Sometimes, I like posting other people's writings because I can identify with them. We have the same message because we have learned directly from the Holy Spirit. I had one of Oswald Chambers devotional book for about 9 years. While I had great respect for his writings but I could not truly understand what he was talking about and where all these things were coming from. At one point I had to admit to myself that he had a great relationship with Christ, but I dismissed it with words like " this is his life, his walk and his things"so I kept reading him like some sort of historian that I admired. After the Holy Spirit led me to the wilderness to become His favorite rag doll that’s when all of the sudden I knew exactly what he was talking about. I could identify with each page.
As I started identifying with Oswald’s writing something sad occurred. Pastors
and mentors that I used to admire for their eloquence and their knowledge, faded
away. People that I used to think were so knowledgeable when I was not deep in
Christ, all of the sudden I could see how much they knew nothing about Him and
how shallow their teachings have always been. Make no mistake it is a sad
realization because you are losing your heroes and you find it is hard to let
go.
As time went by, the Holy Spirit healed my heart and filled it up with His
love. He made me understand that it is all part of this walk. It is the act of
being set apart for His glory. It is part of being detached from the world. And
it is also what it means to be part of the remnant He keeps for Himself. When I
understood that, I found a new love for these people that I was leaving behind.
I will forever be grateful to them, because God has used them in my life. I
love them dearly and the only way I could ever repay them is by praying for
them, always.
So, while Oswald Chambers died in November 1917 these words of his are
more real than ever. The Church has not improved, instead things have gotten
worse. Every word in today’s devotion is still right for today’s Christians but
on a larger scale. So, I am leaving you
with Oswald’s own word on Christ supremacy. May the Spirit of truth help you
understand these words as you open your heart to Him. I pray that He would help
you let go of resistance, pride, ignorance and stubbornness in your heart as
you break down in repentance.
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
The holiness movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them. There is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ. All that is required is a pious atmosphere, prayer, and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous. It did not cost the sufferings of God, nor is it stained with “the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). It is not marked or sealed by the Holy Spirit as being genuine, and it has no visual sign that causes people to exclaim with awe and wonder, “That is the work of God Almighty!” Yet the New Testament is about the work of God and nothing else.
The New Testament example of the Christian experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration— no being born again into the kingdom in which Christ lives and reigns supreme. There is only the idea that He is our pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the Savior long before He is the pattern. Today He is being portrayed as the figurehead of a religion— a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more. He is salvation itself; He is the gospel of God!
Jesus said, “. . . when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, . . . He will glorify Me . . .” (John 16:13-14). When I commit myself to the revealed truth of the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit, who then begins interpreting to me what Jesus did. The Spirit of God does in me internally all that Jesus Christ did for me externally.
