"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