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Helovesme2
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Username: Helovesme2

Post Number: 434
Registered: 8-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 8:26 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Will ye also go away?" John 6:67

"A penetrating question. Our Lord's words come home most when He talks in the most simple way. We know Who Jesus is, but in spite of that He says - "Will ye also go away?" We have to maintain a venturing attitude toward Him all the time.

""From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." They went back from walking with Jesus, not into sin, but they relapsed. Many to-day are spending and being spent in work for Jesus Christ, but they do not walk with Him. The one thing God keeps us to steadily is that we may be one with Jesus Christ. After sanctification the discipline of our spiritual life is along this line. If God gives a clear and emphatic realization to your soul of what He wants, do not try to keep yourself in that relationship by any particular method, but live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God's line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him. The certainty that I do not know - that is the secret of going with Jesus.

"Peter only saw in Jesus Someone to minister salvation to him and to the world. Our Lord wants us to be yoke-fellows with Him.

"[John c. 6] v. 70. Jesus answers the great lack in Peter. We cannot answer for others."

- My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Cathy2
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Username: Cathy2

Post Number: 51
Registered: 2-2006
Posted on Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 9:26 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Will ye also go away?"

What strikes me first about Jesus' words is his yearning.

His feelings for them. We forget how very deeply he felt during all of his walk here.

Phillip Yancy brings this out in his book 'The Jesus I Never Knew". (I love this book. I first learned of Jesus in it) How deeply and strongly Jesus felt emotions. Even 'loud cries and tears', let alone that whip in the temple. Plus, he got exhausted and hungry. Yancy says that he was the most emotional man ever on the planet, but appropriately. I agree. Christ felt deeply, but did not sin.

His yearning for us is expressed in the Gospels, in person, literally, not just in the metaphors elsewhere in scripture or only said by an Apostle.

I can picture his stricken face as they walked away...
Cathy
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 3511
Registered: 12-2003


Posted on Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 4:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mary, what an awesome quote. Your posts from Chambers are bringing these devotionals back to my mind exactly when they seem to apply to my life.

This passage is powerful: "After sanctification the discipline of our spiritual life is along this line. If God gives a clear and emphatic realization to your soul of what He wants, do not try to keep yourself in that relationship by any particular method, but live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God's line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him. The certainty that I do not know - that is the secret of going with Jesus."

In other words, when we know God is asking us to walk in a certain direction, we are to walk, whether or not we know where we will end up. Further, we are not supposed to "figure out" HOW we will get on the other side of the journey or to figure out in advance WHY He is asking us to go our WHAT we will do when we get there.

He is teaching us to trust only Him, walking by faith (which is not blind but which is based in the objective reality of God's promises), knowing only HE can see the outcomes or His plans for us. He wants us to be content with His presence and His promises and His faithfulness while we allow Him to navigate the often forbidding journey He's calling us to make.

He wants our experience to be that mirrored in the words of "Knowing You, Jesus" by Graham Kendrick:

"Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best,
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord"

Thank you for sharing Chambers, Mary!

Colleen

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