"Am I Willing?"

The Session of HOPE Church Raleigh was away for our Annual Retreat last weekend.  I used a devotion from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers as my opening devotion.  I want to share it with you and then make a few comments.

Is God’s Will My Will?  By Oswald Chambers

"This is the will of God, your sanctification…"     1 Thessalonians 4:3

Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (1 Corinthians 1:30 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…”). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.

All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”)  He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “…shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39).

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.                                        End of devotion by Chambers.

That question asked by Chambers, “Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ?” has been on my mind since the first time I read it.  Am I?  Am I willing to let God do everything?  Jesus Christ His Son has already made it possible.  His work on the cross, my atonement, redemption, salvation, sanctification was made possible by Him.  Why wouldn’t I be willing?  There in lies the answer.  God is the one that has called me and saved me, but my relationship with Him is effected by me saying either “Lord, I’ve got this” or “Lord, You’ve got this.”  

When I let go of my will and let God have His way in my life in ALL things, in HIS way, what a difference that would make.  Oh, it’s all possible.  He can do ALL He says He can do.  No question.  So why wouldn’t I?  Well, that means changes, transformations in me have to happen.  The question remains, “Am I willing?”  

What we have to realize as believers/followers of Jesus Christ is that it doesn’t work well to try to keep a foot in both camps.  Keeping a foot in the Kingdom of Darkness  (1 John 1) and one in the Kingdom of Light (1 John 1) just doesn’t work.  When we firmly plant both feet in the Kingdom of Light we will find that the power of God already in us (His Holy Spirit) will begin to purify us for His purpose by His will.  He wants to sanctify us.  He is certainly able, no question there.  The question remains, “Am I willing?”

Blessings friends,

Pastor Marty Duffell - Pastor of HOPE Church Raleigh

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"The Narrow Road!"

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13 -14

If you have driven a car for any length of time, you all have experienced it.  You are driving down the road and all of sudden there is a man or woman standing there holding a pole with a sign attached to the top of it.  One side reads “Slow” and the other side reads “Stop.”  You know, seeing that sign, that one side of the road is closed for construction work and one side is open for traffic.  And you also know that when you are allowed to go “Slow” that much of the road is taken up by the workers and equipment and only a small narrow portion of the road is open for traffic.  If you are going to get through you have to watch out, be careful, travel slowly, and stay on the narrow part of the road to be safe or things will not go well.

Terry, Emma and I were traveling to Sunset Beach on Monday morning to visit a few days with some friends that have rented a place for the month of October.  Traveling through Scotland County we drove up on a man holding a sign that read “Slow.”  There were a few cars and trucks ahead of us driving very slowly and we followed.  You could see the huge dump trucks on the other side of the road waiting their turn to dump their load into the machine used to resurface the road.  This was on a back road, not one of the major highways, so the road was narrow already, but these huge trucks made it feel even more narrow.

As we passed by the workers and got to the other end of the work site Terry said, “Oh My!”  I said, “What?”  And I looked over to see a Nissan Maxima on its side down in a deep ditch.  The lights were still on and emergency flashers going.  The accident had certainly just happened.  

What appeared to be the cause of the accident was the person driving the Nissan, coming from the other direction, never saw the man holding the sign to “STOP”  until it was too late and drove off onto the side of the road to keep from hitting the man and road construction equipment.  But in doing so, ran into the ditch and the car went up onto its side.  Thank goodness it appeared no one was hurt.  

As we continued our trip down to Sunset Beach, I thought about the accident we had just seen.  I thought, this mirrors our lives in so many ways as we live in this lost world.  There is a safe, narrow way that leads to life (life eternal) and there is a broad way that leads to destruction  (Matt. 7:13 -14).  When we follow the instructions and stay on the narrow path, the narrow way, doing what is right in the eyes of God, not veering from side to side, the way is safe and secure.  Life is secure.  But when we veer off the narrow road, we aren’t looking ahead of us for the obstacles around us and think that the way we travel is broad and big, no problems to deal with, we often find a ditch.  We find that destruction lies ahead and if we don’t get back on the straight and narrow, well, lets just say the future does not look good at all!

Jesus is teaching His disciples and the crowd that has gathered around.  This passage from Matthew is part of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is giving a foundation for living, a guide to eternal life, life with Him.  And He states the way is narrow and few will find it.  

Are you on the narrow road?  Are you aware of the things around you that are destructive and are you staying away from them?  Like the person we saw on Monday, if you take your eye off the narrow way, destruction can jump up and bite you in moment.  You can end up in the ditch!

It’s a jungle out there!  Be safe! (as one TV show used to say as cops went out for a shift).  Folks please, lets be aware of our surroundings.  Stay on the straight and narrow road.  The alternative is not good!

Blessings, Pastor Marty Duffell                                                                                                        Pastor, HOPE Church Raleigh

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