The Assigning of the Call

September 30th, 2014 by Dave Leave a reply »

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . —Colossians 1:24


We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

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September 30, 2014

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, this devotional feels like Chambers is lecturing his students on how to accept the pain and martyrdom of being believers and disciples. However, there is another way to view this is there not? Is it a condition of being a follower of Christ that we become martyrs, and that we be broken and poured out for others?

And God says…”If you want life and life more abundantly, it is necessary that you give up your own ideas, your own will and surrender. And often it will feel like you are giving up “being crushed in your own spirit and will” as you discover that your will and your very brightest ideas do not work for you anymore. You may not become a martyr in the truest sense of the word, but you do, after being connected to Me, become aware that you are to leave your old notions and ideas behind. Acknowledge Me in all our ways, and do not rely on our own ways and means, and I will make your paths straight.  My ways are higher than your ways. For I know the plans I have for you, they are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else you require, including the shaping of your heart, mind and soul, will be provided just when it is required. And when you fail to hear Me because your own voice speaks too loudly, do not worry; my grace and mercy is sufficient for that time. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

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