is able to make you more than conqueror, and a glorious triumph will soon be apparent. Let us learn that in all the hard places our Father brings us into, He is making opportunities for us to exercise such faith in Him as will bring about blessed results and greatly glorify His Name."

"God has put you in exactly the right crucible to burn up what He sees needs to be burnt up. Many think 'victory' means getting your circumstances put right. No! true triumph is within--when in the midst of your circumstances the Spirit of God can so energize you and strengthen you in spirit, that you can stand quiet in the thick of it all, and say, 'God is God,' and know that you are held by Him--which is infinitely better than all your trying to hold things steady."

"Therefore, my brethren . . . stand fast in the Lord" (Philippians 4:1).
-mjs/withchrist.org

[Netchaplain]

4-9. LlTTLE-KNOWN REQUISITE

"My beloved children, I am again bearing the pangs of travail for you, till Christ be fully formed within you" (Galatians 4:19, Cony.).

It is essential that we "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," for three reasons: (1) that our Father may be glorified; (2) that the Lord Jesus might be manifested in us; (3) that the Holy Spirit might have a suitable instrument through which to win and establish others.

"Paul had one great consuming purpose to be brought to birth by his sufferings for the Galatians, and that was the living expression of the Lord Jesus Christ in them. Nothing less could satisfy God, and nothing less than this should ever satisfy a servant of God. Numbers were still good in Galatia, activities well maintained and zeal unabated, but the Lord Jesus was being crowded out--and that is the greatest tragedy possible." -H.F.

"It is a marvellous grace that we should be conformed to the image of God's Son. I think it is very sad that the highest thought which God has about us, and that which His heart is set on, is that which is least known by Christians; for I know no truth that is so little realized as union with Christ." -J.B.S.

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9).
-mjs/withchrist.org

[Netchaplain]

Is our sufficiency resting on experiences, as Israel, esp. in the wilderness, required signs and wonders (1 Cor 1:22) or in the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19)? Faith constructed by experience can be misleading because it accustoms the believer to that which is by sight (temporal) and not by faith (eternal) (2 Cor 5:7). Faith in God differs from faith about God. Can one know God exists (wilderness Israel) without trusting Him? “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:19).

This always eventuates in disappointment because the expectation is not in Christ alone as much as it is in His physical confirmations. Faith and sight teeter in opposition to one another, so when physical evidence is up, faith is down. God uses that which is seen to confirm His existence (Rom 1:19, 20), not to confirm our faith, which requires no physical proof.

Faith is to be our substance (Heb 11:1) before God confirms anything in the physical. I believe proof is being reduced to its minimal form so that faith can be allowed to be at its greatest potential, because this life is the only opportunity for faith to be at its greatest activity. “Hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Rom 8:24)?

We “will come to revelations of the Lord” (2 Cor 12:1) but they will come only through Scripture. It is commonly said that “it is to be Scripture which imparts credence to experiences and not the opposite”, so that faith has room to increase (Luke 17:5).

Let our joy already be sufficed in times of need by knowing “that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), regardless of our maturity status in Him.
-NC

4-10. TRUTH, THEN EXPERIENCE

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

The Christian who relies mainly upon "experiences" for growth will manifest little spiritual discernment, dependability or maturity, whereas the believer who relies upon doctrinal truth will be found to manifest these aspects of a healthy walk. If we bypass truth, we fall short of spiritual reality.

"Many people today are seeking for a new religious experience and when the last grows old, they seek to get yet another experience. The actual need of most believers today is not an experience, but a true apprehension of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross for us and of our present day union with Him.

"When a person begins to apprehend what it means to be united to the Son of God and what he has through this union, he will at once realize that his spiritual growth depends upon a clear understanding of truth rather than upon an experience. However, those who really appropriate this truth cannot fail to have daily experiences with the Lord." -L.L.L.

"Nowhere in Scripture is it taught that there is a sudden leap to be taken from carnality to spirituality, or from a life of comparative unconcern as to godliness to one of intense devotion to the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, increase in piety is ever presented as a growth, which should be as normal and natural as the orderly progression in human life from infancy to full stature." -H.A.I.

"Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all" (1 Timothy 4:15).
-mjs/withchrist.org

[Netchaplain]

The most effective witness for outreach is one in whom the Lord takes up every place in him so that the work is, not by us in the Lord, but by the Lord in us—everywhere in us. It’s very instructive to know there is no place in us the Lord is not to take up and that it is attained by the law of displacement.

John the Baptists inspiringly stated, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Similar to as we have two physical eyes we also possess two spiritual “I’s”—the old I and the new I. The Lord does not want to displace you, but your nature. He does not want it to be, all Jesus and none of you, but Jesus and you. God’s desire is to have you in your personhood, plus the new nature!

Notice John did not say, “I must be eliminated”. This does not design the removal of the old nature but its restraint (Gal 5:17), because the Lord continues use the Adamic nature to teach us for our growth in Christ, just as He used it to draw us to Christ. We came to Christ because we were made to realize the seriousness of sin and the more we are shown the depths of its decadency, the more we realize the depths of God’s holiness.

I like what John Gill commentated concerning something Christ said on the Cross; “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus was referring to their ignorance to the fact that they did not realize they were crucifying the Messiah, nor the prophecies concerning Him, nor the evil they were committing in putting Him to death: not that their ignorance excused their sin; nor was it without sin; nor does Christ use it as a plea for pardon, or found His intercession upon it, which is always done upon His own propitiatory sacrifice; but this is mentioned as descriptive of the persons Christ prays for, and points out a branch of His priestly office He exercises, in having compassion on the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. (J. Gill bible commentary)

The issue of sin is not so much the wrongs of people as much as it is their lacking the realization of the seriousness of the wrongs; which comes not by discovery but by revelation--by the Spirit’s enlightenment (John 14:26). One cannot judge, nor expect an unregenerate person to live the Christ-life any more than expecting a pig to stay out of the mud after cleaning it. A sinner is expected to sin willfully just as a pig is expected to willfully return to the mud. If the model is to keep a clean pig, the goal is not in cleaning its body but in addressing its nature. -NC

“Most would say, “The work of the Holy Spirit is to save souls.” Yes, but why? Just to have them saved? No; but in order that the Lord Jesus might have His place. These souls are the residence of Christ. The Spirit may instruct believers and build them up—for what purpose? Just that they should be more mature Christians? Not at all; but so that the Lamb of God shall have a larger place. No matter what the Holy Spirit does, He has one all-inclusive object and end—the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, giving Him place and then filling all things with Him. Do not think of the “being filled with the Spirit”, or the “fullness of the Spirit”, in any other way than this: the Holy Spirit’s filling of all things with the Lord Jesus—He is “all, and in all” (Col 3:11). –MJS/Person To Person/WithChrist.org.

“. . . that in all things He may have the preeminence.” (Col 1:18).


4-11. INWROUGHT FOR OUTREACH

"Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:7).

At first our concern is to be used, to serve; but it is our concern. Then He begins to impress His concern upon our hearts, that we be like Him. Finally, it is His concern and ours that others may be reached by Him and established in Him.

"The Holy Spirit indwells us and thereby accomplishes our sanctification--an adjustment of our personal lives to His own person and character, to the dropping away of sin's power over us and the implanting of His Christ-imparting attributes in us. But to what purpose is all of this? For the beautifying of our personal lives? To terminate upon us? Not at all. His work in us is that He may have an instrument adjusted to His use, thus to work through us to the blessing of others. -N.B.H.

"It is not so much a matter of our attainments or full conformity to Christ, but rather our progressive movement towards the final goal. Even if we were perfect in ourselves, that would not make us ministers, for ministry consists in the Spirit's manifesting in our lives something more of Christ that was not there before, and then making it shine out for the blessing and transformation of others." -H.F.

"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men" (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

[Netchaplain]

4-12. NOT HOW, BUT WHO!

"Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).
We never question how He works, once we know Him for who He is. When I gain the treasure of knowing Him, I can well afford to trust Him.

"The heart that is captivated by an object could never be at rest until it was with the one who had won it; for satisfaction you must be where He is. Love really does not think of anyone but its Object until it is quite sure of its place with Him, and then when at rest about itself it studies the mind and heart of the Object.

"I find that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me when I was in a most unattractive state; but He makes me suitable to Himself, and I am so assured of the permanency of His love and of my association with Him that my heart is free to study Him. The more I am in His company, the more I acquire the tastes and characteristics which answer to His mind."

"There is an amazing effect of beholding the Lord's glory. You may be transformed from some old taste without even feeling it; but you are transformed! and you cannot tell how. It is not the process that occupies you, but you are engrossed with the Lord. We are united to the glorified Lord where He is at home, and, blessed by God, that is our home, our life is there." -J.B.S.

"Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).