Still Higher for His Highest - Hardcover

Oswald Chambers

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9780310224105: Still Higher for His Highest

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0310224101 ISBN 13: 9780310224105

Publisher: Zondervan Pub. House, 1970

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Oswald Chambers often spoke of our Lord as 'presenting the Truth in nugget form'; while later the apostles 'beat out the nuggets into negotiable gold.' The daily readings in this book may be regarded as nuggets of spiritual truth, to be turned into coinage for daily living. This process involves not only prayerful meditation, but as Dr. Chambers would insist, strenuous thought and spiritual concentration. Here is a worthy sequel to the devotional classic, My Utmost for His Highest. These selections from the writings of Oswald Chambers are warmly practical and deeply spiritual. They offer more than pious phrases and sweet thoughts, but actually constitute a commentary on real-life issues. A few samples . . . Faith cannot be intellectually defined; faith is the inborn captivity to see God behind everything, the wonder that keeps you an eternal child. We must learn to draw on the supernatural power of God, realizing that our enemies are supernatural, not natural; that our battling is not with difficult circumstances, it is altogether a battling that God is waging for us if we will draw on the supernatural forces. A Christian life lived on any other plane is an impossible life . . . no Christian has a right to be weak in God's strength. The Christian knows by bitter yet blessed conviction of sin that no man is sufficient for himself, and he thereby enters into identification with the cross of Calvary, and he longs and prays and works to see the sinful, self-centered world broken up and made the occasion for the mighty cross to have its way whereby men may come to God and God comes to men. Our Lord rebuked the disciples for fearing when apparently they had good reason for being alarmed. The problem is -- if Jesus Christ is only the carpenter of Nazareth, then the disciples were foolish to put Him at the tiller, but if He is the Son of God, what are they alarmed about? If Jesus Christ is God, where is my trust in Him? If He is not God, why am I so foolish as to pretend to worship

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January 1
Can You See the Highest?
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters (Psalm 18:16).
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Highest. Is there anyone else higher to you than He is? Your life is never safeguarded until Jesus is seen to be the Highest. Past experience will not keep you, neither will deliverance from sin; the only safeguarding power is The Highest. If there is a breath of confidence anywhere else, there will be disaster, and it is by the mercy of God that you are allowed to stumble, or to be pain-smitten, until you learn that He does it all—He keeps you from stumbling, He raises you up and keeps you up, He sends from above and delivers you. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling...."
Whenever there is a complication in your circumstances, do nothing until you see the Highest—not sometimes, but always (Isaiah 50:10). Can you see the Lord in your thinking? If not, suspend your judgment until you can. Can you see the face of Jesus in your affections? If not, restrain them until you can. Can you see God in your circumstances? If not, do nothing until you can. Our Lord can trust anything to the man or woman who sees Him.
January 2
Are You Succoured by the Highest?
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn (Isaiah 61: 1–2).
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose (Philippians 2:1–2).
Until a worker knows the succour of God, he is in danger of becoming a stumbling block to other souls. If we are not being succoured by the Highest, of what use can we be to those folks who are crushed by sorrows of which we know nothing? "The sacrifices of God are a broken heart" broken beyond any patching up, but—"He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted." The heart which has been bound up and succoured by the Lord Jesus Christ will never be got on the train of self-interest, there is no selfishness left in it. "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." That is the most powerful thing God can do for us. The great note of the life which is comforted of God is—"For my Lord I live; by my Lord I am strengthened, and in my Lord I am succoured."
January 3
The Greatest Good Is the Highest End
"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:11–14).
T he Shorter Catechism states, in answer to the question, "What is man's chief end?" that "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever." It is not what man puts into his body or on his body, but what he brings out of his body (Matthew 15:17–20), and what he brings out of what he puts on his body, viz., his money, that reveals what he considers his chief end. A great many people imagine they have glorified God when they have given two halfpennies for a penny, or have saved a halfpenny. The highest good to them is to keep economic relations right, the highest Good from Jesus Christ's standpoint never dawns on them. The craze to-day is that the highest good is what a man has to live on: feed him, keep his body healthy, and his moral and religious life will be all right. That is the highest good according to the standard of many. As Christians it is more important to know how to live than what to live on.

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