Don't Throw Rocks, Let Jesus Shine

My Utmost For His Highest

 

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power… —1 Corinthians 2:4

 

“Take care to see while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, that you yourself are rooted and grounded by faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your presentation, but as you give your explanation make sure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in people.[…] If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith. But nothing can ever change God or the reality of redemption. Base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God Himself. Once you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God disapproves of our human efforts to cling to the concept that sanctification is merely an experience, while forgetting that even our sanctification must also be sanctified (see John 17:19). I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.” CHAMBERS

 

I am sure you have heard “Physician health thyself.”  It is all too easy to fall into the trap of seeing the wrong in others and wanting to “fix” them, all the while, our spiritual life is a mess.  Jesus said, “Before you remove the speck from your Brother’s eye, first remove the beam from your own.  (Matthew 7:3-5) I tell people, and you are people so I guess I am telling you, the spec is nothing more than a reflection of the beam.  Psychologists call it “projection”, where you project what is wrong with you onto someone else, because it is easier to deal with, and somehow in fixing them, you fix yourself.  Sounds crazy doesn’t it?  The truth is that we must lay ourselves down before the Lord, and let Him heal us.  Rather than preach at people, we should show people Jesus by the way we live and treat others.  That is not to say we should not share the truth with people, but we should not sit in judgement when we do.  People need Jesus not merely  a revelation from us about what is wrong with them and how they should not be that way.  He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. (John 8:7)  ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

With Jesus, One Is Not The Loneliest Number

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect… —Philippians 3:12

 

“God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. […] How can we say, “It could never be God’s will for me to be sick”? If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son (Isaiah 53:10), why shouldn’t He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained devotion to Him whether you are well or sick. Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. […] I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.” CHAMBERS

 

(John 17: 20-23)  “[Jesus] I pray also for those who will believe in me through their [disciples] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  To be one with the Father, with Jesus, and with other Christians.  One in Spirit, one in purpose.  We get so focused on us and our individual, day to day existence and the challenges those days bring that we can lose sight of the context of our new birth.  We are saved by His grace and reborn into His purpose.  We are to lift Jesus up so that all men (people) will be drawn to Him and find eternal life.  Are we to turn from sin, yes.  Are we to reject love for the world and the things of this world, yes.  But those things will happen as we draw close to the Father and become one with the Father and the Son.  We may have a heart for obedience, but the strength for obedience comes from God, not from our resolve. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

How To Be Right - Do Right - And Stay Right

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. —James 2:10

 

“The moral law does not consider our weaknesses as human beings; in fact, it does not take into account our heredity or infirmities. It simply demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never changes, either for the highest of society or for the weakest in the world. It is enduring and eternally the same. The moral law, ordained by God, does not make itself weak to the weak by excusing our shortcomings. It remains absolute for all time and eternity […] the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a person gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Christ remains absurd to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful, confining sense of the law. It makes a person hopeless— “…sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). I, a guilty sinner, can never work to get right with God— it is impossible. There is only one way by which I can get right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the underlying idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience. Who of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!”  CHAMBERS

 

God never changes.  That is something that we count on.  The way to eternal life is Jesus.  What if God decided to change His mind and only those that could live without sin by  their own effort could be saved?  What would be your destination be?  I know what mine would be and it would not be good.  The point in our lives that we understand that we are sinners and we need a savior is a spiritual event.  That truth never changes.  In Christ, we have a capacity to obey God.  Without Christ, we do not.  God prefers obedience to sacrifice, but the kind of obedience He wants springs out of a spiritual relationship that is established through His Son and confirmed by His Spirit.  Have you ever carried something with someone and for whatever reason, they stopped lifting.  Suddenly you were trying to lift the load by yourself and it was too much.  That is the way it is with trying to be righteous .. to be right .. to do right … to stay right  … on your own.  You cannot no matter how hard you try.  If you could do it on your own, Jesus could have stayed in heaven.  But you can’t and He didn’t.  Philippians 2:6-11 “ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 

Trying to be good – good enough – is a viscous cycle.  You try to be good, you sin, you try harder, you sin, and then perhaps you stop trying and accept your sin as inescapable.  So you live with guilt and a hollow form of the Christian life.  John 14:6 “[Jesus] is the way and truth and life.  No one comes to the Father except by [Him].”  That includes by your determined effort to be righteous on your own.  The closer you draw to the Lord the better you understand your absolute dependence upon Him.  Galatians 2:20 “[You] are crucified with Christ, nevertheless [you] live.  Yet not [you] but Christ in [you].  And the life that [you] now live, [you] live by faith in the Son who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  You cannot live your new life on your own.  You will never overcome your sin nature on your own.  Psalm 121:1-2  “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth”  ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

Keeping In Mind That God Knows You Have Value

My Utmost For His Highest

 

By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain… —1 Corinthians 15:10

 

“We say things such as, “Oh, I shouldn’t claim to be sanctified; I’m not a saint.” But to say that before God means, “No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are opportunities I have not had and so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.” That may sound wonderfully humble to others, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.[…] There is only one relationship that really matters, and that is your personal relationship to your personal Redeemer and Lord. If you maintain that at all costs, letting everything else go, God will fulfill His purpose through your life.”  CHAMBERS

 

I had a friend, who has since passed on, who would get upset if someone said “I am not worthy.”  Meaning they had no value.  He would reply, “Because of sin you may not be deserving of the grace that has been shown to you through Jesus, but you were of so much value to God that Jesus went to the cross to die for you.  Don’t say you are not worth it.”  That truth escapes many Christians.  In our sinful condition, God could have no part of us.  But because of Jesus, well perhaps this verse says it better.  (1 John 3:1-2) “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him..”

 

Remembering that fact each day and acting on it is every Christian’s challenge.  Our spiritual nature should be primary in our day to day living.  If we are  to fulfill the purpose God has for us, then we must reprioritize our lives.  A spiritually focused life requires discipline .. determination … intentionality.  Spiritual maturity doesn’t happen on its own.  (Joshua 1:8) “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

 

If you are reading this, perhaps you are already practicing that discipline, perhaps not.  But if you are then let serve as a reminder to encourage someone else. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

To Do Good You Must First Be Good - That Starts In The Heart

My Utmost For His Highest

 

…being justified freely by His grace… —Romans 3:24

 

“We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of ourselves. We must enter into His kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are “rich,” particularly in the area of pride or independence, God can do nothing for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is placed and made effective in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, making us truly alive. He takes that which was “beyond” us and places it “within” us. And immediately, once “the beyond” has come “within,” it rises up to “the above,” and we are lifted into the kingdom where Jesus lives and reigns (see John 3:5).”  CHAMBERS

 

When it comes to “doing” most of us prefer to do whatever it is we are going to do, ourselves.  At the inception of our new life in Christ is grace, not self-effort. (Ephesians 2:8-10) “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Our salvation is not something we did. It is supernatural.  Yet, verse 10 says we were created for good works.  So here is what I believe.  Our old nature is sinful and can offer nothing to the world or to our Father in heaven that has any eternal value.  If you are trying to be good or do good by the power of your will … you are going to fail.  The wrong thinking is that by doing right I will be right.  The correct thinking is that by being right, I will do right.  In Philippians 3:8-9, Paul wrote “ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”  There is nothing we can do that will make us right with God.  Nothing that we can do that will “make Him happy”.  We have nothing to offer except what He desires the most .. the devotion of our hearts.

 

God can and will use us for His glory, but many times people use Him for their own glory.  (Matthew 6:2) “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”  Anything that you do in the name of Jesus by the power of Spirit, is for the glory of God, the Father.  I am sure you have heard the saying, “don’t shoot the messenger”.  We are all messengers. And in the same way, don’t give the messenger credit for something that God has done.  I can offer nothing … I can do nothing on my own… that has eternal value … anything that comes from my old nature.  And I cannot take credit for anything that springs out of my new nature.  So my point.  Stop trying to do good (it only leads to hypocrisy) and, instead, be good.  If you want to make a difference in this world, if you want to please the Father, it starts in the heart.  ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

How To Live In This World And Not Get Muddy

My Utmost For His Highest

 

…by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. —Galatians 6:14

 

“Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power.[…] The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (see John 17:16). We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part.”  CHAMBERS

 

Jesus did not separate Himself from sinners, but ministered to those that would receive the Truth.  The Pharisees and other religious leaders who criticized Jesus were sinners as well, but they would not receive the Truth.  So fast forward to today.  Can you walk through a mud puddle and not get muddy?  Can you live amongst non-Christians and not get drawn back to the world you were saved from?  The answer is, it depends.  It depends upon the strength of your faith .. the strength of your relationship with God.  Many Christians are convinced that they will be the ones who will sway the lives of their unsaved friends, when, in my experience, it is the Christian who is swayed.  Why?  Because the Christian is more committed to their friends than to the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 15:33) “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.””  I have known a number of Christian women who convinced themselves that they could influence the unsaved man they wanted to marry.  I cannot think of one success story.

 

When Jesus said that we must pick up our cross and follow Him.  When Paul wrote that we must offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices.  When Jesus said you must love God more than anything or anyone else … this is what they were talking about.  If you hear the truth of God and feel resentful or resistant toward it .. like you know better … be alert!  That is your flesh .. your old nature .. not the Spirit in you.  The Spirit is always in agreement with the Truth.  You are in the world .. not so you can be a friend of the world … but so you can be a beacon of light to point people to Jesus.  Should you love your unsaved friends? Absolutely.  Should you spend time with your friends? Yes.  Should you participate in their sin to gain their approval?  What do you think?  ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

 

Charley Elgin

We All Have A Sermon To Preach

My Utmost For His Highest

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14

“Most of us are not consistent spiritually because we are more concerned about being consistent externally. […] The great basis of his [Paul’s] consistency was the agony of God in the redemption of the world, namely, the Cross of Christ. State your beliefs to yourself again. Get back to the foundation of the Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it. In secular history the Cross is an infinitesimally small thing, but from the biblical perspective it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the Cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will have no power. However, when we preach the Cross, the energy of God is released. “…it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.…we preach Christ crucified…” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23).”  CHAMBERS

What? You say “I am not a preacher so this does not apply to me.”  Your life is a sermon.  Your life is to be a proclamation of a sinner reborn by faith in Jesus and the Cross.  Romans 10:9 says that salvation comes by believing that Jesus is Lord, that God, the Father, has established Jesus the Son as Lord of all and that God raised Jesus from the dead after Jesus paid the penalty for our sin on the cross and died for us.  Through our re-birth – which is spiritual – there is, or should be, a change in us.  The old things, the love of this world and the things of this world, the things we once did that do not honor God, pass away, (2 Corinthians 5:17) and our lives change.  People see the change in us.  They notice it and wonder what has happened.  And we must always be ready to share what has happened to us (1 Peter 3:15).  That is our sermon.

I can remember when my mom became a Christian.  The four older children, there are seven and I the youngest of the oldest four, saw the change, but we didn’t believe it was real.  We knew what our mom had been like in the past, and thought that what we were seeing in her, the change, would not .. could not last for long.  Before she would get very angry, yell at us and cuss like a sailor.  But out skepticism proved to be wrong.  We could see the change in her, but our problem was that we had no spiritual understanding.  Each of the four of us (actually all seven) eventually put our faith in Jesus as well.  Our mom lived for Jesus, she had feet of clay, but she loved the Lord and His Word.  My point in sharing this is that there should be a change in our behavior .. in the core of our being. It is not because we are acting differently, but because we different.  And that difference is happening from the inside out.   So what is your sermon like?  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Charley Elgin