December 31

 ‘As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us.’ - Oswald Chambers

                It is unlikely that anyone reading this post has never made a mistake. Lord knows I’ve made my share. The recognition of missed opportunities, tempers lost, or worse, can drag us down from our path to righteousness in Christ and into the pit of despair. Despair is the worst of all sins for the born again Christian. To despair is to reject the Atonement of Christ. He has forgiven our sin and it is improper for us to pick it up again.

                God forgives our sin, but He does not remove the memory of it from us. Why is that? Sin is the unpleasant result of the gift of free will and when committed, the memory of sin should be retained only for the purposes of introspection. God has allowed us to fail by our own devices for reasons which are myriad. However all reasons ultimately manifest in themselves an opportunity for us to learn and to grow in Christ.

                Imagine the child learning to ride a bike with his father. If the father never lets go of the bike, the child will never fall, though he will never learn to balance himself either. Instead, the father lets the go of the bicycle and allows the child to inevitably meet the pavement. The child’s scrapes will heal, but the unpleasant memory of gravities ill effects remain and the child gradually learns to account for balance. The child will crash again, but the crashes will become less frequent with practice.

                Christ heals our scrapes, but allows the memory. Without the memory, ours would be a shallow cycle of repeated scrapes and the Sacrifice of the Cross would be of no importance. God requires us to retain our past. He has allowed our mistakes to shape us for His service. He recognizes that we will make mistakes in the future, but rest in the comfort that He will not allow any circumstance greater than we can bear so long as we take refuge in Him.

                Our past should not provoke anxiety and regret if we have given ourselves up to Him.  

December 30

‘All my fresh springs shall be in thee.’ Psalm 87:7

                It is a prideful error to put confidence in our natural virtues after being born again into Jesus Christ. Natural virtues will never be to God’s standard. Rather, when we are born again, God remakes us and allows us to have our virtues shaped according to His design.

                According to Oswald Chambers, natural virtue is an accident of heredity. While our natural virtues may be admirable, they can never come close to God’s standard without Him as a driving force. We must give up the pride that we associate with our own virtue and allow God to mold us as a potter molds the clay.

                This being said, it is a disconcerting feeling to lose confidence in our natural virtues. This part of growth, a lack of confidence in our own natural ability, is the recognition, in us, of our natural inadequacy. Rather than being distraught by this when it occurs, be joyous that God is at work in you. Allow yourself to maintain humility. In so doing, you will grow and be shaped into the virtues that God desires for work in His kingdom.  

December 27

‘The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external word.’ – Oswald Chambers

                We cannot wait for circumstance to present an opportunity for personal spiritual growth. When we exercise our will to believe in God and in so doing, begin a relationship with Him, we must clean out those things which we recognize will keep us from Him. We should include in our daily prayers, a prayer for the power to introspectively discern which distractions we are coddling. Once they are identified, we must have the will to take an unforgiving look at the utility of these desires. Are they in accordance with God’s will? Do they add value to our relationship with others? Do they help us to identify with those whom we are called to witness?

                This task is both straightforward and complicated simultaneously. With the aid of the Holy Spirit, God’s law is perfectly clear. We recognize the things which produce discord between us and God. I cannot verbalize how we know; I simply know from my own experience that this is true. The behavior we should exemplify is immediately apparent and easily followed. When we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, we must consciously choose those behaviors which are in discord with God’s law. The moment of choice is apparent.

                However, identification of the behavior does not negate the behavior itself. We must choose to cast it aside. It is at this point that this process of introspection becomes complicated. We take comfort in our behaviors for a variety of reasons. Not least of which is the habitual nature of Man. The dieter, for example, knows that pastry is antithetical to weight loss, yet still yearns for the morning doughnut if it has become routine.

                Like the dieter, we must reconcile these behaviors before placing ourselves in a situation which might test them. We must prepare for spiritual battle with the understanding that we are, first and foremost, our own greatest obstacle. Failure to do so will result in relapse of sin.

                We cannot expect God to miraculously relieve us of our desire and vice. God’s gift of free will does not end with the choice to choose Him. We must continually choose to prune away the non-producing branches of our fig tree so that the fruit that we are able to bear will be plumper.

                To expect God to instantly negate our desire is to test God. We are never to test God. There is no point in it. God has not only invented the test, but passed it in exemplary manner through His son Jesus Christ. Moreover, when we test God, we are admitting a lack of faith in Him. Instead, we must trust in Him daily to guide us to be born again in thought word and deed.

December 26

‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.’ 1 John 1:7

                In today’s devotional, OC demonstrates the difference between deliverance from sin by the Atonement and conscious freedom from sin. OC argues that it is a mistake to simply make a conscious effort to be free from sin. Without the acceptance of Christ and the deliverance from sin at Calvary, Man is incapable of recognizing sin, let alone avoiding it. Furthermore, I would argue that making a conscious decision to avoid sinful behavior, without Christ at the helm, is the mark of a Pharisee. Why remain pious when Christ is not your guide unless to generate an appearance of worthiness?

                Please remember that man IS a moral creature. Most men know right from wrong instinctively and recognize good in others. However, for what purpose is the moral life? Without faith in Christ, the moral man is no more holy than the immoral man. The apple is polished, but the meat of the fruit is brown just the same.

                We cannot pretend to live a sinless life without the deliverance of sin. Even if the decision to live without sin could be maintained, we are still led to consequence by our subconscious. We cannot control subconscious drive, yet they do influence us. For example, subconscious feelings of guilt lead us to indulge others and subconscious feelings of hate can lead us to rage.

Only the Holy Spirit can cleanse us of these subconscious drives. When we accept Christ and His sacrifice, the Holy Spirit goes to work in us. We find that the decision to walk in the light, as He is in the light becomes plain. There is no other alternative lifestyle. What once were decisions with which we once struggled to find solutions become transparent .

 Once in the light, the miracle of being born again is apparent in the ease by which it is maintained. Our sin has died along with Christ and nothing more can hold us back from fellowship with Him.

December 25

 I can compose no post greater than the declaration of Christ's birth. Merry Christmas everyone!

December 24

‘Your life is hid with Christ in God.’ – Colossians 3:3

                To the person whom has little faith it appears as though living in Christ is an unsustainable ideal. To so transform a life that is filled with sin and rife with Man’s shortcomings into a life of daily obedience to God’s law is daunting. Doubt creeps in and we are assured that we cannot sustain the effort necessary to live as Christ exemplified.

                In reality though, nothing could be further from the truth. Living in obedience to God’s law becomes secondary once we have chosen to follow Him. The right choices become apparent and our behavior is changed with little effort so long as we trust in Him to guide us. It is only undone by the interjection of our own selfish will.

                Picture faith as a mountain. From the base, the mountain seems insurmountable, yet we begin our ascent. As we climb, we begin to think, ‘Certainly I have had success so far, but I am sure that I cannot live at the summit. The peak will be treacherous and there will be no room for me to maneuver. No sustenance will be found on the barren and jagged, wind-blown rock.’ However, as we reach the pinnacle of faith, we see that it is not a solitary ridge at all, but a fertile plateau. Easily, our needs are met if only we continue to trust in Him.

                Our old lives become hidden in the glory of life in God, if only we will bend our will to His and allow ourselves to continue our ascent in faith.

December 23

 ‘But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ – Galatians 6:14

                As was discussed yesterday, the impetus for action is found in will. To be exercise faith is to bend our will to belief in God. To act in accordance to God’s law is to bend our will away from ourselves and toward Him. To ignore God altogether is to exercise our will for our own purposes.

                I talked at some length yesterday about coming to believe in God and what faith means when translated in terms of will. However, willing ourselves to believe in the Gospel, taking that first step toward faith and away from logic, is merely the beginning. What do we do with our faith? Since we still control our will, for better or worse, what does it mean to apply it to a faith filled life?

                The next step in the Christian life is often a deal breaker for the insincere. The application of our will to the terms of the Atonement is a daily commitment in action. It is not suspense of logic. It is a series of conscious series of choices which change our behavior to reflect the newness of our creation.

Christ died on the Cross for our sins. His is the example that we follow. In this way, we to must die as part of our Atonement. Our old selves must pass away as exemplified in our giving up of the things that are not of God. We must will ourselves to give up the sinful behaviors we once held dear.      These behaviors, which I will not list here due to the highly individual nature of vice, serve primarily as distractions, drawing our focus away from God.  It is true that there are specific affronts to God’s law found in each incarnation of sin, but again, I argue that they are primarily distractions. Any worldly thing that gets in the way of our focus on God must pass away along with our old self, or the Atonement has resulted in a new creation only superficially.

Conversely, the exercise of will to give up the former things is an assertion to take up only Christ. To be reborn a new creation in Christ is to make the commitment to spoiled for all else but Christ. The result of the Christian who has accepted the Atonement and made good on the commitment to take up only Christ, allowing the old to pass away, is a Christian who is identified with Christ. The identification with Christ is the purpose for the Atonement. Christ did not die on the Cross for all of our sins just to open some allegorical gate in the clouds. Christ died for our sins so that Man, the fallible and unworthy creature the he is, could have a means to identify with Christ. 

December 22

 ‘I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to disassociate myself from my old way of looking at things, and by putting myself right over onto Him.’ – OC

                When God calls, will you come? God’s calling does not always manifest itself in the form of a career change, though that is most often how we think of it. However, the calling is life changing nonetheless.  God calls us to draw near to Him and we must choose to heed His calling or to ignore it.

                This is the epitome of the dual nature of free will. Do we continue to follow the whims of our own will, or do we will ourselves to draw near to God? Following our own will requires little effort on our own part. Our will mirrors the natural self centered nature of Man when God is absent. When our will is our own, it is a self serving tool and nothing more.

                Because of the selfish nature of will, we must condition ourselves to draw near to God. We must bend our will to meet the will of God. In so doing we become effective tools which God can use.

                Faith is the result of bending our will to draw closer to God. God is not intellectual in nature. He is spiritual. If you rely on your own fallible logic it becomes illogical to rely on God. Who would believe that a man died and was resurrected for the purpose of the Redemption of all mankind? The first step in faith is that of willing ourselves to believe the truth of the Gospels.

December 21

‘We have received…the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.’ – 1 Corinthians 2:12

   For the purpose of this lesson, I feel it is important to define OC’s use of the word ‘experience’. Experience, according to OC, is our perception of reality. It is how reality interacts specifically with us in a self-centric way. This definition of experience is incompatible with how we are to interact with the world as Christians. When we receive the Spirit and accept the gift of Redemption, it becomes apparent that reality is not at all about us. We begin to truly experience the world without the prism of sin, allowing us to view the world for what it is.

   ‘Reality is the Redemption, not my experience of the Redemption,’ says OC. The things that surround us become secondary to Christ after we accept His Redemption. Like turning on a light in a dark room, reality is illumined after accepting the Spirit. It is plain to see things for what they are. There is no need to find justification in our surroundings because we are already justified.

   The important thing to remember here is that after we accept Christ, we no longer own our experiences. We become vessels for Him. Our experiences no longer serve our needs, they become circumstances through which we may grow in Christ and help others to do likewise.

   One of my favorite phrases is this: ‘Let go and let God’. OC’s lesson this morning is exactly that. We are to let go of our ‘experiences’ and allow God to pervade our reality.

December 20

‘If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there is no need for it.’ - Oswals Chambers
   We should always be keeping Christ’s sacrifice at the forefront of our witness to others. There is no other path to come to know God, but to come through Christ. This is true not only in our testimony, but also in our actions. We should be putting ourselves out for others because of a desire to do so for God’s good purposes. To act, even with good intent, without Christ as our impetus is to usurp God’s will for our own purposes.
   In acting in faith with Christ as witnesses to Christ, we begin in others a process of the identification and forgiveness of their sins. We cannot absolve others of their sin by our own means. Thus, failing to make Christ the focus of our witness deprives the observer of the opportunity for absolution and conviction of their sins.
OC describes witnessing without Christ as ‘amiable religiosity’. It is the giving of ourselves and our witness out of religious duty to fulfill a need in us as givers. This is false. We are not called to appease ourselves through action and witness, but to help others to know Christ by our example.
   Only the Cross can lead to salvation through redemption. 

December 19

‘And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin…’ John 16:8

   Conviction of sin is distinct from morality. We all, minus the sociopaths, feel badly when we have done bad things. Shame is the resultant feeling and should compel us to seek forgiveness from whomever we have slighted. In this way, we recognize that we have sinned against each other.

On the contrary, conviction of sin is the recognition that we have sinned against God. In accepting the reality of our conviction, we are accepting our destitution. We know that there is no way in which we can be made clean again without God. We have nothing to offer Him and cannot ‘make it up’ to Him in any way.

   The only way we are made worthy of God despite our sin is through His forgiveness. His forgiveness which is manifest in the Atonement on the Cross of Jesus. But why did God give us His son? Why did God give His son to die for our sins? Is it because he is Love? OC argues that such as statement is small-minded. God is Love, but the catalyst for his forgiveness is greater than just love.

   To directly forgive Man his sins would be to detract from the divinity of God. He would be dragged down to Man’s nature. In giving Christ to Atone for our sins, God gives Man a vessel in which he can approach God, rather than God approaching Man. Think of the Redemption as God’s extending His reach to Man. Man’s job then is to accept the forgiveness of his sins, reach up to God, and be pulled out of the mire of sin.

Furthermore, it is not enough to simply be sorry for our sins, as we might be if morality were our only impetus to be forgiven. Conviction of sin is the first step in accepting our own ineptitude. Because we are convicted, we can become a new creation. A new relationship with God is made in us through our humility, which otherwise would not be possible.

   This relationship is the crux of forgiveness. Forgiveness does not merely assure us of going to Heaven rather than Hell. It creates in us the desire to know God and to uphold His law because to do anything less would be simply unacceptable to the convicted sinner.

December 18

‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ – Romans 8:28

   We are called to be loyal to God at all times. This seems like a simple standard, but in practice is not so simple to maintain. Being loyal means that we understand that God engineers our circumstances. We must trust Him to do so. We should take advantage of the circumstances He makes available to us and recognize when we are engineering our own circumstances outside of His will. Taking matters into our own hands, in this sense, shows a loyalty to Man and not God.

   We must accept the circumstances that we are given. We should not be quick to dethrone God for unfavorable circumstances. In each circumstance is found God’s will, even if it is impossible to discern at that moment. We should accept with grace those circumstances which God is given us and in so doing, attempt to see what value or opportunity for growth can be gleaned from it.

   Being loyal to God also means that we must remember our place in God’s order. God is not here to serve us, we are here to serve God. God is loyal to us, as a king is to His subjects. We are called to reciprocate this relationship with our trust and work in His name. Remember to ask not what god can do for you, but what you can do for God.

   A distinction should be made between serving God and working for Him. We do not work for Him, because without Him our work would be in vain. Rather we serve God. In our loyalty, God does His work through us. We are vessels for God’s good works and as such are called to do His work without explanation or complaint.

December 17

‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.’ 1 Corinthians 2:14

When thinking about the gift of free will, it is important to remember that we own a responsibility to choose God. God does not manifest Himself in us until we seek Him. God’s love is never forced, but once it is given, an insatiable desire for it is created.

By seeking and accepting the Redemption of God, our lives are forever changed. The Redemption constantly is creating in us the desire to know God and the satisfaction that is found in knowing Him. In this respect, the Redemption is the catalyst that both creates and satisfies.

The powerful and sustaining nature of the Redemption explains why our ability to ‘testify’ about our experiences is so limited. Others may take an interest in our experiences, and undoubtedly, our experiences are unique tools that create the impetus for us to seek God, but they pale in comparison to God Himself. No one is awakened by the retelling of our experience. Only God can do that.

We should instead be telling people about the power of the Redemption. We should be sharing with others how the Redemption changes every facet of our lives. We should be always preaching the Gospel, for therin is found the words of the Spirit that create the desire to know God.

December 16

‘Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God…praying always…’ – Ephesians 6:13, 18

   OC has talked at length about our role in intercessory prayer for others, but what about prayer for ourselves? How should we pray for ourselves? Often, our prayer sounds more like a wish list to Santa, than a heartfelt effort to become closer to God. OC notes that we should be praying to God against the things that are keeping us from Him.

   The rub lies in the distinction between God’s order and His permissive will. God’s order is the thing to which we should strive. We pray against the things that deter and divert our attention from Him and His law in our lives. These distractions are a result of Man’s manipulation of the world and are allowed because God grants us free will. God intends that we choose to love Him rather than to have love forced upon us.

   Forced love is not love at all. As far as I’m concerned the meaning of life is this: We are given this life in order that we might choose God, come to God, and help others to know Him through our example. Case closed. It’s that simple.

   In creating a world where love is not mandated and free will is permitted, God created a world in which distractions become possible. A vacuum exists when God’s love is absent and Man has filled that vacuum with worldly distractions. However, the world can only produce round pegs to God’s square hole. Nothing else satisfies the yearning we all feel except the love of God.

   What’s more, it is necessary to pray against the things that keep us from God before we can be effective in intercession for others. If we are not complete in Christ then we cannot hope to be complete advocates for others before Him.

December 15

‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’ – 2 Timothy 2:15
   What does it mean to have the right to expression? Freedom of expression is a right that has been paid for by the blood of Americans. It is argued to be an inalienable human right, yet so few of us take advantage of it. We have a right to expression, but often are constrained by perceptions of inadequacy or societal apprehensions.
   God gave each of us a distinct personality, I believe, so that we might express ourselves on His behalf to others. However, latent ability does not ensure a masterpiece. Michelangelo surely trained himself prior to painting the Sistine Chapel. Shakespeare’s flat likely was littered with more crumpled papers than published scripts. We are called to challenge ourselves. We must bring definition to our expression despite our perceived lack of talent.
   We are called to be a witness to Christ. No witness in the history of the world was ever effective if he did not express himself to others. Who cares if you are not Shakespeare of Michelangelo? Expression does not have to be eloquent. It simply needs to be expressed. We are given the opportunity to help others to know Christ by expressing His truth.  A life without expression, for any reason, should be considered a failure in faith.
   Evidence for the importance of expression in our nature is found in Man’s desire for production. Productivity being highly prized in comparison to sloth, is an indicator of effectiveness. Productivity is sought in the secular world as well as the religious. Productivity is sought in the professional world as well as the personal. Productivity produces in us, a sense of contribution and helps to bolster our self esteem.
   In contrast, there is little merit to be found in consumption. No one remembers Dante for what he read. Lincoln is not remembered for the speeches he attended, but those that he gave.
   It is much easier to consume than to create. Consumption takes little to no effort at all and it allows the consumer to judge that which the creator has created while freeing him from any judgment himself. Yet, the irony of consumption is that the consumer is left feeling hollow and unfulfilled. No matter how much the consumer takes in, he will always feel less full than the creator who has bared everything.
   Rather than consume, God demands that we produce. We should challenge ourselves to expression. When we are weak in our chosen medium, we should practice until we are stronger. The creator can derive confidence from knowing that his expression is the truth of God and that he is helping others to come to know God through his expression. There is no shame in creation. There is no fear of criticism that can outweigh the importance of expressing the truth.
   Expression creates excitement. Currently, Islam is arguably the fastest growing religion in the world. Why is that? I argue that it is because Muslims are active. They are standing up for their faith in visible ways. Moderate Muslims are seen taking a stand for what they believe and it is exciting to watch.
   Christians must do the same. We cannot afford to be Christmas and Easter churchgoers. We cannot afford to curtail ourselves so that we do not offend anyone. Christ said, “Blessed is he who is not offended by me.” Christians must express the miracle of Christ’s sacrifice and Atonement in thought, word, and deed daily. We must live our faith. Take the banner of your Christian faith out of the closet and put it on display for everyone to see.

December 14

‘Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you: … Let not your heart be troubled.’ – John 14:27

   God’s will is constant. It is unchanging. Conflict is a result of the pursuance of our will over that of God’s. When we let go of our will and adhere to the will of God, living a saintly life becomes easily attainable. The course that our decisions must take becomes obvious and the complexity that we had interjected into situations in the past becomes moot.

   How easy it is to blame God for an unfortunate circumstance. Instead, we must take ownership of our choices which lead to our circumstances. Through accountability, we recognize our shortcomings and can act to change them. We learn the importance of obedience in Christ.

   God does not will us into misfortune and yet not all of our misfortunes are directly our fault. Remember that all misfortune is directly related to the brokenness of our world caused after the Fall of Man. Consequently, there is hurt and injustice in the world over which we have no control.               

   However, we can control our own actions. By choosing to obey God’s law and refusing to usurp His will with our own, we are taking the most proactive stance possible against the pitfalls of a broken Earth.

   Furthermore, obedience to Christ produces peace in us. We can maintain this peace through obedience. When we disobey God, we bring discord into our thoughts and lives. Christ’s peace is replaced by chaos and uncertainty.

December 13

‘Men ought to always pray, and not to faint.’ – Luke 18:1
   Shortly after my first wife and I had separated, I found money to be very tight. I became quite despondent as the bill collectors incessantly called. I had no car insurance and I wasn’t sure how I would make the rent, much less feed my kids at times. Naturally, being a young man in his early twenties, I looked for money from whence money had always come, with a phone call to my dad.
Much to my surprise, Dad refused my plea. There would be no bailout. To say I was angry would have been an understatement. Didn’t my dad care about me? Didn’t he understand that I was going through a hard time? Had he no compassion?
   As it turned out, my dad gave me the best gift of all, by not giving me anything. I was forced to provide. I had to move past my feelings of pity and actually make those ends meet. I took a second job and became a master budgeter. With each month in the black, my confidence grew.
   I don’t know that my dad prayed for me, he’s not a particularly spiritual man, but God used him nonetheless. In retrospect, I look at this lesson in self reliance as a turning point in my adult life. While there are still times that I find money to be tight, I cannot fathom even asking for a handout, let alone accepting one. God challenged me to be responsible and thanks to my dad, I had no choice but to accept.
   This time in my life serves as a highlight to today’s lesson. God calls us to intercede in prayer for others. When we intercede for others, we are placing our faith in God to help them along their path. Whatever misery they may be in is theirs. God has a plan for them, as indiscernible as it may be.
   It is right to have sympathy for others. We are social creations and to turn our backs on our fellow man is not what God expects of us. However, sympathy without intercession is a futile effort. Sympathy without intercession mires us in taking charge of a situation over which we cannot hope to control. Sympathy without intercession leads us to trusting in our own ability to affect a solution rather than for God to intervene according to His plan. Sympathy without intercession is counterproductive and often only enables and prolongs suffering.
   We should never do for others what they can do for themselves. People need to be self sufficient, or as self sufficient as they are able. They need to learn to trust in their relationship with Christ. God will not abandon them. Rather, He will bring them through their suffering with a greater understanding of their own personality and a growing faith in Him.
   Does this sound like an insensitive lesson as we go deeper into the Christmas season? Only superficially. Please, show compassion and mercy. Provide meals for the hungry and clothing for children etc. God is not saying that we should not do good works. God asks only that we temper our efforts with prayer first and sympathy second. He asks that we not get in the way of His will by ruining those around us in order to appease our conscience.
   I’ll wrap up today with one of my favorite unattributed quotes: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry again.”

December 12

   ‘An island in the sea may be but the top of a great mountain.   Personality is like an island, we know nothing about the depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves.’ – OC
   For the last few days, OC has been driving home the lesson that we must deny ourselves so that we might follow God. It strikes me that this could be perceived as disfavor for distinction. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
   Yesterday, (or actually, earlier today, sorry for the delay in yesterday’s post.), I discussed the difference between individuality and personality. Recall that individuality is best described as an assumed guise that we strive to maintain. I assuming this guise, we are telling the world to identify us in category, thus saving us from being accountable to criticism of our actual self. It is a defense mechanism which is meant to shield us from our insecurities. Individuality is cumbersome to maintain and gets in the way of our relationship with God for a number of reasons which were briefly expanded on in yesterday’s post.
   In contrast, personality is the vessel in which our true distinction is found. God loves that we are a distinct creation. In fact, we are so distinct, that it is not possible to even know our full selves. Like the mountain that supports the island, we see little of our true selves. Personality is multifaceted and interacts with circumstance in ways that continually surprise us. Only our Creator can know our whole personality.
   There is a rather striking irony here. In order to know Christ in a daily, living relationship, we must deny ourselves. In knowing Christ, we discover ourselves. It is as though the leg braces have been removed from polio ravaged legs. We remove the artificial brace of our assumed guise and trust in Christ instead. In so doing, we come to a greater appreciation of His creation which is ourselves.
   I can personally testify to this remarkable transformation. Since I began actively seeking a relationship with Christ two years ago, (Which actually began as an attempt to revive a faith that had been diluted to Pascal’s Wager) I have gradually lost my individuality. I no longer identify myself as anything other than me. I am happy with whom I am and I understand to a greater extent the circumstances I find myself in because I have come to realize that they are not necessarily central to me.  I have a sense of peace that I have never known before.
   I trust in Christ and I look forward to discovering more of my hidden mountain.

December 11:

   ‘Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love.’ – OC

   So why does God seem to be so against His creation being individuals? Why does He continually ask us to deny ourselves in order to follow Him? Doesn’t He appreciate the uniqueness of each person?

The problem with individuality is this. In order to sustain individuality, we must make our ‘uniqueness’ the definition of our character. We must go out of our way to make this image the central theme of ourselves. The result is that others, who interact with us, do not get to see God at work through us, but rather they see the culmination of our efforts to maintain an image.

   More importantly, an addiction to the individual image limits the room we have for God. We end up worshipping our own greatness by making our own image the central catalyst for all of our actions. The image of who we want to project that we are becomes consuming and it does not allow us to be honest with ourselves.

   The contrast here is that God does in fact appreciate uniqueness. He created each of us with the intent that we have our own personality. We all react to stimuli uniquely due to our demeanor. We all are capable of contributing a different point of view for example. We all have unique gifts and abilities.

Individuality is a diversion on our path to personality. I hesitate to call it a precursor, because even infants have naked demeanor and personality. It isn’t until we become self conscious teenagers that most of us seek to hide from reality under various guises.

   When we deny ourselves and follow Christ, a miracle occurs. Our insecurities are exposed as lies. His unconditional love becomes of greater importance than the love we held so tightly for ourselves. In denying the greatness of ourSELVES, Christ allows us to be truly great.

December 1

‘For whoever will keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’ James 2:10
This truly is an interesting verse. I find that it rubs against my traditional view of a legalistic hierarchy. Is this to mean that murder is not any worse an offense than adultery? The answer is; ‘Yes…and no.’
All sin is equal insomuch as it keeps us from God. James is telling us that we cannot be perfect (only Christ lived without sin) and that we will all fall short of God’s law. In this respect, since we are all sinners and failures under God’s law, the nature of the offense is relevant only in the degree in which it deters us from seeking forgiveness.
On the other hand, Old Testament law does account for variable punishments dependent on the offense. (Murder for example was subject to capital punishment so long as three eye witnesses were in accord) Does this mean James is incorrect in his amalgam of offenses? I don’t think so. I believe that we must differentiate consequences as a part of self governance. Without such an ability, murderers would walk freely or shoplifters would be executed depending on which end of the spectrum the punishment is derived.
What James is reminding us of is that while it is necessary for judgment to be passed through legal code, it is not our place as individuals to judge. Only God can judge and the assumption of His will is the result of either delirium or dishonesty. We are all sinners. God has no gradient scale that we are aware of. If you have been tasked as a judge by a calling from God or otherwise, then judge according to the provision of the law. If you have not been tasked as a judge, then leave it to God and concentrate only on seeking forgiveness for your own inefficiencies.

December 2

‘I am called to live in perfect relation with God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself.’ – OC
Hey, nobody’s perfect. God understands that we are not perfect and that we WILL violate His law. There are no two ways about it. Our role here is not to attempt to live the perfect life, an unattainable goal. Our goal is to build a perfect relationship with God.
I am reminded of the Pharisees here. In claiming to have achieved a life strictly according to God’s law (which again, is impossible) the focus bred in others is not on God, but on you.
Conversely, if I strive for a perfect relationship with God, and allow that relationship to actively define my actions and example, I stand a better chance of living out God’s law to the best of my ability while still allowing Christ to be showcased in me for others.
OC writes that ‘God is not perfecting me to be a specimen for His showroom; He is getting me to the place where He can use me.’
Wise words, Mr. Chambers.

December 3

 ‘And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power.’ 1 Corinthians 2:4
We are a creation which strives to see patterns in everything around us. Everything we learn is by association of some pattern or another. The fact that our brains seem to be predisposed to pattern recognition is not so shocking when we realize that patterns pervade the very fabric of creation. Scientists, for example, have come to reconcile science and Christian faith through the recognition that such an abundance of uniform patterns, found in everything from microscopic life to astronomy, would be statistically improbable to occur without intervention from a creative force.
The linear configuration of our world helps to keep creation simple enough for the human brain to comprehend. Through patterns we also come to know God. Please keep in mind that patterns include, but are not limited to those observed with the five senses as well as those experienced through events and behavior. Thus, it seems natural for us to share our spiritual experiences with others in the form of patterns, or correlations, as well.

December 4, Part 2

Unfortunately, the fact that we are biologically conditioned to recognize patterns does not mean that we interpret them correctly all of the time. Remember that our abilities are limited and as human, fallible. Often the patterns we see in causal relationships are false. We make spurious correlations for both good and bad.
Doing so is of course an attempt to understand the world around us. We don’t touch a red burner on a stove because we associate it with heat. On the other hand, we may say to ourselves following a loss of someone dear to us, ‘This happened as some form of punishment for me.’ So, you can see the danger in placing our understanding of existence solely in our power to interpret patterns or correlations.
OC talks today very specifically about making sure that we place our faith in a relationship with Christ for this very reason. We must understand that our Christ’s love for us does not change and that events that happen around us or to us do not always directly involve us. Remember that being a Christian does not absolve us from the brokenness of this world.
Thus, it is very important that when in ministry we do not fall into the trap of faith based on ‘testimony’. Christ does great works through us. That much is undeniable. However, a faith based on what Christ ‘does’ for us is no more likely to succeed than a marriage based on what a spouse ‘does’ for us. This is a shallow relationship that is likely to change with new encounters.
Instead, build your house on the rock of solid faith in Christ. A faith which will not shift when the storms blow the sand from other’s foundations.

December 4

‘Life without war is impossible, either in nature or grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.’ – OC
Entropy. I remember the lesson in junior high science class in which the subject was introduced by Mr. Germer as, ‘We’re all born to die.’ OC notes that everything external of our physical lives is designed to expedite our death. Is this an overly negative view? Perhaps, but it is admittedly an honest one.
Rather than focus on the doom and gloom, OC reminds us that we are to balance our external assaults with exercises in vitality. Physically speaking, this would consist of exercise and healthy eating. Spirituality and morality are no different. You get what you put in. Virtue is not latent, it is acquired.
The concept of spiritual and moral virtue is more difficult to grasp, perhaps due to the non-physical nature of the attributes. We can see that eating more pie in November and December lead to unwanted pot-bellies in January. It is more difficult to see that watching pornography or being physically abusive correlate directly with our jaded, self-centered view of the world.
A lot has been said about what type of things Christians should NOT be doing as they pursue morality and spirituality. The unfortunate truth is that if you are not cloistered, it is unlikely in our modern society, that such things can be avoided. Instead, I’d like to take a moment to hit on the things that we CAN do to strengthen virtue. We can pray at any opportunity. We can help others, either strangers or loved ones. We can be proactive in our communities and loving in our families. We can study and we can confer with fellow Christians. We can live our lives without shame in the understanding that we are imperfect creations who are subject to the redemption on Christ. We can accept our consequences honestly and allow God to show us the way to improve through our failures.
Again, I am reminded of my favorite lyrics by the band DC Talk. “What if I stumble? What if I fall? What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all? Will the love continue, when the walk becomes a crawl?”
In short, nothing worth having comes without effort. The nature of our creation requires that we fight daily against the entropy of this world spiritually, physically and morally. Per OC, “Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.”

December 5

‘”Work out your own salvation.” I am responsible for doing it. It means that I have to manifest in this body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mystically, but really and emphatically.’ – OC
Accountability. As a parent, I preach this word over and over. I have come to understand what accountability means for my kids through my expectations of them. Somehow, inadvertently, I also came to understand what accountability means for me as well.
It isn’t easy being accountable. It means I have to accept the consequences of my behavior, for better or worse. It means being able to review my successes and failures in an honest context and then answering for them to those whom depend on me. Easier said than done. It is difficult to disappoint people I care about, but it is even more difficult to admit my responsibility in that disappointment.
As temples for the Holy Spirit, we are called to be accountable ALL the time. I think that this presents a greater challenge than just being accountable with others. We are accountable to others for our actions. Actions, being external in nature, represent a relatively miniscule amount of our being in comparison to our internal thoughts and struggles.
In other words, we have to be accountable to God. If we are dishonest in our internal interpretation of our daily trials, we move further from the relationship that God intends. Moreover, such dishonesty creates emotional and mental ‘baggage’ that clutters our temple. The Holy Spirit can no more move freely in a messy temple than we can navigate freely in a messy house.
Integrity is found in what we do when no one is looking.

December 6

 ‘I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the Earth.’ – Genesis 9:13
I remember distinctly, a hot summer afternoon when I was about eight or nine years old. I was watering the garden with the enthusiasm that is expected of a boy who is doing a chore when he’d rather be playing. As the water poured out of the hose, I looked up at Heaven and said, ‘God, if you really exist, make the water from my hose hang in mid-air!’ Guess what…nothing happened.
When I look back on that episode now, I can only laugh. I mean, how childish was the expectation I had? Of course God was there. Why did I expect Him to amuse me just to prove His existence when the proof of His existence was right there in front of me in the form of His beautiful creation in each flower that was being unceremoniously doused with cold hose-water?
As juvenile as this episode is, I wonder how much of our adult faith is issued in challenge to God? ‘If you help me get this job, I’ll know you’re really there?’ ‘If you were really there, why would you have let me get a flat tire on the highway at midnight?’ This reciprocal relationship we ask of God is yet another example of our self-centered view of this world. Not only do we believe that God’s will is always discernable, but we seem to think that it is also malleable to fit our own whims.
What’s more, when we express a demand for God to ‘prove’ Himself in order to ‘win’ our faith, we are in essence asking Him to come to us. God already did that in the form of His Son Jesus the Christ. He came to us when He made the covenant with Noah in the form of the rainbow after the flood. He came to us in the form of the covenant with Abraham. The signs of God’s covenant with Man are evident throughout the bible.
If we are to grow our faith in God, then we must meet Him halfway. When we accept the responsibility of being a temple for the Holy Spirit we are accepting the responsibility for growing our faith. We no longer need signs and miracles to sustain us, we come to trust and accept God’s will for what it is. We, as primarily physical creations, nurture our spiritual expression to meet God, just as He, primarily a spiritual being nurtures His physical creation.

December 7

 ‘The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about.’ – OC
What does it mean to be convicted of sin? According to OC it is ’the threshold of an understanding of God.’ It is what separates remorse from repentance.
I believe WE must be readied for the forgiveness of Christ our sins in four stages.
The first stage is to be convicted of our sin. To be convicted of sin is to take ownership of it. To understand that we have not followed God’s law and have in fact, broken it. The ownership of our failures regarding God’s law helps us to place value on keeping it. (Imagine each of your sins constituting hammer blows on the nails as they crucify Jesus) This is why He atoned for us. My sin has cost Him thus.
Secondly, we must repent of our sins. It is true that Jesus came as a living sacrifice so that we can be clean in our relationship with Him. Unfortunately, this sacrifice did not dissolve sin in the world. Each of our sins is new and oft repeated. We are imperfect and as such are prone to breaking God’s law repeatedly. Let me be clear in that we must repent daily.
Thirdly, we must change the way in which we live. Forgiveness is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card. OC notes that conscious repentance will produce an unconscious holiness. This is true because if we are truly penitent daily, we are reminded of what God’s law requires of us. It is always at the forefront of our minds and exhibited in our actions. Thus, as in anything, external actions lead to internal changes. Our conscious repentance produces unconscious holiness. It is at this point that we find we have changed. It is at this point that Christ is evident in us to others.
Finally, we must accept forgiveness. We must remember that we are destitute and can offer God nothing comparable to what He has given us. We must lower ourselves in humility to Him only. By asking for His forgiveness, we are absolved of our sins and made pure enough to be in His presence. If we are absolved of our sins, we must let them go. The forgiven person does not dwell on past sins because they are invalid following forgiveness from God.
It strikes me just how powerful forgiveness is. Not only does forgiveness allow me to live again for eternity with God, but it also gives me new life here on Earth. It gives me the confidence to approach all obstacles in life with vigor and worthiness because I know that I have already been convicted in the presence of the most holy and He has forgiven me.

December 8

‘For by one offering He hath perfected them that are sanctified.’ – Hebrews 10:14
The power of Christ’s Atonement for Man’s sins on the Cross cannot be understated. His sacrifice is the sole reason that we are forgiven. As stated by OC, ‘Through the Cross, Christ has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.’ The Cross has given life to Man in a world where all else is death.
However sin, being self-centric in nature, will even try to pervert this truth by a spurious association of our own feelings of guilt in relation to our sin.
It seems to be a common misconception that we are forgiven because we feel sorry for our sins. To make personal guilt and accountability the sole requisite to forgiveness is to deny the miracle of Christ’s sacrifice. The Atonement is the ONLY act that reinstates us to God. Repentance is simply our response to being convicted of sin.
So, what about repentance? Is it unnecessary to repent of our sins since the gift of forgiveness has already been given for all time?
No. Repentance is necessary. Failing to do so produces barriers in us, which keep us from God. Repentance reminds us daily of God’s law and (hopefully) prevents us from continuing to be in conflict with it. Furthermore, repentance is necessary in order to keep our Temples clean. Remember that the Holy Spirit cannot move about freely in our cluttered Temples any more than we can move about freely in a cluttered house.
Repentance is the product of our acceptance of our own fallibility and the desire to make a worthy home for Christ in our hearts. Once we have given Christ quarter, it is difficult to not abide His law. Forgiveness is not contingent on repentance, but a right relationship with Christ is.
God’s power of forgiveness transcends Earthly judgments or even Man’s inadequacies. He has forgiven the murderer the same as the pious man. His forgiveness is an outreach into a troubled physical world. Repentance is Man’s expression of his desire to reach back.

December 9

‘It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought.’ – OC
Sin is not a natural byproduct of the physical world. It is the result of Man’s own brokenness, and as I’ve noted before, can be traced back to its basic components in the fall from grace of Lucifer. All sin is in some sort, an expression of our notion that we are better than God. Conversely, the beauty of humility before God is in the assertions that not only are we not better than Him, but on the contrary are destitute and have nothing to offer Him of value other than our reciprocated love.
Jesus said, “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself.” It seems counter-intuitive that the marginalization of the ego would produce a creation more equipped to succeed, but in Christ this is precisely the case. When we deny ourselves, we avoid our own selfish desires and can experience the natural world through Christ’s example despite our brokenness.
Furthermore, denial of the self in conjunction with the acceptance of Christ provides more confidence over the natural world. We have all sinned and in that sense, we have all played our part in the crucifixion of Christ. Yet, God forgives us still. If God, who is greater than all things in this world, has forgiven us, how can we continue to judge ourselves harshly? Given this information, how can we continue to be sensitive to the opinions of our peers?
Please note however, that we must sacrifice our whole selves in pursuit of the relationship with Christ. We cannot pick and choose those behaviors which we want to get rid of or keep. Christ sacrificed His whole self, and we are called to do the same.
We are a unique creation. We live in the natural, physical world and yet are also spiritual. Our God is spiritual and created the natural world in which we live. He has been manifest in our physical world, but only for the purpose of allowing us a means to enter into the spiritual world with Him. In this sense, we live in a crossroads between the physical and the spiritual world. That which is physical cannot become spiritual and that which is spiritual cannot become physical, save of course for the miracle of Jesus Christ.
In our effort to come to Christ, we must strengthen our spiritual presence through the sacrifice of our physical whims. When Christ asks that we deny ourselves, He is asking us to change our behaviors. As OC puts it at the end of today’s lesson, “It is not a question of praying, but of performing.”

December 10

 ‘Sanctification means more than the deliverance of sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved to God, and that I do not care what it costs.’ – OC
Yesterday I left the devotional with the thought that God demands action more than prayer. OC’s discussion today of sanctification provides a further explanation of this fact. A prayer without sacrifice amounts to little more than paying lip service to God.
   OC uses the example of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son, Ishmael. Ishmael was born out of wedlock, to a bondmaid. He was, in contrast to Isaac, a representation of Abraham’s failure to obey God’s law. As a result, Abraham was asked to sacrifice Ishmael before he could offer Isaac. Abraham could not enter into a spiritual relationship with God until he had sacrificed his sin to God.
   The sacrifice of sin is an interesting concept. Sacrifice, of course means to give something up or to refrain from something. The sacrifice of sin is separate from being convicted in sin in the regard that to be convicted of sin is simply to accept responsibility for our failure to keep God’s law.
   Sacrifice of sin is a physical act of restraint. It is a promise we make to God and live up to every day. If we fail to live up to the promise, then we have not given God our sin and it is thus not sacrificed. To sacrifice our sins is to also be absolved of them. God accepts our sacrifice and forgives us our conviction, thus making us to be pure enough to enter into a spiritual relationship with Him.
   Sacrifice of sin requires discipline. We must discipline ourselves in order to avoid a backslide of our behavior into sin. Failure to maintain discipline produces a mockery of the spiritual life in the natural life. It produces hypocrisy and threatens to not only devalue our relationship with God, but also to discredit our witness of God to other’s who see how we behave.
   Furthermore, in failing to keep the sacrifice of our sin, we exhibit a lack of trust, or faith, in God’s ability to provide for us and to guide us. We are honoring our own selfish desires and selfish behaviors over what God can do for us. Whatever purpose our behavior is meant to fulfill can surely be filled in a better way by what God can do for us in a faithful relationship.
   Finally, just as Abraham was called to sacrifice the body of Ishmael, so too are we called to sacrifice our bodies to Christ. The concept of the body being a temple for the Holy Spirit implies that we are asking God to allow us to be a vessel for His will. When we sin, we are not practicing the will of God and are in fact perverting His relationship with us. The commitment to a relationship with God is not to be taken any more nonchalantly than a relationship with a spouse.