Monday, August 4, 2014

Gathering in Christ



Romans 6:12-13
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

When I am born-again, my human nature is not different; it is the same as before; I am related to life in the same way; I have the same bodily organs, but the mainspring is different, and I have to see now that all my members are dominated by the new disposition (see Romans 5:13,19). There is only one kind of human nature, and that is the human nature we have all got; and there is only one kind of holiness -- the holiness of Jesus Christ. Give Him “elbow room” and He will manifest Himself in you, and other people will recognize Him. Human beings know human beings too well to mistake where goodness comes from; when they see certain characteristics, they will know they come from the indwelling of Jesus. It is not the manifestation of noble human traits, but of a real family likeness of Jesus. It is His gentleness, His patience, His purity, never mine. The whole act of spirituality is that my human nature should retire and let the new disposition 
have its way in me.

As we go on, we find every place God brings us into is the means of enabling us to realize with growing joy that the life of Christ within us is more than a match, not only for the enemy on the outside, but for the impaired body that comes between. Paul urges with passionate pleading that we present our bodies a living sacrifice and then realize, not presumptuously but with slow, sure, overwhelming certainty, that every command of Christ can be obeyed in our bodily life through the Atonement.

Excerpts from Oswald Chambers
Daily Devotional Bible, Reading 216 (8/4)
From If Thou Wilt Be Perfect

 This photograph by Jo Chaney is to honor the life of our excellent dog, Roobie, who died this morning in our arms.

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