The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
The Light of the Gospel
(From 2 Corinthians 4)
Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Treasure in Jars of Clay
Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
And in keeping with what is written: “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak, knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
Psalm 119:71
Oswald Chambers, The Psychology of Redemption, 1915:
The cross of Jesus is often wrongly taken as a type of the Cross we have to carry. Jesus did not say, "If any man will come after me, let him take up my cross”, but, “Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Our cross becomes our divinely appointed privilege by means of his cross. We have hallowed the Cross by twenty centuries of emotion and sentiment that it sounds a very beautiful and pathetic thing to talk about carrying our cross. But a wooden cross with iron nails in it is a clumsy thing to carry. The real cross was like that. And do we imagine that the external cross was more ugly than our actual one? Or that the thing that tore our Lord's hands and feet was not really so terrible as our imagination of it?
Oswald Chambers, The Discipline of Suffering, 1900:
The cross of Jesus Christ stands unique and alone. His cross is not our cross. Our cross is that we manifest before the world the fact that we are sanctified to do nothing but the will of God. By means of his cross, our cross becomes our divinely appointed privilege. It is necessary to emphasize this, because there is so much right feeling and wrong teaching abroad on the subject. We are never called upon to carry Christ's cross: his cross is the center of time and eternity; the answer to the enigmas of both.
Oswald Chambers, The Overshadowing of Personal Deliverance, Biblical Psychology
"I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." (Jer. 1:8)
God promised Jeremiah that he would deliver him personally – "Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey." That is all God promises his children. Wherever God sends us, he will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are a matter of indifference, we have to sit loosely to all these things; if we do not, there will be panic and heartbreak and distress. That is the inwardness of the overshadowing of personal deliverance.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) indicates that when we are on Jesus Christ's errands, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, do not be bothered with whether you are being justly dealt with or not. To look for justice is a sign of deflection from devotion to him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will begin to gross and to indulge in the discontent of self-pity – Why should I be treated like this?
If we are devoted to Jesus Christ we have nothing to do with what we meet, whether it is just or unjust. Jesus says – Go steadily on with what I have told you to do and I will guard your life. If you tried to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from my deliverance. The most devout among us become atheistic in this connection; we do not believe God, we enthrone common sense and tack the name of God onto it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the Earth.
Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Matthew 5:3-6
