Blessing Follows Obedience .. Obediance Follows Faith

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Arise from the dead… —Ephesians 5:14

 

“We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead….” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead…,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.”  CHAMBERS

 

Blessing follows obedience, not the other way around.  There is something called “foxhole religion”.  It originated with soldiers in a foxhole, facing death, promising God that if He would only save them from death, that they would follow Him. The trouble is, God sees the heart of man, and does not merely listen to words spoken.  We cannot live any way that we want and then pray, “God get me out of this jam!”  with no true intent to change the way we live.  God blesses us as we obey Him.  Jesus said to the man “Stretch out your hand.”  Anyone could have said that .. “Let me see your hand” … but Jesus spoke with supernatural authority.  The man had to have faith and more than that, he had to act on that faith.  And when he did, (Matthew 12:14) “So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.”  The focus on or context of these passages is Jesus being tested and healing on the Sabbath.  It is easy to overlook the man who was healed.  Obedience begins in the heart . .with a right attitude toward God … followed by obedience … choosing God and rejecting the world … trusting God and not yourself … serving others and not yourself … (John 7:38) “Whoever believes in me (Jesus), as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  James said “Faith without works is dead.”  Works are a result of faith and obedience.  That is the way it works Christian, so stretch out your hand and let the river flow.  ELGIN

 

“River of Life”

 

“I’ve got a river a life flowin’ out of me.  Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see.  Opens prison doors, sets the captives free.  I’ve got a river of live flowin’ out of me.

 

Spring up oh well and cleanse my soul.  Spring up oh well and make me whole.  Spring up oh well and give to me, that life abundantly”

 

Charley Elgin

Discipleship Is More Than Words . .It's Living Proof Of The Truth

My Utmost For His Highest

 

None of us lives to himself… —Romans 14:7

 

“Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible spiritually to God for other people? For instance, if I allow any turning away from God in my private life, everyone around me suffers. […] If you allow physical selfishness, mental carelessness, moral insensitivity, or spiritual weakness, everyone in contact with you will suffer. […] “You shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). How many of us are willing to spend every bit of our nervous, mental, moral, and spiritual energy for Jesus Christ? That is what God means when He uses the word witness. […] Why has God left us on the earth? Is it simply to be saved and sanctified? No, it is to be at work in service to Him. Am I willing to be broken bread and poured-out wine for Him? Am I willing to be of no value to this age or this life except for one purpose and one alone— to be used to disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. My life of service to God is the way I say “thank you” to Him for His inexpressibly wonderful salvation.”  CHAMBERS

 

As a Christian, you are on a stage and the world is watching.  In Romans chapter 11, Paul said that the Gentile Christians should make the nation of Israel envious.  How?  The way the Gentile  Christians live and treat others, their relationship with God through Jesus,  is be a beacon of light that shines on the Messiah, the One they rejected. It reveals a life that they, themselves had an opportunity to experience.  But that is only if the Gentile Christians are living faithfully and fulfilling their purpose in Christ.  If a Christians is living in a way the reflects the world there is no spiritual attraction.  I was thinking about my mom after she became a Christian.  My sisters and I were skeptical about her “conversion”.  We had grown up with the unsaved mom, and knew what a terror she could be.  So we waited, watching, expecting the “old” mom to rise up once again.  But she didn’t.  Our testimony should begin at home.  People, who pretend to be spiritual, tend to let their “spiritual guard” down when they are home.  The problem is, their children and or spouse are watching.  It’s like when my dad told me to not ever smoke, as he puffed on a cigarette.

 

Making disciples is not just reading scripture to someone.  It is living life that reflects the scripture.  Do you lie in front of your children?  Do you allow things into your home through your TV or computers that are contrary to the Word of God.  Permitting those you are to be discipling to see and hear them.  If you say nothing you are giving your approval of what is seen or said.  Dr. James Dobson said, some years back, values are not taught, they are caught.  Do you know what happens when you lie to others because it is convenient at the time, you are teaching your children to lie and causing them to question your faith.  How often have you said, “tell them I am busy or not here”  which is a lie.  What you meant was “I don’t want to talk to them, but I don’t want to tell them that.”  You have discipled your children, but in the wrong way.  That does not point them to Jesus and a life lived in the power of the Spirit.  (Numbers 23:19) “God is not a man, that he should lie.”  You have shown them the way of the devil lived in the power of the flesh.  (John 8:44)  “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  Do you ever yell or raise your voice in anger at your children?  Do you love them?  Then you should show it. And after reading this, you need to repent, then do it.  ELGIN

 

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)   "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

 

Charley Elgin

Devotion Is Not An Attitude It Is An Action, It's More Than Words

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears." —1 Samuel 3:10

 

“Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends…” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? […] The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. […] What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. […] I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?” CHAMBERS

 

Have you ever asked your child “Are you listening to me?”  Of course they can hear you.  That is not really what you were asking.  What you were really asking was “Are you going to accept my words and obey them?”  That can be very frustrating on the part of the parent. I know.  Jesus asked (Luke 6:46) “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”  In other words, don’t play games … don’t pretend …. Loving God is more than words.  There is no eternal or present value in pretending, feigning spirituality.  You may have cancer but pretend you don’t.  Pretending doesn’t change the facts and doesn’t remove the pain.   (John 14:23-26)  “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.””

 

The Holy Spirit is an advocate for God in our lives.  It’s His voice that we hear .. not audibly .. but in the inner man.  And if we are not listening to the Spirit, it’s a love and devotion problem.  Samuel was eager to hear from God and then obeyed what he heard.  We are not always so anxious to obey.  Why?  Because we lack devotion to God.  Devotion is not a desire to do the right thing .. it is doing the right thing.  Every day we face opportunities .. opportunities to hear God’s voice and opportunities to walk in the light. Because of our nature, we need to be encouraged to do that.  Be encouraged! (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22) “Do not quench the Spirit;  do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”  ELGIN

 

“More Than Words”

 

“Sayin' I love you Is not the words I want to hear from you It's not that I want you Not to say it, but if you only knew

 

How easy it would be to show me how you feel More than words is all you have to do to make it real Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me Cause I'd already know”

Charley Elgin

Searching For Satisfaction? Look To The Hills

My Utmost For His Highest

 

They said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." —Exodus 20:19

 

“We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God— we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them— not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.[…] we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God’s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, “Well, that’s only your own idea, even though I don’t deny that what you said is probably God’s truth.”  CHAMBERS

 

What is it that causes us to love something or someone?  To want to give our life’s devotion and trust to it?  What is it that causes us to turn to something or someone else.  It is a choice we make.  I believe that we believe we can find greater satisfaction in the new something or that new someone.  When we are born again, we find ourselves in a place where we can find no greater satisfaction.  God is sufficient to meet all of our needs.  But that doesn’t prove to be sufficient does it?  Our wants rise up.  Our fears creep in.  And we turn from God and seek satisfaction from another source.  Ourselves, the world.  Our hearts are divided in their devotion.  When God said “you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20), He was saying that we should look to Him as the source of our satisfaction in life.  Instead we live a life of feigned spirituality while we struggle in our vain quest to find satisfaction elsewhere.  Even that “form of godliness”  is evidence that we have abandoned our “first” love.  We think we can deceive others when it is God who sees the heart. Our focus turns from God to other gods as the source that will meet our needs.   Friend this is a persistent problem for us, which is why God has spoken to it so often in the Bible. What are you facing today that causes you to turn your eyes to something or someone else other than your father in heaven?  I want to encourage you to stop what you are doing and “look to the hills”.   ELGIN

 

(Psalm 121) “ I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”  (my grandmother’s favorite psalm)

 

Charley Elgin

When Did You Last Clean Your Glasses?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things… —Isaiah 40:26

 

The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. […] The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need.“  CHAMBERS

 

We must be careful that we don’t accept a form of godliness in the place of true godliness.  One of the things that Martie must constantly remind me of is to clean my glasses.  I really don’t remember smudging them with my fingers, but by the evidence of my fingerprints on the lenses, I do, and frequently apparently. So I clean my glasses and viola, I can see clearly.  Well, in a similar way, our lives become smudged in the course of our living with the fingerprints of the world and sin. So we no longer see clearly.  The funny thing about my glasses, my eyes adjust to the smudges, and I don’t realize that I am having a harder time seeing.  It takes someone else to make me aware that my glasses are dirty.  And so it is with life.  We adjust and accept something that is not spiritually normal as normal.  Until we are reminded that “our glasses need to be cleaned” by another saint or better yet, by the Holy Spirit and the Word. 

 

So accept this as a reminder.  Oh, I must add that I don’t always want to clean my glasses when I am reminded.  My flesh rises up in resistance to be told there is something wrong .. crazy isn’t it.  Why would I not want to accept help to be better?  The answer lies in my old, sinful nature.  (Psalm 119:105) (KJV)  “Thy Word is a light unto my path, and a lamp unto my feet”  My encouragement to you is .. check your glasses … as a reminder to me, I have placed a cleaning cloth next to my computer so each morning before I begin the day, I clean my glasses.  Start your day with clean glasses and a clean heart.  And see where the path leads you.  ELGIN

 

Charley Elgin

Don't Set Your Mind On Earthly Things, But On Jesus Christ

My Utmost For His Highest

 

The everlasting God…neither faints nor is weary. —Isaiah 40:28

 

“Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17). […] Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? […] Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. […]remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7).”  CHAMBERS

 

Have you ever been carrying something with another person and then, for some reason, they stopped lifting?  Suddenly you felt the full weight of the thing you were carrying.  That is what it is like in our spiritual walk.  Being a Christian is a spiritual existence.  We are able to be and do, not by our own power but by the power of God in us.  When we try to be and do that which should be spiritual by our own strength and effort, we will exhaust ourselves and utterly fail.  The load is too heavy for us to carry on our own.  (John 4:32-34) “Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”  But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  The disciples were focused on the physical, but Jesus was focused on the spiritual.  That is never more evident in us, there is no clearer picture of this, than on Sunday morning at 12:00.  The service is over .. or buddy it better be .. and the people are ready to get out of there and get something to eat.  It’s as if they are thinking “Well the spiritual stuff is done, now I need to get on with things and satisfy my flesh.”  How is it that we can be so spiritual at one minute and be upset because the service ran long the next minute?  Somehow I don’t think that pleases God, but I can’t tell you how many times I have spoken at a church in the U.S. only to be told beforehand to be careful to not go over time.  What?!?!?

 

Why do I make a point of that?  Because it speaks to how divided we are .. how focused we are on our flesh …. even on Sunday at worship … I can tell you, that was never a problem in Haitian churches.  They live a simple life and have a simple faith.  Worship is everything .. time is nothing.  Perhaps the church in the United States could and should learn something from them.  One might say, ‘Well, they don’t have anything better to do’.  And I would say we don’t have anything ‘better’ to do than to worship our creator and be fed spiritually either. (Philippians 3:18-20) “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ”    ELGIN

 

Charley Elgin

How To Live The Sanctified Life

My Utmost For His Highest

 

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely… —1 Thessalonians 5:23

 

“When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? […] Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? […] Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.[…] Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him.”  CHAMBERS

 

There are two parts of sanctification.  The first is at the point of salvation, when you are sanctified – “set apart – declared holy  ”  by the work of the Spirit and your faith in Jesus.  Both aspects of sanctification require your submission to God.  The first was the point where you confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.  The second is a daily progression of yielding your will to God’s will.  Becoming one with Jesus.  Choosing obedience to the Father’s will and rejecting the will of your flesh – your old nature.  Satan would have you focus on your failures and not your faith.  Convince you that you will never overcome the demons that haunt your life.  That you will never be the person that you know you should be – that you want to be.  The truth of the matter is that you can’t be that person by trying more – but by trying less.  You were first sanctified by faith, not by works.  You are called to live by faith and not by sight (or works).  Sanctification is a supernatural phenomenon.  You yield your life and the Spirit does the work.  You could not be righteous through self-effort before you were born again and you cannot be more righteous through self-effort now. ELGIN

 

“Purify My Heart”  Maranatha Music

 

Purify my heart Touch me with Your cleansing fire Take me to the cross Your holiness is my desire

 

Breathe Your life in me Kindle a love That flows from Your throne Oh purify my heart Purify my heart

 

Charley Elgin