Today's "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers has a very vital message for born again believers!
Do You See Your Calling?
Separated unto the Gospel. — Romans 1:1
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be
proclaimers of the Gospel of God. The one thing that is all important is that
the Gospel of God should be realized as the abiding Reality. Reality is not
human goodness, nor holiness, nor heaven, nor hell, but Redemption; and the
need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker to-day. As
workers we have to get used to the revelation that Redemption is the only
Reality. Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause, and if we place our faith
in human goodness, in the effect of Redemption, we shall go under when the test
comes.
Paul did not say he separated himself, but — “when it pleased God who
separated me….” Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As
long as our eyes are upon our own personal whiteness we shall never get near
the reality of Redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their
own whiteness, and not for God. “Don’t ask me to come into contact with the
rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is;
what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own
eyes.” To talk in that way is a sign that the reality of the Gospel of God has
not begun to touch me; there is no reckless abandon to God. God cannot deliver
me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul is unconscious of
himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose — to
proclaim the Gospel of God (cf. Romans 9:3).
I LOVE this statement from the first paragraph: "Personal holiness is an effect, NOT a cause"! I have underlined it above because it is SO powerful, and so powerfully CORRECT! So many believers that I have met over the years are striving, every day, to live life as a better example of JESUS! THIS TRUTH is saying that God is more concerned with our spreading the Gospel to save the lost than He is with making our behaviour acceptable! After all, Ephesians 5:26-27 tells us that JESUS will present us to HIMSELF without spot or wrinkle! It is HIS job to perfect us and OUR job to preach the Gospel! Now don't run off accusing me of saying something that I have not said! We are to BE HOLY, as HE is HOLY! But holy actually means: separated FROM the world and separated UNTO God! The most important commandment that JESUS gave to us was to love the LORD our God with all that is within us and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27). There IS no greater Gift that we can ever give another person than the Gift of the Gospel so that they, too, can have NEW LIFE! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "No Reason To Hide":Shalom in Him!
