“God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ; He expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
Fenelon
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Ah, I understand counting the cost now. I guess I grasped it very loosely or on a quite basic level but now I understand it by experience. He eventually puts a choice or two before you that is not bad or evil but is things that are good and acceptable. I went 20 years or more before I lived it. Counting the cost has not to do with choosing what’s good over what’s evil. That’s repentance. It has to do with giving up even what’s good and acceptable for what is better. I guess it’s okay to be a little sad for awhile if you have to about…good, albeit temporary, things that “might have been” - even though you made your choice and are committed and surrendered to it. I felt that angsty thing and now I’ve moved past it. I didn’t wallow in it but I allowed myself to feel it, that giving up of an acceptable thing, and another also, of a thing I was legitimately good at.
Pathfinder789
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Let go (Kindle e-book)
- Fenelon
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A timeless Christian classic.
- Fenelon
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A timeless Christian classic.
Found this in an old journal. Don’t know where it came from but I like it and it’s true:
Healing requires exposure.
Freedom requires honesty.
Transformation requires surrender.
Healing requires exposure.
Freedom requires honesty.
Transformation requires surrender.
I am a loner. I do not get lonely for human company. I PREFER to be alone. I was always that way. It’s no use trying to figure out why or how much of it may have been from my rejected kitten upbringing.
I know God said it is not good for man to be alone but Paul also said it is better not to marry. I can’t say I have the balance on that. I only know I do not crave company but rather feel it’s something I must endure until I can politely extricate myself. I do not think I’m better than others, I just am not so good at chit chat because I have no desire for it and…I can only pretend that I am enjoying it.
I know God said it is not good for man to be alone but Paul also said it is better not to marry. I can’t say I have the balance on that. I only know I do not crave company but rather feel it’s something I must endure until I can politely extricate myself. I do not think I’m better than others, I just am not so good at chit chat because I have no desire for it and…I can only pretend that I am enjoying it.
I found this in an old journal just now. It’s from JOTC. It affected me deeply at the time, which was about…3 years ago, but now it affects me profoundly, especially considering what I wrote above. It shows me it’s not solely my upbringing.
”…solitary, abstaining from the companionship of others and flying away when any approach it, far away from all worldly thoughts, lonely in it’s avoidance of them - it does not consent to anything except to this solitude in God.”
”…solitary, abstaining from the companionship of others and flying away when any approach it, far away from all worldly thoughts, lonely in it’s avoidance of them - it does not consent to anything except to this solitude in God.”
Oswald Chambers said something about not trying to fill in the ”blank space”, that sometimes a blank space comes before sanctification to teach you what sanctification MEANS and sometimes the blank space comes after sanctification, to teach you what service means.
Been thinking about this all day. I think I’ve recently experienced this but not in regards to sanctification but to surrender. I think it has to do with the feeling that you aren’t DOING anything for God, and maybe also combined with a fainting (or coming near it) as you wait for the Lord…
Might be some forgetting in there too and not remembering to be thankful for the great peace He has given me AS I wait. It is no small thing, that continuing peace.
Any thoughts?
Been thinking about this all day. I think I’ve recently experienced this but not in regards to sanctification but to surrender. I think it has to do with the feeling that you aren’t DOING anything for God, and maybe also combined with a fainting (or coming near it) as you wait for the Lord…
Might be some forgetting in there too and not remembering to be thankful for the great peace He has given me AS I wait. It is no small thing, that continuing peace.
Any thoughts?
I think at least a part of what he must mean by the “blank space” and not attempting to fill it is/comes from the…bewilderment you feel when you first realize your memory cant help you (as it always has) in this unfamiliar way you are going. The only proximate direction you have to go by is: ”trust without knowing” and that goes against everything you have learned prior in your life.
You can’t fill in the blank space with your supposings or best guesses or most prudent decisions, which all would be informed by your memories/all you have learned in life.
You can’t fill in the blank space with your supposings or best guesses or most prudent decisions, which all would be informed by your memories/all you have learned in life.
That reminds me of something Episkopos recently said. We learn, by experience, that a stove can burn us but that doesn’t mean stoves are ALWAYS hot.
After coming to God I became quite poor. After I went for so long in that condition I came to the conclusion that God wanted me temporally poor. I didn’t understand what sifting was or that it was occurring or that God wasn’t the one taking from me but that rather He was permitting it for my good. After I came to surrender I suddenly had what I needed. Not quite suddenly, within…3 months.
I see the connection but may not have explained it well…your memory cant help you, that’s all.
After coming to God I became quite poor. After I went for so long in that condition I came to the conclusion that God wanted me temporally poor. I didn’t understand what sifting was or that it was occurring or that God wasn’t the one taking from me but that rather He was permitting it for my good. After I came to surrender I suddenly had what I needed. Not quite suddenly, within…3 months.
I see the connection but may not have explained it well…your memory cant help you, that’s all.
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I don’t know why his “collected works” have never been printed in English, but no such book exists to my knowledge.
We see the error of "filling in the spaces" a LOT here among the spiritual novices. If they were open to receiving correction and instruction they would soon see that they are adding in their own understanding...not realizing that they are falling into a trap laid by God to catch the self-sufficient ones. For the novice this stage could be easily overcome through a proper discipleship. But these novices are perpetual novices because they have become spoiled though false assurances. The devil has gobbled them up, deceived them, and uses what they have to destroy God's work.
There is no way to show them the depth of the truth on this platform.
All I can do is be willing. It seems it’s all over but the waiting (although Im certain I don’t see quite a lot.) I’ve done all I can to stand and now I stand firm by His help and mercy and peace and that strange and wonderful thing He did 8 months ago. If He says rest, I will gladly rest, and I will do so in the peace He has granted me.
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