From My Utmost for His Highest
This is your hour, and the power of darkness —Luke 22

One way to recognize and deal with sin in our lives is to look at it and it's effect on our lives from the beginning. This is a long post today, so I'll get right into looking at how the fall effected our lives with an excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

What is the real EFFECT OF THE FALL on our lives?

The effect of the Fall was legion.

But buried inside the punishment that comes as a result of the Fall is a promise. I don’t pretend to know the ultimate truth on this, but I can see three things peeking through.

     From Fellowship of the Performing Arts & Full Porch Press
In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed . . . —Revelation 21

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     From My Utmost for His Highest
. . . do you love Me? . . . Tend My sheep —John 21

I'd forgotten that there was an actual lesson that ran for book title and won the sash. 

Chambers talks today about folks that do things Jesus did, but stop short of devotion to Jesus. They do the work (and may even love), but skip the belief.

Skipping belief is what the world tells us we can do. It's another way to earn salvation-and let me tell you that's something I know a lot about.

In a discussion of how we would prepare for heaven. . .

     From My Utmost for His Highest
Judge not, that you be not judged —Matthew 7

This Scripture is hard for us now, and likely always has been. There's something deep within us that just wants to separate and quantify the life of a person.

Years ago, my son was assigned to a sports team at random. Parents talked for weeks about which team their son joined. We were really excited to begin, but every time that we'd respond to the question, "Whose team is your son on," our reply would bring a drawn look and the response . . .

     From My Utmost for His Highest
They said to Him, ’Rabbi . . . where are You staying?’ He said to them, ’Come and see’ —John 1

Chambers, in today's post reminds us that the two disciples remained with Jesus that day and that "is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past."

And as usual, Chambers hits me right where I am. In the Porch Story (if you aren't familiar, see a video of it here or read it in a sample of the first chapter of the book), I broken off the porch. I ran fast and hard, for a while. But the day wore on and I'm tired. I'm still headed home, but for the first time in a long time, I'm worried that . . .

     From My Utmost for His Highest
. . . seek, and you will find . . . —Luke 11

Chambers can get on a roll, and for the last few days (and a few more) he details the things we should do to move on in our faith. In A Rooster Once Crowed, we call it breaking off the porch. If you haven't seen the porch video yet, CLICK HERE to see it.

The book details 5 specific things, but the one that closest relates to today's lesson is "immerse yourself in Scripture." Condiser this excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

It takes five minutes to read a chapter of the Bible, yet setting aside that time is extremely difficult.

    From My Utmost for His Highest

He Himself has said . . . . So we may boldly say . . . —Hebrews 13

What exactly is God's assurance in our lives? Can we count on Him or is there something in us that makes it work? Do I have a responsibility in all this?

In A Rooster Once Crowed, Chapter 9-Tune Into Life's Belief, I list all the instances through Acts Chapter 8 where we are called to "believe." Taken together, this provides a profound list of promises, assurances and costs associated with belief. Some are great gifts, but others are a little tougher to hear. Here's a list through Mark (also, the links below will take you to the full chapter to see it in context): 

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
     - Genesis 15:6

If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign
     - Exodus 4:8

    From My Utmost for His Highest

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . . —Psalm 25

Chambers asks, "Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes."

Consider this excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

Listen. Have you ever had lunch with a friend who shows up late, talks for the whole hour, telling you exactly what’s going on in her life and then throws twenty dollars on the table midsentence and runs out? You’d say, “No. Wait a minute. Let me tell you what I think. Don’t you care what’s going on with me? You’ve got a couple of things wrong about me and I want to make some plans with you later. Wait.”

    From My Utmost for His Highest

. . . that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . . —John 17

Chambers encourages us to know that we will one day be one with the Father just as Jesus is one with the Father. 

But what does that mean? How can we know the nature of OUR relationship with God if we don't try and grasp the relationship that God and Jesus have with each other.  Let's look at this as we consider . . 

     From My Utmost for His Highest

 By your patience possess your souls —Luke 21

I'd love some feedback in the area below about this, but I've been told that you're enjoying getting little bite sized pieces of the Rooster a couple times a week. Well, I figured I'd take a departure from that a bit and give you something that didn't quite make the final text but may make us less "ignorant of the way God has made us."

Looking around in nature, we see that God created the heavens and the earth with such precision and perfection, that it still functions today, magnifying His glory. I liken His creation to a couple, who toil for years, together, to painstakingly build a home, brick by brick, out of love. The Biblical account of Creation is unique among all other creation accounts in that it begins with . . .