A Giveaway from Full Porch Press

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Philippians 3

No other book helped me more to think about the ways we choose to be away from God instead of entering into Heaven than The Great Divorce.

That's why it is my pleasure to offer this giveaway from Full Porch Press. You and a guest will not only see this production, but together we'll join a small group at an area restaurant to meet the man behind this great ministry. Max McLean will bring a great perspective on what it took to step into the role of Screwtape and bring C.S. Lewis' great works to the stage.

Details are below and this contest is open to anyone, so feel free to forward along to others. There's even a way you can get three entries in one! We can't wait to see you there.

     From My Utmost for His Highest

. . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men —Acts 24

Chambers mentions that Jesus’ “commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.”

I’d like to look a little closer at how obedience to God in things that are hard can ever become easy. Every fiber of our culture tells us that liberty and freedom is being able to do whatever we want and that rules serve to control us.  Consider this excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

How can we connect our hearts’ greatest love to fuel our obedience to the truth that Jesus affirmed?

    From My Utmost for His Highest

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free . . . —Galatians 5

Today, Chambers said, “A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand—‘Believe this and that’; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus.”

What does it mean to “align yourself with the standards of Jesus?”{Tweet} Well, it starts with . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

We walk by faith, not by sight —2 Corinthians 5

How can you be certain of your faith?

Chambers covers a lot of ground today, but makes an interesting point that a “self-assured saint is of no value to God.” If you’re reading Utmost, you probably skew more toward self-assured than unsure, but can either be certain? Should we be certain?

Today we're going to look at both ends of the faith spectrum in . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

. . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . . —1 John 3

I've felt this coming on for some time.

See, somewhere in the list of to-do's and wouldn't-it-be-nice's and shouldn't-I-at-least's I lost track of God. {Tweet} He was there. I mean, deep down the book and this ministry and everything I was doing was to share this love I had. But to do that, I needed to go through editing and decide on a cover and get the website up and running and build a platform on Facebook and Tweet, yes, of course I had to tweet.

And somewhere in that list of things, I lost track of the Who I was doing this for. {Tweet} Like a child who set aside her life to care for an aging parent, I shooshed God because I was on an important call for His care.

It's kind of silly . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10

I've certainly been guilty of this.

To be honest, I’m not sure how to really put this warning to use without an understanding of the Gospel. Chambers shares the warning, so I’m going to give you the solution: bring the Gospel deeper into your heart.

We’ll do that today with . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

We all, with unveiled face, beholding . . . the glory of the Lord . . . —2 Corinthians 3

In a recent talk, Drought in Ministry – When Even the Altar Must Go on the Altar, I detailed some of the times I’ve been disappointed lately. But until today’s Utmost post, I never considered that those disappointments, times when I’ve been left alone out in front or “people who used to be lights [who] flicker out” WERE THE PLAN. {Tweet}

We have to be careful attributing things to our fallen nature and instead (first) consider that this might be . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment . . . and plunged into the sea —John 21

What is it like to fling yourself into the name of the Lord? {Tweet}

Read the below excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

In persons number three and four on earth, I see the archetype of two people whom I know in me. At times, I have been Abel—one who, since the beginning, even when there appeared no way for him to be part of this, couldn’t imagine a scenario where he would not be included in this Great Dance called heaven. At my best, I . . .

    From My Utmost for His Highest

The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days —2 Chronicles 15

Today’s Utmost hit me twice.

First, was something we discussed a couple weeks back in the Destitution of Service post about how the things that God impresses upon us are always small. He doesn’t say, “Put together a public works project so My people will have water to drink.” He says, “Speak to that rock.”

Asa thought he was covering the major things, and he disregarded the smaller things. He hesitated a few moments and convinced himself that the temples of the people were no big deal.

The second part of this post is more problematic for me.

    From My Utmost for His Highest

. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6

Let’s all admit that Oswald Chambers is advanced. Like a yoga student and his instructor, sometimes I have to stretch and work and try really hard to get my mind into the position that Chambers poses easily.

To get to the point of deciding that sin “must be completely killed in you,” the fastest way I know is to remember your place in the Gospel story. The following is from A Rooster Once Crowed, but if you’d prefer click here to see the video. Otherwise:

Imagine you’re a parent, and you have two children—a boy and a girl.

Your boy is a high school all-American and an honor student who. . .