"Yesterday" by Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest.

Looking back or looking forward?

December 31

Yesterday

By Oswald Chambers

You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

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Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L

Bible in a Year: Malachi 1-4; Revelation 22

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Satanic Oppression and Satanic Accusation

 This message is published on my "going deeper with God" blog.
It will be of some interest to non Christians but only to arouse curiosity and other various thought processes.
I have put it here as I consider it an important message for Christians and has had very few views on my other site.

https://geoffthompsonstapelibrary.blogspot.com/2017/11/satanic-accusationsatanic-oppression-by.html

The attached podcast was part of a School of Prayer conducted by Frank Hunting at the Church of Christ at Grote Street Adelaide in the 1970's.
Frank was visiting the Church prior to taking up a part time appointment alongside his good friend Pastor Harold Long.
I had never heard anything like this and was privileged to sit under Frank's teaching for the next several years.
I may be able to post the whole school on this site progressively.
It was not recorded professionally but you will benefit if you concentrate on this.
I have notes on his school of prayer that compliment this podcast.
Contact me if you wish to have a copy pertaining to this subject.
Unfortunately many Christians and most non Christians are ignorant about the devil.
In this message Frank distinguishes between satanic accusation and satanic oppression.
As CS Lewis remarked, along these lines anyway in his preface to the Screwtape Letters, mankind makes 2 main mistakes about the devil.
They are either totally disbelieving about any such thing or tend to see the devil being responsible for everything that goes wrong.

Start of a Happy New Year-LOL

A friend sent me this link.

Something to brighten up your day and the new year as you explore the Carbonaro Effect.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8gxdjH3QjNU

Christmas Greetings - 2018--

At this time of year the world largely goes into a sickly sweet version of what they think Christmas is and what it means to them.
Here from Oswald Chambers is the true Christmas Message.
All the other stuff can be nice to experience but it won't prepare you or complete you for this life or the next.
I would that every one I know understand this and act on it.

His Birth and Our New Birth

By Oswald Chambers

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23

His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

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The Four Great Discoveries

People will look at this series and still deny the existing of God.

The modern equivalent of putting your head in the sand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZaBLQJ_ag

Death of a Guru

When I became a Christian in 1974 I had a voracious appetite to learn as much as I could about my new faith and the beliefs of those who challenged it.

I read the book "Death of a Guru" in about 1977 when it was first published.

It is still in print.

It opened my eyes to the spiritual world that is in opposition to Jesus.

This link is to a talk by its author.
                                            .
He was brought up a as Guru and then Jesus broke into his life.

I recommend anyone searching for truth buy the book which Rabi  mentions in this talk and please watch the video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmsAlKA8lvs

More from Oswald Chambers

December 12

Personality

By Oswald Chambers

…that they may be one just as We are one… —John 17:22

Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island in the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We don’t know the great depths of our being, therefore we cannot measure ourselves. We start out thinking we can, but soon realize that there is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator.
Personality is the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man, just as individuality is the characteristic of the outer, natural man. Our Lord can never be described in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of His total Person— “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Personality merges, and you only reach your true identity once you are merged with another person. When love or the Spirit of God come upon a person, he is transformed. He will then no longer insist on maintaining his individuality. Our Lord never referred to a person’s individuality or his isolated position, but spoke in terms of the total person— “…that they may be one just as We are one….” Once your rights to yourself are surrendered to God, your true personal nature begins responding to God immediately. Jesus Christ brings freedom to your total person, and even your individuality is transformed. The transformation is brought about by love— personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the overflowing result of one person in true fellowship with another.

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Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption

Bible in a Year: Hosea 9-11; Revelation 3

The Pilgrim's Progress.

The journey to salvation has a beginning and it is a progressive journey.
As a young child in Sunday School we had the story of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan progressive read to us each Sunday morning.
Even as a child we all had some understanding of this still wonderfully written story.
This movie adaptation I hope will whet your appetite to read the book for the first time or again after many years as I will be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faeen3y7PV0

The straight and narrow way

You can read the whole book here.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39452/39452-h/39452-h.htm 

Australia V India from my archives.

 The Australia V India test match at Adelaide oval is in it's second day.
Australia now batting.

This is a repost from 2008.

Not too many still playing now. In fact only Ishant Sharma.

Ishant Sharma was on his first tour of Australia


"Today in Melbourne the famous Boxing day test match started between India and Australia.
It is at an interesting stage at stumps with things much in the balance. Australia will have to score well tomorrow morning with the tail-enders to stay in the game in my opinion.Newcomer Ed Cowan did very well with 68 runs. I hope to get to the Adelaide test match when they play here soon. I was at the Test in Adelaide the last time India played in Australia.

These Grandstands have now been replaced

My favourite spot-the Fig Trees at Adelaide  Oval

Ishant Sharma was India's new young fast bowler on tour.

Harbajan Singh is not on this tour

Anil Kumble is also now retired

Sachin Tendulkar bowls

Trevor Jacques plays forward

Kumble bowls Jacques

Ricky Ponting plays the back cut

Matt Hayden sweeps for his Century

Hayden celebrates

Hayden celebrates

Singh bowls

Howzat?

I have included some photos from that match. A highlight being a century by the now retired Matthew Hayden.

"I set My rainbow in the cloud" from My Utmost for His Highest

 

“My Rainbow in the Cloud”

By Oswald Chambers

I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. —Genesis 9:13

It is the will of God that human beings should get into a right-standing relationship with Him, and His covenants are designed for this purpose. Why doesn’t God save me? He has accomplished and provided for my salvation, but I have not yet entered into a relationship with Him. Why doesn’t God do everything we ask? He has done it. The point is— will I step into that covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into a relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.
Waiting for God to act is fleshly unbelief. It means that I have no faith in Him. I wait for Him to do something in me so I may trust in that. But God won’t do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man must go beyond the physical body and feelings in his covenant with God, just as God goes beyond Himself in reaching out with His covenant to man. It is a question of faith in God— a very rare thing. We only have faith in our feelings. I don’t believe God until He puts something tangible in my hand, so that I know I have it. Then I say, “Now I believe.” There is no faith exhibited in that. God says, “Look to Me, and be saved…” (Isaiah 45:22).
When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of His covenant, letting everything else go, there is no sense of personal achievement— no human ingredient in it at all. Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed and radiates peace and joy.

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Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.  My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Bible in a Year: Daniel 3-4; 1 John 5

From the Wayside Chapel

Our friend Graham Long has retired from his role as the CEO of the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney.

Jon Owen is now in that role.

This is his latest message to supporters.

Don't only read this but follow the link to his recent Tedx talk.



Dear Inner Circle
What we love changes. There was a time long ago in my life when wet weather days and nights like the ones we’ve had in Sydney in the last couple days would have seen me gleefully crawling up into bed with a hot cuppa and good book, I loved them. A couple of nights ago as I walked through the building I saw a different kind of love in action, it looked like a frenzy of activity as plans were being made for the night of storms ahead. It looked like extra blankets and clothing being handed out. It looked like people sharing their “secret spots” where it was the driest and least wind exposed for sleeping. It looked like one of our regulars running around giving his mobile number out to everyone “if you get stuck call me and we can huddle together to stay warm”.  Could there be more generous acts than that? Yesterday morning after the deluge had really hit, love looked like quick access to our warm showers, dry towels, fresh clothes and hot breakfasts. Can you really imagine how hard it would be to live on the streets and not to have a roof over your head in this weather?  What I see is absolute resilience and willingness of those on the streets to help others even in the toughest times. Love looks quite different to me now and I’m a lot richer for it.
Last weekend all who have been in the building have been uplifted by a new choir practising in the building. There is a little girl who we have seen quite regularly of late and she is often dressed as a superhero. When I’ve asked who she is, she has looked at me like I must have been blind or a little slow. “I’m Woman Wonder!” For the first time, I saw little miss Wonder Woman sit still. She was truly captured by the wonder of the choir and it wasn’t just our little superhero who was dazzled, it was all of us in the room who were similarly captivated by the beautiful sounds together.
I was also recently invited to conduct a funeral service for someone from the transgender community. About 20 women and the deceased’s dog all huddled together in our chapel to mourn her passing and to pay tribute to a life lived to the full. What a character she was. There were lots of stories that were told about her life. One such colourful story recounted a time when she was asked to leave a women’s refuge when it was discovered she was running an escort agency from within it - the staff only found this out because her certificate of business registration arrived in their mail. When confronted she argued that she was running a perfectly legal social enterprise that was empowering and employing women. Did I mention that we certainly have some characters in Kings Cross? We love them all.
Just over a month ago I received the privilege of being invited to give a TEDx Talk at 1 Bligh St, it was an opportunity to share a little of what got Lisa and I started on a journey that has led us all the way to Wayside Chapel. It has not been a path marked by striving to be higher, faster and stronger, but rather an opportunity to move the other way, to be lower, slower and weaker and able to respond to the world as it is, rather than what we all expect or constantly aspire for it to be. As we move towards the silly season, I ask you to slow down and pause to really think about what things mean most to you. You can view my TEDx Talk here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0oXbuQ6WRI&t=15s


Thanks for being part of the Inner Circle.
Jon
Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel

Signs and Wonders

There is much talk about signs and wonders these days in some Christian circles.

And there are un-believers who say unless they can see God they wont believe.

This devotional from William Barclay just about says it all.

We only have to look around and breathe the air to see as much evidence as we need.

From William Barclay's daily study Bible. 

THE BLINDNESS WHICH DESIRES A SIGN (Mark 8:11-13)

8:11-13 The Pharisees came out and began to ask him questions. They were looking for a sign from heaven, and they were trying to test him. He sighed in his spirit and said to them, "Why does this generation look for a sign? This is the truth I tell you--no sign will be given to this generation." He sent them away and he again embarked on the boat, and went away to the other side.

The whole tendency of the age in which Jesus lived was to look for God in the abnormal. It was believed that when the Messiah came the most startling things would happen. Before we reach the end of this chapter we shall examine more closely, and in detail, the kind of signs which were expected. We may note just now that when false Messiahs arose, as they frequently did, they lured the people to follow them by promising astonishing signs. They would promise, for instance, to cleave the waters of the Jordan in two and leave a pathway through it, or they would promise, with a word, to make the city walls fall down.
It was a sign like that that the Pharisees were demanding. They wished to see some shattering event blazing across the horizon, defying the laws of nature and astonishing men. To Jesus such a demand was not due to the desire to see the hand of God; it was due to the fact that they were blind to his hand. To Jesus the whole world was full of signs; the corn in the field, the leaven in the loaf, the scarlet anemones on the hillside all spoke to him of God. He did not think that God had to break in from outside the world; he knew that God was already in the world for anyone who had eyes to see. The sign of the truly religious man is not that he comes to Church to find God but that he finds God everywhere, not that he makes a great deal of sacred places but that he sanctifies common places.
That is what the poets knew and felt, and that is why they were poets.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:

"Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."

Thomas Edward Brown wrote:

"A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

Rose plot,

Fringed pool,

Fern's grot--

The veriest school

Of peace; and yet the fool

Contends that God is not--

Not God! In gardens! when the eve is cool?

Nay, but I have a sign;

'Tis very sure God walks in mine."

And still another poet wrote:

"One asked a sign from God; and day by day

The sun arose in pearl; in scarlet set;

Each night the stars appeared in bright array;

Each morn the thirsty grass with dew was wet;

The corn failed not its harvest, nor the vine

And yet he saw no sign!"

From him who has eyes to see and a heart to understand, the daily miracle of night and day and the daily splendour of all common things are sign enough from God.

"The Changed Life". from todays My Utmost for His Highest

The Changed Life

By Oswald Chambers

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17

What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.

Open Invitation to Photograph Australia

As a keen photographer I enjoy following the art of many photographers around the globe through the various internet groups,blogs, youtube etc.

I love looking at places I have never been to and not likely to do so.

While I love the pics and work of many I can't help but think that I live in the best country in the world to do photography.

These are some reasons:

1. We have the most amazing light that is never clouded by smog.

2. Our colours of the natural landscape are amazing. Particular the rich reds and blues of outback Australia.

3. Australia is a relatively safe place to visit. We do have crime but not on the scale of other countries.

4. Accomodation is not expensive and there is a great variety of options.If you are coming from America the American dollar is worth more than the Australian so your money goes further.

5. Our flora and fauna is unique as part of the "separate creation" that Charles Darwin thought in terms of.

6. There are unique highways and byways to explore. Long road journeys that are a photographer's delight.

7. Amazing beaches and National Parks.

8. Picturesque and vibrant cities.

9. A place where the arts flourish.

10. Australian's unique humour and outlook on life. "She'll be right mate!"

11. Great local produce that blends in with the fare of many introduced nationalities and their culture.

Oz Asia Festival in Adelaide

12. A great sporting nation with many high achievers on the international stage.

13. Our landscape is diverse. Tropical, Rainforests,Alpine areas, Outback deserts, amazing Island destinations, long inland rivers, the home of many varieties of Eucalyptus trees.

14. Yes we do have some dangerous animals but you would be a lot safer here than Africa.

So if it's on your bucket list why don't you come.

I will point you in the right direction.

Spring time in Adelaide Again

It's springtime again in South Australia.
Some recent pics.