Weekend Words

 From Beside the Still Waters...

Examining Myself - read: Romans 12

Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. - Psalm 26:2

The most important examination I need to make is an examination of myself.  Actually, God should do the examining as the psalmist prayed: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).  Letting God search me in this way is a humbling experience.  It should bring repentance and improvement.

It is easy to focus away from myself when seeking improvement.  "If only my neighbour changed his ways, I would be happier," is my natural mindset.  I need to consider how others see me so I can improve the person that is most important to improve, which is myself.  What mentality do I display to others?  Is it to seek first my own needs and wants, or is it to help others?  Do I have the nature of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, or is my focus all on myself?

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3).  This verse gives us much reason to search our hearts and seek to better follow the example of Christ.  And though it is good to pray for a person whose faults we think are glaringly obvious, we should remember that we too may have glaring faults.  We need "the spirit of meekness" as we view other people's faults - "considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1).  Our prayer should be that both we and others may come to "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect [mature] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

Fred Beachy - Crofton, KY

Australian Anabaptist –  Vol 3. No 2. February 2006

Disciple or Display?

Passionate genuine affection for Jesus will lead to all sorts of vows and promises which it is impossible to fulfil. It is an attitude of mind and heart that sees only the heroic. We are called to be unobtrusive disciples, not heroes. When we are right with God, the tiniest thing done out of love to Him is more precious to Him than any eloquent preaching of a sermon. We have introduced into our conception of Christianity heroic notions that come from paganism and not from the teaching of Our Lord. Jesus warned his disciples that they would be treated as nobodies; He never said they would be brilliant or marvellous. We all have a lurking desire to be exhibitions for God, to be put, as it were, in His showroom. Jesus does not want us to be specimens, He wants us to be so taken up with Him that we never think about ourselves, and the only impression left on others by our life is that Jesus Christ is having unhindered way.

“Peter...walked upon the waters, to come to Jesus” (Matthew 14:29). Walking on water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is different, Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises: human nature and our pride will do it. We can buck up and face the music of a crisis magnificently, but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of the day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a saint, to go through poverty as a saint, unnoted and unnoticable. The “show business,” which is so incorporated into our view of Christian work today, has caused us to drift far from Our Lord’s conception of discipleship. It is instilled in us to think that we have to do exceptional things for God; we have not. We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy in mean street, among mean people, surrounded by sordid sinners. That is not learned in five minutes.

From: Oswald Chambers – So Send I You” 1915 lectures