My Utmost for His Heart

A dear friend gave me a copy of Oswald Chambers devotional book, "My Utmost For His Highest" several years ago.  I've been missing it for months and found it the other day behind some other books on my bookshelf (strange, how did it get on the bookshelf?).  That day's devotion fit well with the entry I linked to on my former blog about movements not being equal to a messiah.  If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes and do so!  You can find it here.  (Disclaimer, that was my first time at Mrs. Parunak's blog and I can't endorse everything she writes, but I liked what little I read and will be back to scope it out.)

(emphasis in the following is mine)

December 2

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
by Oswald Chambers

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . . ." Philippians 3:12

It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. "It can never be God's will that I should be sick." If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

Contrary to what some choose to believe about me, this (as well as the point of the movement/messiah article) reflects the condition of my own heart.  I wanted to share it here.  I don't do what I do to gain a relationship with my Father, I do what I do because of my relationship with my Father.  I'm not into any movements (labels, boxes), but I am into moving.  It's a tricky thing when we start changing the way we live to please our Father, walking in obedience as children.  It's a necessary part of growing, but difficult when it begins to attract attention.  Who but Yahweh can know our hearts and intentions?  We tend to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.   Why is it that "you" can fill-in-the-blank out of a pure heart, but I'm trying to earn my salvation by keeping the Sabbath and living off the land?  Really.  Let's give each other the benefit of the doubt and trust Father to judge hearts.

I feel that's been needing attention for awhile.  Thanks for hearing me out.

Incidentally, I disagree with Chambers in one point of his essay.  I believe perfection can be and has been attained by man.  If by no one else then the person Yahshua.  As he is the very example of perfection given to us by our Father, and I don't believe he sets standards for us that we cannot attain, then we should hope to be able to attain it.  Will we reach it in this lifetime?  Wouldn't that be nice!!