Choosing The Higher Ground

My Utmost For His Highest

“Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us. […] (Our) lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in (us). How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?” CHAMBERS

What is the problem?  Why must we be encouraged to live for Jesus? Why isn’t it that the day we say “yes” to Him is the day that we walk faithfully for the rest of our lives.  What I believe? Well, God created us different from every other creature .. He created us in His image.  He gave us the ability to imagine, to create, to choose.  He does not take that from us when we become Christians.  We must still choose.  If we do not strengthen ourselves spiritually, we will continue to choose poorly.  We will follow our flesh and not the Spirit.  We need to choose and then seek higher ground.  ELGIN

“Higher Ground”

“I’m pressing on the upward way, New heights I'm gaining every day

Still praying as I onward bound "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

Lord, lift me up and let me stand, By faith on heaven's table land

A higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay, Where doubts arise and fears dismay

Tho' some may dwell where these, abound My prayer, my aim is higher ground.”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Our Hope Is In Jesus - Not Our Culture

My Utmost For His Highest

“The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there. The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.” CHAMBERS

This is the time of year when all Christians should be especially aware of the sacrifice that God made for us.  I dare say that the thought does not prevail in most of our minds daily during the year.  Oh, we know Jesus was crucified for our sins, but we don’t think much about it.  We are too busy perhaps. But, it is the single most important truth about our lives.  We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Galatians 2:20 says we are crucified with Him, and we have a new life in Him.  Our old life is dead.  This new life is one that we must live by faith in Jesus.  The cross is central to our faith.  The empty tomb is our reason for hope in this life and the life to come.  Our culture has turned its back on God.  Christian practice has been diluted by the influence and embracing of that culture.  But the Cross stands.  God will not change.  His purposes will not be subverted by this culture, just as it was not by cultures in the past nor will it be by cultures in the future.  Don’t let you hope be dependent upon what you see around you .. look to the empty cross, empty tomb and a risen Savior. ELGIN

“On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand”

“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

When Words Are Not Enough

My Utmost For His Highest

“The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. […] We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. […] Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life. […] Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself.” CHAMBERS

When Jesus confronted Peter after Peter’s denial, the question put to him was “Peter do you love Me?” (John 21) In other words, “Do you love me enough to lay down your life for Me?”  Do you love Me enough to trust Me when life turns against you .. and you feel alone.  If you are a Christian, you are never alone.  Peter was put to the test when confronted by people accusing him of being a Christ follower.  Instead of standing for Jesus and trusting Him, he turned to his own abilities and did what he had to do to survive.  He abandoned Jesus.  That is the temptation that we face with every difficulty, every day.  I used to attend Christian men’s conference that were held in football stadiums.  On one side of the stadium thousands of men would yell “We love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how about you.”  And then the men on the other side of the stadium would yell the same thing.  Like Peter telling Jesus that he would never deny him.  This words were well intended .. but were being said in the company of others who followed Christ.  It is when we face life, alone, that we struggle, like Peter.  You see words are not enough … like Peter, Jesus wants us to show Him through how we live our lives. And we can do that only if we put our faith in Him and not ourselves.) (Proverbs 3:5,6)  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

It's TIme To Wash Some Dishes

My Utmost For His Highest

“Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there– the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).[…] Do you have a strange god– not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes. […] Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.” CHAMBERS

Jesus said it is not the outside of the cup that makes it unclean. Matthew 23:25-26 (CEV) “You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you’re in for trouble! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, while inside there is nothing but greed and selfishness. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of a cup, and then the outside will also be clean.”  People try to keep up appearances to impress other people, when they are struggling inside.  Christians give the appearance of holiness, but they carry around unconfessed sin that has a death grip on them.  The Spirit is not in control, their sin is.  How can this be?  We want to look good even when we are not.  We deceive ourselves.  God knows the secrets of the heart (Psalm 44:21). Examine your heart today. Don’t waste another minute living for something or someone, including yourself, rather than God.  And if the inside of your cup is clean, praise God! Be an encouragement to others by being the fragrance of Christ in this messed up culture and world. 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NASB) “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing”  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Priye, Priye, Priye - Pray, Pray, Pray For One Another

My Utmost For His Highest

“Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors– that Christ ‘always lives to make intercession’ (Hebrews 7:25), and that the Holy Spirit ‘makes intercession for the saints’? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? […]  we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.[..] If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. […] Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?” CHAMBERS

Every day we meet people who are carrying a burden or perhaps many burdens.  If we are students of the Bible, we know verses that come to mind in the course of our conversation that we often share.  Certainly the Word is good for the soul.  But we should not stop there .. although we very often do.  Cain said to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  (Genesis 4:9)  His response to God had more to do with his guilt over killing Able, but it raises an interesting question.  As Christians, what is our responsibility toward other people?  We are all called to be intercessors.  The second greatest commandment is loving your neighbor (Matthew 22).  That does not mean just having a benevolent attitude toward him.  The love of God (agape) is active not passive.  We should not just have sympathy for others, but we should intercede before God for them.  That requires discipline on our part.  We have to be disciplined to remember their burdens beyond the conversation and to take action on their behalf before the Creator God.  The God who gives comfort in the midst of our afflictions (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).  I am reminded of Pastor Bichotte, a Haitian pastor in Jacmel.  When he speaks to his congregation, almost every Sunday he will say to them “Priye, priye, priye, priye!” “Pray, pray, pray, pray!”  And I would say them same to you.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)