Month: February 2012

“Do You Now Believe?”

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Oswald Chambers 90x115by Oswald Chambers

’By this we believe . . . .’ Jesus answered them, ’Do you now believe?’ —John 16:30-31

Now we believe. . . .” But Jesus asks, “Do you . . . ? Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you . . . will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.

I Will Joy In The God of My Salvation

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A.B. Simpson 90 x115by A.B. Simpson

Count it all joy—James 1:2

We do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word "reckon" is one of the key words of Scripture. It is the same word used about our death to self (Romans 6: 11). We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of something that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead and neither fear nor obey the old nature.

So we are to reckon the thing that comes as a blessing. We are determined to rejoice, to say,

my heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise (Psalm 57:7).

This rejoicing by faith will soon become a habit and will bring continually the spirit of gladness and the spontaneous overflow of praise.

Then, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17).

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