What is a true Prophet's Message?

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Permalink Reply by Carla on August 5, 2009 at 2:53am

Hello brother Ron...Amen! Here's another one!
I pray that these examples will strengthen our discernment.
Nothing to the cross I bring...simply to the cross I cling.

The Baffling Call of God

And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.....And they understood none of these things." Luke 18:31-34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God's. But what seemed failure from man's standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God's. because God's purpose is never man's purpose.
There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. I cannot be stated definately what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.
If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say--Now why did God allow this and that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. "There's a divinty that shapes our ends." A Christian is one who trusts the wits and wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.
~Oswald Chambers. My Utmost for His Highest. devotion for August 5th.

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Permalink Reply by Ron Payne on August 5, 2009 at 6:16am

Amen Carla,

I cannot emphasize it enough, that it was GOD! It was GOD! Not simply a man, But GOD! who allowed men to spit on Him, flog, mock and ridicule Him. He ALLOWED this in order, for us to escape Hell and Damnation for eternity. Is there anything else that we can boast of, save the cross? Perhaps our prosperity, our kindness, our good works? What is there that we can present to God as coming from us, that can replace HIM, the Triune God, on the cross, suffering for our sins?
Dare we use the Cross as an advantage over others in order that we may prosper while tickling the ears of men with "Candy Coated" sermons? Those who do, have never looked up from the foot of the cross and stared into the scarred face of Jesus.

1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ instead of being continually one with the Father, came into this world; instead of being in the form of God, he appeared in the form of a servant; instead of the glory which he had with his Father from eternity, he suffered shame and disgrace; instead of living a joyful and comfortable life on earth, he suffered a shameful and an accursed death; and instead of the temporal joy and glory the Jews proposed to him, he endured the shame and pain of the cross. "John Gill"

"But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;" 1 Cor 1:23

Ron

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Permalink Reply by Carla on August 5, 2009 at 7:24am

1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

...not with the wisdom of words.. this is first time I have really seen that phrase.... God help me! God has been trying to show it to me a couple times recenlty...I think I might be getting it.
I have just been totally convicted to stay in humility...

Love in Christ.. Praise God that I'm not so hard headed yet..
Thank you Lord for using Ron to show that to me.. Amen

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Permalink Reply by Rick Kelly on August 5, 2009 at 10:05am

Some of my favorite scripture.....

34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

AMEN!!

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