Oswald Chambers and a Fundamental Problem

I’ve been reading through “My Utmost for His Highest” during my morning quiet time. I’m including a quote from this morning’s reading:

“At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that.”

As I was talking with God about the truth of my “blatant mutiny against God” when I sin, not just an “oops, sorry” kind of thing, my mind went to Romans 8:1 “There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Of course the reason is found by reading chapters 1-7 (hence the therefore), but the amazing truth of God’s mercy is also explained in the rest of chapter 8.

During the next few days, I will be posting what God is teaching me in this chapter. Would you like to join me? I’d love to hear your comments and insights.

Because He has set me free,

bev