My Utmost for His Highest Daily Devotional by Oswald Chambers from Crewe, England [Great Britain], United Kingdom "Building on the Atonement" for Friday, October 9, 2015

My Utmost for His Highest Daily Devotional by Oswald Chambers from Crewe, England [Great Britain], United Kingdom "Building on the Atonement" for Friday, October 9, 2015
…present…your members as instruments of righteousness to God.[Romans 6:13]
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”

____________________________
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS:
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6).[The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L]
____________________________

Romans 6:13 and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead, and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness.

____________________________
Bible in One Year:

Isaiah 32:1 There is coming a king who will reign justly

and princes who will rule uprightly.

2 A man will be like a refuge from the wind,

like protection from a storm,

like streams of water on arid ground,

like a rock cliff shading a weary land.

3 The eyes of those seeing will not be closed,

the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.

4 The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully,

the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.

5 The mean person will no longer be called generous,

or the miserly said to be noble;

6 for the mean person will speak meanness,

his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly,

spreading error concerning Adonai,

as he lets the hungry go on starving

and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7 The mean person’s means are mean —

he devises wicked devices

to ruin the poor and needy with lies,

even when their cause is just.

8 But the generous person devises generous things,

and his generosity will keep him standing.

9 You women who are so complacent, listen to me!

Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!

10 In a year and a few days more,

you overconfident women will shudder,

because the vintage will fail,

the harvest will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women!

Shudder, you overconfident women!

Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.

12 Beat your breasts in mourning

for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,

13 for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars,

for all the happy homes in the joyful city.

14 For the palace will be abandoned,

the crowded city deserted,

‘Ofel and fortress wastelands forever,

a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks —

15 till the Spirit is poured out on us from above,

and the desert becomes a fertile field,

with the fertile field regarded as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the desert,

and righteousness abide in the fertile field.

17 The effect of righteousness will be peace;

the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.

18 My people will live in a peaceful place,

in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.

19 Just as the forest will surely come down,

the city will surely be laid low.

20 Happy are you who sow by all streams,

letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.

33:1 Woe, destroyer, yourself undestroyed!

Woe, betrayer, yourself unbetrayed!

When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you tire of betraying, they will betray you.

2 Adonai, show us mercy;

we have waited for you.

Be their arm every morning,

and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 At the sound of the tumult, the peoples wander off;

when you exalt yourself, the nations are scattered.

4 Your spoil is gathered as if stripped by shearer-worms;

they run over it like a swarm of locusts.

5 Adonai is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he has filled Tziyon with justice and right.

6 He will be the stability of your times,

a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge,

and fear of Adonai, which is his treasure.

7 Hear their brave men crying out for help!

The envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted, there are no travelers.

He has broken the covenant, despised the cities;

he has no regard for human life.

9 The land is mourning and wilting away.

The L’vanon is withering with shame.

The Sharon has become like the ‘Aravah.

Bashan and Karmel have been shaken bare.

10 “Now I will arise,” says Adonai,

“Now I will exalt and lift myself up.

11 You conceive chaff and give birth to stubble,

your breath is a fire devouring you.

12 The peoples will be as if burned into lime,

like thorns cut off to burn in the fire.

13 You living far off, hear what I have done!

You who are near, acknowledge my strength!”

14 The sinners in Tziyon are frightened;

trembling has seized the ungodly.

“Who of us can live with the devouring fire?

Who of us can live with eternal burning?”

15 He whose life is right and whose speech is straight,

he who scorns getting rich by extortion,

he who shakes his hands free of bribes,

stops his ears against talk of bloodshed

and shuts his eyes against looking at evil.

16 Such a person will live on the heights,

his refuge a fortress among the cliffs,

his food and water in steady supply.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty,

they will gaze on a land stretching into the distance.

18 Your mind will meditate on the terror:

“Where is the man who did the counting?

Where is the man who did the weighing?

Where is the man who numbered the towers?”

19 You will not see the intransigent people,

that people whose language is so obscure,

whose stuttering speech you cannot understand.

20 Look at Tziyon, the city of our festivals;

your eyes will see Yerushalayim a secure abode,

a tent that will not be removed,

whose pegs will never be pulled out

and whose guy-ropes will not be cut.

21 But there in his splendor Adonai will be with us,

in a place of rivers and broad streams.

But no boat with oars will go there,

no majestic ship will pass by.

22 For Adonai is our judge, Adonai is our lawgiver,

Adonai is our king. He will save us.

23 For your ropes are hanging loose,

not holding the mast, not spreading the sail.

Then the plunder shared out is so huge

that even the lame get part of the spoil.

24 No inhabitant will say, “I am ill”;

the people living there will be forgiven their sin.

Colossians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy

2 To: God’s people in Colosse, faithful brothers in the Messiah:

Grace to you and shalom from God our Father.

3 Whenever we pray, we always give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 4 For we have heard of your trust in the Messiah Yeshua and of the love you have for all God’s people. 5 Both spring from the confident hope that you will receive what is stored up for you in heaven. You heard of this earlier in the message about the truth. This Good News 6 has made its presence felt among you, just as it is also being fruitful and multiplying[Colossians 1:6 Genesis 1:28] throughout the world in the same way as it has among you since the day you heard and understood the grace of God as it really is. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow-slave and a faithful worker for the Messiah on your behalf; 8 and he has told us about the love which the Spirit has given you.

9 Therefore, from the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all the wisdom and understanding which the Spirit gives; 10 so that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and entirely pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God. 11 We pray that you will be continually strengthened with all the power that comes from his glorious might; so that you will be able to persevere and be patient in any situation, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father for having made you fit to share in the inheritance of his people in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

14 It is through his Son that we have redemption — that is, our sins have been forgiven. 15 He is the visible image of the invisible God. He is supreme over all creation, 16 because in connection with him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through him and for him. 17 He existed before all things, and he holds everything together.

18 Also he is head of the Body, the Messianic Community — he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might hold first place in everything. 19 For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son 20 and through his Son to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through him, through having his Son shed his blood by being executed on a stake.

21 In other words, you, who at one time were separated from God and had a hostile attitude towards him because of your wicked deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in the Son’s physical body through his death; in order to present you holy and without defect or reproach before himself — 23 provided, of course, that you continue in your trusting, grounded and steady, and don’t let yourselves be moved away from the hope offered in the Good News you heard.

This is the Good News that has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven; and I, Sha’ul, have become a servant of it. 24 I rejoice in my present sufferings on your behalf! Yes, I am completing in my own flesh what has been lacking of the Messiah’s afflictions, on behalf of his Body, the Messianic Community. 25 I became a servant of the Good News because God gave me this work to do for your benefit. The work is to make fully known the message from God, 26 the secret hidden for generations, for ages, but now made clear to the people he has set apart for himself. 27 To them God wanted to make known how great among the Gentiles is the glorious richness of this secret. And the secret is this: the Messiah is united with you people! In that rests your hope of glory! 28 We, for our part, proclaim him; we warn, confront and teach everyone in all wisdom; so that we may present everyone as having reached the goal, united with the Messiah. 29 It is for this that I toil, striving with all the energy that he stirs up in me so mightily.

__________________________