My Utmost for His Highest for Thursday, 31 August 2017 "My Joy . . . Your Joy" by Oswald Chambers

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My Utmost for His Highest for Thursday, 31 August 2017 "My Joy . . . Your Joy" by Oswald Chambers

That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. [John 15:11]

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. [Not Knowing Whither, 900 L]

Bible in One Year: Psalms 132-134; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Psalms 132:1 (0) A song of ascents:

(1) Adonai, remember in David’s favor

all the hardships he endured,

2 how he swore to Adonai,

vowed to the Mighty One of Ya‘akov,

3 “I will not enter the house where I live

or get into my bed,

4 I will not allow myself to sleep

or even close my eyes,

5 until I find a place for Adonai,

a dwelling for the Mighty One of Ya‘akov.”

6 We heard about it in Efrat,

we found it in the Fields of Ya‘ar.

7 Let’s go into his dwelling

and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.

8 Go up, Adonai, to your resting-place,

you and the ark through which you give strength.

9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness;

may those loyal to you shout for joy.

10 For the sake of your servant David,

don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.

11 Adonai swore an oath to David,

an oath he will not break:

“One of the sons from your own body

I will set on your throne.

12 If your sons keep my covenant

and my instruction, which I will teach them,

then their descendants too, forever,

will sit on your throne.”

13 For Adonai has chosen Tziyon,

he has wanted it as his home.

14 “This is my resting-place forever,

I will live here because I so much want to.

15 I will bless it with plenty of meat,

I will give its poor their fill of food.

16 Its cohanim I will clothe with salvation,

and its faithful will shout for joy.

17 I will make a king sprout there from David’s line

and prepare a lamp for my anointed one.

18 His enemies I will clothe with shame,

but on him there will be a shining crown.”

133 (0) A song of ascents. By David:

(1) Oh, how good, how pleasant it is

for brothers to live together in harmony.

2 It is like fragrant oil on the head

that runs down over the beard,

over the beard of Aharon,

and flows down on the collar of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon

that settles on the mountains of Tziyon.

For it was there that Adonai ordained

the blessing of everlasting life.

134:1 (0) A song of ascents:

(1) Come, bless Adonai, all you servants of Adonai,

who serve each night in the house of Adonai.

2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary,

and bless Adonai.

3 May Adonai, the maker of heaven and earth,

bless you from Tziyon.

17 But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you meet together it does more harm than good! 18 For, in the first place, I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques; and to a degree I believe it 19 (granted that there must be some divisions among you in order to show who are the ones in the right). 20 Thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the Lord; 21 because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk! 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or are you trying to show your contempt for God’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? What am I supposed to say to you? Am I supposed to praise you? Well, for this I don’t praise you!

23 For what I received from the Lord is just what I passed on to you — that the Lord Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; 24 and after he had made the b’rakhah he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this as a memorial to me”; 25 likewise also the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant effected by my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, as a memorial to me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.

27 Therefore, whoever eats the Lord’s bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the Lord! 28 So let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup; 29 for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. 30 This is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died! 31 If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined, so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

33 So then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If someone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it will not result in judgment.

As for the other matters, I will instruct you about them when I come.

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My Utmost for His Highest © 1927 in the U.K. by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All rights reserved. United States publication rights are held by Discovery House, which is affiliated with Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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My Utmost for His Highest © 1927 in the U.K. by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All rights reserved. United States publication rights are held by Discovery House, which is affiliated with Our Daily Bread Ministries. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Special offers are valid only for orders placed online and may not be combined with any other offers or coupons.

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