Ozzone 11-10 > Do your aims and ideas get in the way of what God is doing through you?

 

So, if God tells us what He is doing in our lives, it is because He trusts us to not go running off and doing things in our own strength. Otherwise, He doesn't trust us, which is a pretty safe place to be.

Ozzone 11-9 > Are you leading people to be born again or just to a refined spiritual culture? The line of attraction is always the line of appeal.

 

Ozzone 11-3> I have to give up my right to myself to become one with Christ. My right to myself is my individuality which masks my personality.

 

‘Surrender means breaking the shell of my individual independence from God’ – another way of expressing this might be - Surrender means breaking my independence from God by cracking the shell of my individuality.

Remember, individuality is the counterfeit of personality. It is personality that loves, obeys, and creates. It is individuality that says, “I can’t, or I won’t," and therefore inhibits our ability to become one with Christ.

Ozzone 11-2> I have to give up my right to myself to become one with Christ, then His creativity begins in me

 

#Ozzone 11-1 > Are you merrily driving down the Freeway of Life, or are you of value to God?

 

As a Christian, are you on the Freeway of Life like most of the traffic? God wants you to take the next exit, to get out on the byways and the back roads where real people live. People die on freeways, but nobody lives on one. Get out onto the dirt roads through the mountains and valleys. God has people there for you to meet and reveal Himself to. It might not be the most pleasant drive; you may even break down at times. But God will be with you, and you will be of use to Him and to others.

Ozzone 10-26> Don’t judge your ministry by the results but by your obedience to the call of God

 

Ozzone 10-22 > Are you abandoned to God? He can’t testify to you until you are completely abandoned to Him.

 

Ozzone 10-20> Have you surrendered your will to God? Remember, the only thing you can really give God is your right to yourself.

 

Ozzone 10-18> The missionary must be detached from the world and attached to God on the inside

 

Ozzone 10-3 > The power of the saint lies in the coming down from the mountain and in the living down in humility

 

Ozzone 10-2 > Mountaintop experiences are for inspiration – but it’s in the drudgery of the valley that we live for the glory of God

 

Ozzone 10-1 > Mountaintop experiences are for inspiration – Demon-possessed valleys are our job

 

Ozzone 9-30 > How much are you willing to suffer for God? Are you willing to identify with His cross?

 

And it will benefit God’s Kingdom, and will ultimately benefit you. Have you so surrendered your right to yourself to God that you will allow Him to make you into broken bread and poured-out wine? He will knead you, put you on the back burner until you rise, and then throw you into the oven. After all that, He will pull you apart like Jesus was pulled apart on the Cross. Are you willing to endure the pain?

Ozzone 9-27 > > God is not gentle when it comes to that which can hurt you or Him

 

‘Christ has no tenderness toward that which would ultimately ruin someone in His service’! That is likely true for both this world and Eternity. When, 26 years ago I shook my fist at God, He was not the least bit gentle in His rebuke. But I soon realized how arrogant I was to think God had anything other than His kingdom and my good character in mind. He is using me now and preparing me for Eternity. And I praise Him for it.

Ozzone 9-25 > Without a supernatural work done in us, we cannot possibly fulfill the demands of God.

 

“Not the slightest trace of resentment”. That is a difficult character set to develop, and it certainly takes a supernatural work of God in me – the creation of a disposition similar to Jesus’. Are you there yet?

The last clause, “and the cross will come along that line always”, was removed in the modern versions of this devotional. I added it back in. Oswald Chambers’ wife, Biddy, compiled this wonderful devotional after his early death in the Egyptian desert during WWI. Sometime, near the mid-20th century, “the cross” lost an extremely important part of its meaning. Aside from being the instrument of great torture, trial and death to Jesus, for the first 19 centuries of Christians “the cross” also meant our instrument of trial and death to worldly things.

Luke 9:23. King James Version ... “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me..” Matt. 16:24.

If we are willing to deny ourselves, that is, our right to ourselves, the Providence of God will provide for each of us a cross that we can carry that will empower us to grow in godly character and in our ability to identify with Christ. Like Simon the Cyrene, it is a privilege like no other. We, like Simon, must follow Jesus as He struggled up the Via Dolorosa to Calvary.

Of course, this doesn’t fit modern-day evangelicalism where struggling, suffering, and trials are not taught.

Ozzone 9-24 > Have you surrendered your right to yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? That's what He wants.

 

Ozzone 9-23 > Are you willing to go up to your Jerusalem with Jesus? Do you know what it means?

 

About 15 years ago I wrote a worship song with the line “Let me walk with you, Lord”, at the beginning and end of the chorus. Only now has it struck me what that actually means. It’s not just being in the Presence of the Lord, but it means following Him wherever He goes, and, inevitably, He went up to Jerusalem and His Gethsemane, His scourging, and His crucifixion. Am I prepared to go through those trials in my life? Should I expect anything less? We evangelicals like to take the easiest path, like to accept the suffering of Jesus as all that’s needed to save me. But we are called upon to identify with Jesus Christ in His sufferings, and how can we do anything less? Philippians 3:10.

Ozzone 9-22 > Jesus Christ never enforces obedience – this is one of the main differences between Christianity and false religions.

 

Ozzone 9-20 > The true expression of Christian character isn’t good-doing; it’s God-likeness.

 

Ozzone 9-18 > Understanding temptation on a whole new level – Part 2